"De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries
mattresses, that they might not be destroyed by fire or stones. The
soldiers under the protection of the vineae, finish this whole work to
the very tower, and suddenly, before the enemy were aware of it, moved
it forward by naval machinery, by putting rollers under it, close up to
the enemy's turret, so that it even touched the building.
XI.--The townsmen, affrighted at this unexpected stroke, bring forward
with levers the largest stones they can procure; and pitching them from
the wall, roll them down on the musculus. The strength of the timber
withstood the shock; and whatever fell on it slid off, on account of the
sloping roof. When they perceived this, they altered their plan and set
fire to barrels, filled with resin and tar, and rolled them down from
the wall on the musculus. As soon as they fell on it, they slid off
again, and were removed from its side by long poles and forks. In the
meantime, the soldiers, under cover of the musculus, were looting out
with crowbars the lowest stones of the enemy's turret, with which the
foundation was laid. The musculus was defended by darts, thrown from
engines by our men from the brick tower, and the enemy were beaten off
from the wall and turrets; nor was a fair opportunity of defending the
walls given them. At length several stones being picked away from the
foundation of that turret next the musculus, part of it fell down
suddenly, and the rest, as if following it, leaned forward.
XII.--Hereupon, the enemy, distressed at the sudden fall of the turret,
surprised at the unforeseen calamity, awed by the wrath of the gods, and
dreading the pillage of their city, rush all together out of the gate
unarmed, with their temples bound with fillets, and suppliantly stretch
out their hands to the officers and the army. At this uncommon
occurrence, the whole progress of the war was stopped, and the soldiers,
turning away from the battle, ran eagerly to hear and listen to them.
When the enemy came up to the commanders and the army, they all fell
down at their feet, and besought them "to wait till Caesar's arrival;
they saw that their city was taken, our works completed, and their tower
undermined, therefore they desisted from a defence; that no obstacle
could arise, to prevent their being instantly plundered at a beck, as
soon as he arrived, if they refused to submit to his orders." They
inform them that, "if the turret had entirely fallen down, the soldiers
could not be withheld from forcing into the town and sacking it, in
hopes of getting spoil." These and several other arguments to the same
effect were delivered, as they were a people of great learning, with
great pathos and lamentations.
XIII.--The lieutenants, moved with compassion, draw off the soldiers
from the work, desist from the assault, and leave sentinels on the
works. A sort of a truce having been made through compassion for the
besieged, the arrival of Caesar is anxiously awaited; not a dart was
thrown from the walls or by our men, but all remit their care and
diligence, as if the business was at an end. For Caesar had given
Trebonius strict charge not to suffer the town to be taken by storm,
lest the soldiers, too much irritated both by abhorrence of their
revolt, by the contempt shown to them, and by their long labour, should
put to the sword all the grown-up inhabitants, as they threatened to do.
And it was with difficulty that they were then restrained from breaking
into the town, and they were much displeased, because they imagined that
they were prevented by Trebonius from taking possession of it.
XIV.--But the enemy, destitute of all honour, only waited a time and
opportunity for fraud and treachery. And after an interval of some days,
when our men were careless and negligent, on a sudden, at noon, when
some were dispersed, and others indulging themselves in rest on the very
works, after the fatigue of the day, and their arms were all laid by and
covered up, they sallied out from the gates, and, the wind being high
and favourable to them, they set fire to our works; and the wind spread
it in such a manner that, in the same instant, the agger, plutei,
testudo, tower, and engines all caught the flames and were consumed
before we could conceive how it had occurred. Our men, alarmed at such
an unexpected turn of fortune, lay hold on such arms as they could find.
Some rush from the camp; an attack is made on the enemy: but they were
prevented, by arrows and engines from the walls, from pursuing them when
they fled. They retired to their walls, and there, without fear, set the
musculus and brick tower on fire. Thus, by the perfidy of the enemy and
the violence of the storm, the labour of many months was destroyed in a
moment. The Massilians made the same attempt the next day, having got
such another storm. They sallied out against the other tower and agger,
and fought with more confidence. But as our men had on the former
occasion given up all thoughts of a contest, so, warned by the event of
the preceding day, they had made every preparation for a defence.
Accordingly, they slew several, and forced the rest to retreat into the
town without effecting their design.
XV.--Trebonius began to provide and repair what had been destroyed, with
much greater zeal on the part of the soldiers; for when they saw that
their extraordinary pains and preparations had an unfortunate issue,
they were fired with indignation that, in consequence of the impious
violation of the truce, their valour should be held in derision. There
was no place left them from which the materials for their mound could be
fetched, in consequence of all the timber, far and wide, in the
territories of the Massilians, having been cut down and carried away;
they began therefore to make an agger of a new construction, never heard
of before, of two walls of brick, each six feet thick, and to lay floors
over them of almost the same breadth with the agger, made of timber. But
wherever the space between the walls, or the weakness of the timber,
seemed to require it, pillars were placed underneath and traversed beams
laid on to strengthen the work, and the space which was floored was
covered over with hurdles, and the hurdles plastered over with mortar.
The soldiers, covered overhead by the floor, on the right and left by
the wall, and in the front by the mantlets, carried whatever materials
were necessary for the building without danger: the business was soon
finished--the loss of their laborious work was soon repaired by the
dexterity and fortitude of the soldiers. Gates for making sallies were
left in the wall in such places as they thought proper.
XVI.--But when the enemy perceived that those works, which they had
hoped could not be replaced without a great length of time, were put
into so thorough repair by a few days' labour and diligence, that there
was no room for perfidy or sallies, and that no means were left them by
which they could either hurt the men by resistance or the works by fire,
and when they found by former examples that their town could be
surrounded with a wall and turrets on every part by which it was
accessible by land, in such a manner that they could not have room to
stand on their own fortifications, because our works were built almost
on the top of their walls by our army, and darts could be thrown from
our hands, and when they perceived that all advantage arising from their
engines, on which they had built great hopes, was totally lost, and that
though they had an opportunity of fighting with us on equal terms from
walls and turrets, they could perceive that they were not equal to our
men in bravery, they had recourse to the same proposals of surrender as
before.
XVII.--In Further Spain, Marcus Varro, in the beginning of the
disturbances, when he heard of the circumstances which took place in
Italy, being diffident of Pompey's success, used to speak in a very
friendly manner of Caesar. That though, being pre-engaged to Cneius
Pompey in quality of lieutenant, he was bound in honour to him, that,
nevertheless, there existed a very intimate tie between him and Caesar;
that he was not ignorant of what was the duty of a lieutenant, who bore
an office of trust; nor of his own strength, nor of the disposition of
the whole province to Caesar. These sentiments he constantly expressed
in his ordinary conversation, and did not attach himself to either
party. But afterwards, when he found that Caesar was detained before
Massilia, that the forces of Petreius had effected a junction with the
army of Afranius, that considerable reinforcements had come to their
assistance, that there were great hopes and expectations, and heard that
the whole Hither province had entered into a confederacy, and of the
difficulties to which Caesar was reduced afterwards at Ilerda for want
of provisions, and Afranius wrote to him a fuller and more exaggerated
account of these matters, he began to regulate his movements by those of
fortune.
XVIII.--He made levies throughout the province; and, having completed
his two legions, he added to them about thirty auxiliary cohorts: he
collected a large quantity of corn to send partly to the Massilians,
partly to Afranius and Petreius. He commanded the inhabitants of Gades
to build ten ships of war; besides, he took care that several others
should be built in Spain. He removed all the money and ornaments from
the temple of Hercules to the town of Gades, and sent six cohorts
thither from the province to guard them, and gave the command of the
town of Gades to Caius Gallonius, a Roman knight, and friend of
Domitius, who had come thither sent by Domitius to recover an estate for
him; and he deposited all the arms, both public and private, in
Gallonius's house. He himself [Varro] made severe harangues against
Caesar. He often pronounced from his tribunal that Caesar had fought
several unsuccessful battles, and that a great number of his men had
deserted to Afranius. That he had these accounts from undoubted
messengers, and authority on which he could rely. By these means he
terrified the Roman citizens of that province, and obliged them to
promise him for the service of the state one hundred and ninety thousand
sesterces, twenty thousand pounds weight of silver, and a hundred and
twenty thousand bushels of wheat. He laid heavier burdens on those
states which he thought were friendly disposed to Caesar, and billeted
troops on them; he passed judgment against some private persons, and
condemned to confiscation the properties of those who had spoken or made
orations against the republic, and forced the whole province to take an
oath of allegiance to him and Pompey. Being informed of all that
happened in Hither Spain, he prepared for war. This was his plan of
operations. He was to retire with his two legions to Gades, and to lay
up all the shipping and provisions there. For he had been informed that
the whole province was inclined to favour Caesar's party. He thought
that the war might be easily protracted in an island, if he was provided
with corn and shipping. Caesar, although called back to Italy by many
and important matters, yet had determined to leave no dregs of war
behind him in Spain, because he knew that Pompey had many dependants and
clients in the Hither province.
XIX.--Having therefore sent two legions into Further Spain under the
command of Quintus Cassius, tribune of the people; he himself advances
with six hundred horse by forced marches, and issues a proclamation,
appointing a day on which the magistrates and nobility of all the states
should attend him at Corduba. This proclamation being published through
the whole province, there was not a state that did not send a part of
their senate to Corduba, at the appointed time; and not a Roman citizen