"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
narrowness, and because they were posted at the foot of the mountain, so
that no weapon was thrown at them without effect: yet they exerted their
valour and patience, and bore every wound. The enemy's forces were
increasing, and cohorts were frequently sent to their aid from the camp
through the town, that fresh men might relieve the weary. Caesar was
obliged to do the same, and relieve the fatigued by sending cohorts to
that post.
XLVI.--After the battle had in this manner continued incessantly for
five hours, and our men had suffered much from superior numbers, having
spent all their javelins, they drew their swords and charged the enemy
up the hill, and, having killed a few, obliged the rest to fly. The
cohorts being beaten back to the wall, and some being driven by their
fears into the town, an easy retreat was afforded to our men. Our
cavalry also, on either flank, though stationed on sloping or low
ground, yet bravely struggled up to the top of the hill, and, riding
between the two armies, made our retreat more easy and secure. Such were
the various turns of fortune in the battle. In the first encounter about
seventy of our men fell: amongst them Quintus Fulgenius, first centurion
of the second line of the fourteenth legion, who, for his extraordinary
valour, had been promoted from the lower ranks to that post. About six
hundred were wounded. Of Afranius's party there were killed Titus
Caecilius, principal centurion, and four other centurions, and above two
hundred men.
XLVII.--But this opinion is spread abroad concerning this day, that each
party thought that they came off conquerors. Afranius's soldiers,
because, though they were esteemed inferior in the opinion of all, yet
they had stood our attack and sustained our charge, and, at first, had
kept the post and the hill which had been the occasion of the dispute;
and, in the first encounter, had obliged our men to fly: but ours,
because, notwithstanding the disadvantage of the ground and the
disparity of numbers, they had maintained the battle for five hours, had
advanced up the hill sword in hand, and had forced the enemy to fly from
the higher ground and driven them into the town. The enemy fortified the
hill, about which the contest had been, with strong works, and posted a
garrison on it.
XLVIII.--In two days after this transaction, there happened an
unexpected misfortune. For so great a storm arose, that it was agreed
that there were never seen higher floods in those countries; it swept
down the snow from all the mountains, and broke over the banks of the
river, and in one day carried away both the bridges which Fabius had
built,--a circumstance which caused great difficulties to Caesar's army.
For as our camp, as already mentioned, was pitched between two rivers,
the Segre and Cinca, and as neither of these could be forded for the
space of thirty miles, they were all of necessity confined within these
narrow limits. Neither could the states, which had espoused Caesar's
cause, furnish him with corn, nor the troops, which had gone far to
forage, return, as they were stopped by the waters: nor could the
convoys, coming from Italy and Gaul, make their way to the camp.
Besides, it was the most distressing season of the year, when there was
no corn in the blade, and it was nearly ripe: and the states were
exhausted, because Afranius had conveyed almost all the corn, before
Caesar's arrival, into Ilerda, and whatever he had left, had been
already consumed by Caesar. The cattle, which might have served as a
secondary resource against want, had been removed by the states to a
great distance on account of the war. They who had gone out to get
forage or corn, were chased by the light troops of the Lusitanians, and
the targeteers of Hither Spain, who were well acquainted with the
country, and could readily swim across the river, because it is the
custom of all those people not to join their armies without bladders.
XLIX.--But Afranius's army had abundance of everything; a great stock of
corn had been provided and laid in long before, a large quantity was
coming in from the whole province: they had a good store of forage. The
bridge of Ilerda afforded an opportunity of getting all these without
any danger, and the places beyond the bridge, to which Caesar had no
access, were as yet untouched.
L.--Those floods continued several days. Caesar endeavoured to repair
the bridges, but the height of the water did not allow him: and the
cohorts disposed along the banks did not suffer them to be completed;
and it was easy for them to prevent it, both from the nature of the
river and the height of the water, but especially because their darts
were thrown from the whole course of the bank on one confined spot; and
it was no easy matter at one and the same time to execute a work in a
very rapid flood, and to avoid the darts.
LI.--Intelligence was brought to Afranius that the great convoys, which
were on their march to Caesar, had halted at the river. Archers from the
Rutheni, and horse from the Gauls, with a long train of baggage,
according to the Gallic custom of travelling, had arrived there; there
were besides about six thousand people of all descriptions, with slaves
and freed men. But there was no order, or regular discipline, as every
one followed his own humour, and all travelled without apprehension,
taking the same liberty as on former marches. There were several young
noblemen, sons of senators, and of equestrian rank; there were
ambassadors from several states; there were lieutenants of Caesar's. The
river stopped them all. To attack them by surprise, Afranius set out in
the beginning of the night, with all his cavalry and three legions, and
sent the horse on before, to fall on them unawares; but the Gallic horse
soon got themselves in readiness, and attacked them. Though but few,
they withstood the vast number of the enemy, as long as they fought on
equal terms: but when the legions began to approach, having lost a few
men, they retreated to the next mountains. The delay occasioned by this
battle was of great importance to the security of our men; for having
gained time, they retired to the higher grounds. There were missing that
day about two hundred bow-men, a few horse, and an inconsiderable number
of servants and baggage.
LII.--However, by all these things, the price of provisions was raised,
which is commonly a disaster attendant, not only on a time of present
scarcity, but on the apprehension of future want. Provisions had now
reached fifty denarii each bushel; and the want of corn had diminished
the strength of the soldiers; and the inconveniences were increasing
every day: and so great an alteration was wrought in a few days, and
fortune had so changed sides, that our men had to struggle with the want
of every necessary; while the enemy had an abundant supply of all
things, and were considered to have the advantage. Caesar demanded from
those states which had acceded to his alliance, a supply of cattle, as
they had but little corn. He sent away the camp followers to the more
distant states, and endeavoured to remedy the present scarcity by every
resource in his power.
LIII.--Afranius and Petreius, and their friends, sent fuller and more
circumstantial accounts of these things to Rome, to their acquaintances.
Report exaggerated them so that the war appeared to be almost at an end.
When these letters and despatches were received at Rome, a great
concourse of people resorted to the house of Afranius, and
congratulations ran high: several went out of Italy to Cneius Pompey;
some of them, to be the first to bring him the intelligence; others,
that they might not be thought to have waited the issue of the war, and
to have come last of all.
LIV.--When Caesar's affairs were in this unfavourable position, and all
the passes were guarded by the soldiers and horse of Afranius, and the
bridges could not be prepared, Caesar ordered his soldiers to make ships
of the kind that his knowledge of Britain a few years before had taught
him. First, the keels and ribs were made of light timber, then, the rest
of the hulk of the ships was wrought with wicker-work, and covered over
with hides. When these were finished, he drew them down to the river in
waggons in one night, a distance of twenty-two miles from his camp, and
transported in them some soldiers across the river, and on a sudden took
possession of a hill adjoining the bank. This he immediately fortified,
before he was perceived by the enemy. To this he afterwards transported
a legion: and having begun a bridge on both sides, he finished it in two
days. By this means, he brought safe to his camp the convoys, and those
who had gone out to forage; and began to prepare a conveyance for the
provisions.
LV.--The same day he made a great part of his horse pass the river, who,
falling on the foragers by surprise as they were dispersed without any
suspicions, intercepted an incredible number of cattle and people; and
when some Spanish light-armed cohorts were sent to reinforce the enemy,
our men judiciously divided themselves into two parts, the one to
protect the spoil, the other to resist the advancing foe, and to beat
them back, and they cut off from the rest and surrounded one cohort,
which had rashly ventured out of the line before the others, and after
putting it to the sword, returned safe with considerable booty to the
camp over the same bridge.
LVI.--Whilst these affairs are going forward at Ilerda, the Massilians,
adopting the advice of Domitius, prepared seventeen ships of war, of
which eleven were decked. To these they add several smaller vessels,
that our fleet might be terrified by numbers: they man them with a great
number of archers and of the Albici, of whom mention has been already
made, and these they incited by rewards and promises. Domitius required
certain ships for his own use, which he manned with colonists and
shepherds, whom he had brought along with him. A fleet being thus
furnished with every necessary, he advanced with great confidence
against our ships, commanded by Decimus Brutus. It was stationed at an
island opposite to Massilia.
LVII.--Brutus was much inferior in number of ships; but Caesar had
appointed to that fleet the bravest men selected from all his legions,
antesignani and centurions, who had requested to be employed in that
service. They had provided iron hooks and harpoons, and had furnished
themselves with a vast number of javelins, darts, and missiles. Thus
prepared, and being apprised of the enemy's approach, they put out from
the harbour, and engaged the Massilians. Both sides fought with great
courage and resolution; nor did the Albici, a hardy people, bred on the
highlands and inured to arms, fall much short of our men in valour: and
being lately come from the Massilians, they retained in their minds
their recent promises: and the wild shepherds, encouraged by the hope of
liberty, were eager to prove their zeal in the presence of their
masters.
LVIII.--The Massilians themselves, confiding in the quickness of their
ships, and the skill of their pilots, eluded ours, and evaded the shock,
and as long as they were permitted by clear space, lengthening their
line they endeavoured to surround us, or to attack single ships with
several of theirs, or to run across our ships, and carry away our oars,
if possible; but when necessity obliged them to come nearer, they had
recourse, from the skill and art of the pilots, to the valour of the
mountaineers. But our men, not having such expert seamen, or skilful
pilots, for they had been hastily drafted from the merchant ships, and
were not yet acquainted even with the names of the rigging, were
moreover impeded by the heaviness and slowness of our vessels, which