De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries - Caius Julius Caesar
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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
having been built in a hurry and of green timber, were not so easily
manoeuvred. Therefore, when Caesar's men had an opportunity of a close
engagement, they cheerfully opposed two of the enemy's ships with one of
theirs. And throwing in the grappling irons, and holding both ships
fast, they fought on both sides of the deck, and boarded the enemy's;
and having killed numbers of the Albici and shepherds, they sank some of
their ships, took others with the men on board, and drove the rest into
the harbour. That day the Massilians lost nine ships, including those
that were taken.
LIX.--When news of this battle was brought to Caesar at Ilerda, the
bridge being completed at the same time, fortune soon took a turn. The
enemy, daunted by the courage of our horse, did not scour the country as
freely or as boldly as before: but sometimes advancing a small distance
from the camp, that they might have a ready retreat, they foraged within
narrower bounds: at other times, they took a longer circuit to avoid our
outposts and parties of horse; or having sustained some loss, or
descried our horse at a distance, they fled in the midst of their
expedition, leaving their baggage behind them; at length they resolved
to leave off foraging for several days, and, contrary to the practice of
all nations, to go out at night.
LX.--In the meantime the Oscenses and the Calagurritani, who were under
the government of the Oscenses, send ambassadors to Caesar, and offer to
submit to his orders. They are followed by the Tarraconenses, Jacetani,
and Ausetani, and in a few days more by the Illurgavonenses, who dwell
near the river Ebro. He requires of them all to assist him with corn, to
which they agreed, and having collected all the cattle in the country,
they convey them into his camp. One entire cohort of the
Illurgavonenses, knowing the design of their state, came over to Caesar,
from the place where they were stationed, and carried their colours with
them. A great change is shortly made in the face of affairs. The bridge
being finished, five powerful states being joined to Caesar, a way
opened for the receiving of corn, and the rumours of the assistance of
legions which were said to be on their march, with Pompey at their head,
through Mauritania, having died away, several of the more distant states
revolt from Afranius, and enter into league with Caesar.
LXI.--Whilst the spirits of the enemy were dismayed at these things,
Caesar, that he might not be always obliged to send his horse a long
circuit round by the bridge, having found a convenient place, began to
sink several drains, thirty feet deep, by which he might draw off a part
of the river Segre, and make a ford over it. When these were almost
finished, Afranius and Petreius began to be greatly alarmed, lest they
should be altogether cut off from corn and forage, because Caesar was
very strong in cavalry. They therefore resolved to quit their posts, and
to transfer the war to Celtiberia. There was, moreover, a circumstance
that confirmed them in this resolution: for of the two adverse parties,
that which had stood by Sertorius in the late war, being conquered by
Pompey, still trembled at his name and sway, though absent: the other
which had remained firm in Pompey's interest, loved him for the favours
which they had received: but Caesar's name was not known to the
barbarians. From these they expected considerable aid, both of horse and
foot, and hoped to protract the war till winter, in a friendly country.
Having come to this resolution, they gave orders to collect all the
ships in the river Ebro, and to bring them to Octogesa, a town situated
on the river Ebro, about twenty miles distant from their camp. At this
part of the river, they ordered a bridge to be made of boats fastened
together, and transported two legions over the river Segre, and
fortified their camp with a rampart, twelve feet high.
LXII.--Notice of this being given by the scouts, Caesar continued his
work day and night, with very great fatigue to the soldiers, to drain
the river, and so far effected his purpose, that the horse were both
able and bold enough, though with some difficulty and danger, to pass
the river; but the foot had only their shoulders and upper part of their
breast above the water, so that their fording it was retarded, not only
by the depth of the water, but also by the rapidity of the current.
However, almost at the same instant, news was received of the bridge
being nearly completed over the Ebro, and a ford was found in the Segre.
LXIII.--Now indeed the enemy began to think that they ought to hasten
their march. Accordingly, leaving two auxiliary cohorts in the garrison
at Ilerda, they crossed the Segre with their whole force, and formed one
camp with the two legions which they had led across a few days before.
Caesar had no resource, but to annoy and cut down their rear; since with
his cavalry to go by the bridge, required him to take a long circuit; so
that they would arrive at the Ebro by a much shorter route. The horse,
which he had detached, crossed the ford, and when Afranius and Petreius
had broken up their camp about the third watch, they suddenly appeared
on their rear, and spreading round them in great numbers, began to
retard and impede their march.
LXIV.--At break of day, it was perceived from the rising grounds which
joined Caesar's camp, that their rear was vigorously pressed by our
horse; that the last line sometimes halted and was broken; at other
times, that they joined battle and that our men were beaten back by a
general charge of their cohorts, and, in their turn, pursued them when
they wheeled about: but through the whole camp the soldiers gathered in
parties, and declared their chagrin that the enemy had been suffered to
escape from their hands and that the war had been unnecessarily
protracted. They applied to their tribunes and centurions, and entreated
them to inform Caesar that he need not spare their labour or consider
their danger; that they were ready and able, and would venture to ford
the river where the horse had crossed. Caesar, encouraged by their zeal
and importunity, though he felt reluctant to expose his army to a river
so exceedingly large, yet judged it prudent to attempt it and make a
trial. Accordingly, he ordered all the weaker soldiers, whose spirit or
strength seemed unequal to the fatigue, to be selected from each
century, and left them, with one legion besides, to guard the camp: the
rest of the legions he drew out without any baggage, and, having
disposed a great number of horses in the river, above and below the
ford, he led his army over. A few of his soldiers being carried away by
the force of the current, were stopped by the horse and taken up, and
not a man perished. His army being safe on the opposite bank, he drew
out his forces and resolved to lead them forward in three battalions:
and so great was the ardour of the soldiers that, notwithstanding the
addition of a circuit of six miles and a considerable delay in fording
the river, before the ninth hour of the day they came up with those who
had set out at the third watch.
LXV.--When Afranius, who was in company with Petreius, saw them at a
distance, being affrighted at so unexpected a sight, he halted on a
rising ground and drew up his army. Caesar refreshed his army on the
plain that he might not expose them to battle whilst fatigued; and when
the enemy attempted to renew their march, he pursued and stopped them.
They were obliged to pitch their camp sooner than they had intended, for
there were mountains at a small distance; and difficult and narrow roads
awaited them about five miles off. They retired behind these mountains
that they might avoid Caesar's cavalry, and, placing parties in the
narrow roads, stop the progress of his army and lead their own forces
across the Ebro without danger or apprehension. This it was their
interest to attempt and to effect by any means possible; but, fatigued
by the skirmishes all day, and by the labour of their march, they
deferred it till the following day: Caesar likewise encamped on the next
hill.
LXVI.--About midnight a few of their men who had gone some distance from
the camp to fetch water, being taken by our horse, Caesar is informed by
them that the generals of the enemy were drawing their troops out of the
camp without noise. Upon this information Caesar ordered the signal to
be given and the military shout to be raised for packing up the baggage.
When they heard the shout, being afraid lest they should be stopped in
the night and obliged to engage under their baggage, or lest they should
be confined in the narrow roads by Caesar's horse, they put a stop to
their march and kept their forces in their camp. The next day Petreius
went out privately with a few horse to reconnoitre the country. A
similar movement was made from Caesar's camp. Lucius Decidius Saxa was
detached with a small party to explore the nature of the country. Each
returned with the same account to his camp, that there was a level road
for the next five miles, that there then succeeded a rough and
mountainous country. Whichever should first obtain possession of the
defiles would have no trouble in preventing the other's progress.
LXVII.--There was a debate in the council between Afranius and Petreius,
and the time of marching was the subject. The majority were of opinion
that they should begin their march at night, "for they might reach the
defiles before they should be discovered." Others, because a shout had
been raised the night before in Caesar's camp, used this as an argument
that they could not leave the camp unnoticed: "that Caesar's cavalry
were patrolling the whole night, and that all the ways and roads were
beset; that battles at night ought to be avoided, because in civil
dissension, a soldier once daunted is more apt to consult his fears than
his oath; that the daylight raised a strong sense of shame in the eyes
of all, and that the presence of the tribunes and centurions had the
same effect: by these things the soldiers would be re strained and awed
to their duty. Wherefore they should, by all means, attempt to force
their way by day; for, though a trifling loss might be sustained, yet
the post which they desired might be secured with safety to the main
body of the army." This opinion prevailed in the council, and the next
day, at the dawn, they resolved to set forward.
LXVIII.--Caesar, having taken a view of the country, the moment the sky
began to grow white, led his forces from the camp and marched at the
head of his army by a long circuit, keeping to no regular road; for the
road which led to the Ebro and Octogesa was occupied by the enemy's
camp, which lay in Caesar's way. His soldiers were obliged to cross
extensive and difficult valleys. Craggy cliffs, in several places,
interrupted their march, insomuch that their arms had to be handed to
one another, and the soldiers were forced to perform a great part of
their march unarmed, and were lifted up the rocks by each other. But not
a man murmured at the fatigue, because they imagined that there would be
a period to all their toils if they could cut off the enemy from the
Ebro and intercept their convoys.
LXIX.--At first, Afranius's soldiers ran in high spirits from their camp
to look at us, and in contumelious language upbraided us, "that we were
forced, for want of necessary subsistence, to run away, and return to
Ilerda." For our route was different from what we proposed, and we
appeared to be going a contrary way. But their generals applauded their
own prudence in keeping within their camp, and it was a strong
confirmation of their opinion, that they saw we marched without waggons
or baggage, which made them confident that we could not long endure
want. But when they saw our army gradually wheel to the right, and
observed our van was already passing the line of their camp, there was
nobody so stupid, or averse to fatigue, as not to think it necessary to
march from the camp immediately, and oppose us. The cry to arms was
raised, and all the army, except a few which were left to guard the
camp, set out and marched the direct road to the Ebro.
LXX.--The contest depended entirely on despatch, which should first get
possession of the defile and the mountain. The difficulty of the roads
delayed Caesar's army, but his cavalry pursuing Afranius's forces,
retarded their march. However, the affair was necessarily reduced to
this point, with respect to Afranius's men, that if they first gained
the mountains, which they desired, they would themselves avoid all
danger, but could not save the baggage of their whole army, nor the
cohorts which they had left behind in the camps, to which, being
intercepted by Caesar's army, by no means could assistance be given.
Caesar first accomplished the march, and having found a plain behind
large rocks, drew up his army there in order of battle and facing the
enemy. Afranius, perceiving that his rear was galled by our cavalry, and
seeing the enemy before him, having come to a hill, made a halt on it.
Thence he detached four cohorts of Spanish light infantry to the highest
mountain which was in view: to this he ordered them to hasten with all
expedition, and to take possession of it, with the intention of going to
the same place with all his forces, then altering his route, and
crossing the hills to Octogesa. As the Spaniards were making towards it
in an oblique direction, Caesar's horse espied them and attacked them,
nor were they able to withstand the charge of the cavalry even for a
moment, but were all surrounded and cut to pieces in the sight of the
two armies.