De Bello Gallico and Other Commentaries - Caius Julius Caesar
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VI-.-When the battle was begun, no effort of valour was wanting to the
Massilians, but, mindful of the instructions which they had a little
before received from their friends, they fought with such spirit as if
they supposed that they would never have another opportunity to attempt
a defence, and as if they believed that those whose lives should be
endangered in the battle would not long precede the fate of the rest of
the citizens, who, if the city was taken, must undergo the same fortune
of war. Our ships being at some distance from each other, room was
allowed both for the skill of their pilots and the manoeuvring of their
ships; and if at any time ours, gaining an advantage by casting the iron
hooks on board their ships, grappled with them, from all parts they
assisted those who were distressed. Nor, after being joined by the
Albici, did they decline coming to close engagement, nor were they much
inferior to our men in valour. At the same time, showers of darts,
thrown from a distance from the lesser ships, suddenly inflicted several
wounds on our men when off their guard and otherwise engaged; and two of
their three-decked galleys, having descried the ship of Decimus Brutus,
which could be easily distinguished by its flag, rowed up against him
with great violence from opposite sides: but Brutus, seeing into their
designs, by the swiftness of his ship extricated himself with such
address as to get clear, though only by a moment. From the velocity of
their motion they struck against each other with such violence that they
were both excessively injured by the shock; the beak, indeed, of one of
them being broken off, the whole ship was ready to founder, which
circumstance being observed, the ships of Brutus's fleet, which were
nearest that station, attack them when in this disorder and sink them
both.
VII.--But Nasidius's ships were of no use, and soon left the fight; for
the sight of their country, or the entreaties of their relations, did
not urge them to run a desperate risk of their lives. Therefore, of the
number of the ships not one was lost: of the fleet of the Massilians
five were sunk, four taken, and one ran off with Nasidius: all that
escaped made the best of their way to Hither Spain, but one of the rest
was sent forward to Massilia for the purpose of bearing this
intelligence, and when it came near the city, the whole people crowded
out to hear the tidings, and on being informed of the event, were so
oppressed with grief, that one would have imagined that the city had
been taken by an enemy at the same moment. The Massilians, however,
began to make the necessary preparations for the defence of their city
with unwearied energy.
VIII.--The legionary soldiers who had the management of the works on the
right side observed, from the frequent sallies of the enemy, that it
might prove a great protection to them to build a turret of brick under
the wall for a fort and place of refuge, which they at first built low
and small, [to guard them] against sudden attacks. To it they retreated,
and from it they made defence if any superior force attacked them; and
from it they sallied out either to repel or pursue the enemy. It
extended thirty feet on every side, and the thickness of the walls was
five feet. But afterwards, as experience is the best master in
everything on which the wit of man is employed, it was found that it
might be of considerable service if it was raised to the usual height of
turrets, which was effected in the following manner.
IX.-When the turret was raised to the height for flooring, they laid it
on the walls in such a manner that the ends of the joists were covered
by the outer face of the wall, that nothing should project to which the
enemy's fire might adhere. They, moreover, built over the joists with
small bricks as high as the protection of the plutei and vineae
permitted them; and on that place they laid two beams across, angle-ways,
at a small distance from the outer walls, to support the rafters
which were to cover the turret, and on the beams they laid joists across
in a direct line, and on these they fastened down planks. These joists
they made somewhat longer, to project beyond the outside of the wall,
that they might serve to hang a curtain on them to defend and repel all
blows whilst they were building the walls between that and the next
floor, and the floor of this story they faced with bricks and mortar,
that the enemy's fire might do them no damage; and on this they spread
mattresses, lest the weapons thrown from engines should break through
the flooring, or stones from catapults should batter the brickwork.
They, moreover, made three mats of cable ropes, each of them the length
of the turret walls, and four feet broad, and, hanging them round the
turret on the three sides which faced the enemy, fastened them to the
projecting joists. For this was the only sort of defence which, they had
learned by experience in other places, could not be pierced by darts or
engines. But when that part of the turret which was completed was
protected and secured against every attempt of the enemy, they removed
the plutei to other works. They began to suspend gradually, and raise by
screws from the first-floor, the entire roof of the turret, and then
they elevated it as high as the length of the mats allowed. Hid and
secured within these coverings, they built up the walls with bricks, and
again, by another turn of the screw, cleared a place for themselves to
proceed with the building; and, when they thought it time to lay another
floor, they laid the ends of the beams, covered in by the outer bricks
in like manner as in the first story, and from that story they again
raised the uppermost floor and the mat-work. In this manner, securely
and without a blow or danger, they raised it six stories high, and in
laying the materials left loop-holes in such places as they thought
proper for working their engines.
X.--When they were confident that they could protect the works which lay
around from this turret, they resolved to build a musculus, sixty feet
long, of timber, two feet square, and to extend it from the brick tower
to the enemy's tower and wall. This was the form of it: two beams of
equal length were laid on the ground, at the distance of four feet from
each other; and in them were fastened small pillars, five feet high,
which were joined together by braces, with a gentle slope, on which the
timber which they must place to support the roof of the musculus should
be laid: upon this were laid beams, two feet square, bound with iron
plates and nails. To the upper covering of the musculus and the upper
beams, they fastened laths, four fingers square, to support the tiles
which were to cover the musculus. The roof being thus sloped and laid
over in rows in the same manner as the joists were laid on the braces,
the musculus was covered with tiles and mortar, to secure it against
fire, which might be thrown from the wall. Over the tiles hides are
spread, to prevent the water let in on them by spouts from dissolving
the cement of the bricks. Again, the hides were covered over with
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
of any note but appeared that day. At the same time the senate at
Corduba shut the gates of their own accord against Varro, and posted
guards and sentinels on the wall and in the turrets, and detained two
cohorts (called Colonicae, which had come there accidentally), for the
defence of the town. About the same time the people of Carmona, which is
by far the strongest state in the whole province, of themselves drove
out of the town the cohorts, and shut the gates against them, although
three cohorts had been detached by Varro to garrison the citadel.
XX.--But Varro was in greater haste on this account to reach Gades with
his legion as soon as possible, lest he should be stopped either on his
march or on crossing over to the island. The affection of the province
to Caesar proved so great and so favourable, that he received a letter
from Gades, before he was far advanced on his march: that as soon as the
nobility of Gades heard of Caesar's proclamation, they had combined with
the tribune of the cohorts, which were in garrison there, to drive
Gallonius out of the town, and to secure the city and island for Caesar.
That having agreed on the design they had sent notice to Gallonius, to
quit Gades of his own accord whilst he could do it with safety; if he
did not, they would take measures for themselves; that for fear of this
Gallonius had been induced to quit the town. When this was known, one of
Varro's two legions, which was called Vernacula, carried off the colours
from Varro's camp, he himself standing by and looking on, and retired to
Hispalis, and took post in the market and public places without doing
any injury, and the Roman citizens residing there approved so highly of
this act, that every one most earnestly offered to entertain them in
their houses. When Varro, terrified at these things, having altered his
route, proposed going to Italica, he was informed by his friends that
the gates were shut against him. Then indeed, when intercepted from
every road, he sends word to Caesar that he was ready to deliver up the
legion which he commanded. He sends to him Sextus Caesar, and orders him
to deliver it up to him. Varro, having delivered up the legion, went to
Caesar to Corduba, and having laid before him the public accounts,
handed over to him most faithfully whatever money he had, and told him
what quantity of corn and shipping he had, and where.
XXI.--Caesar made a public oration at Corduba, in which he returned
thanks to all severally: to the Roman citizens, because they had been
zealous to keep the town in their own power; to the Spaniards, for
having driven out the garrison; to the Gaditani, for having defeated the
attempts of his enemies, and asserted their own liberty; to the Tribunes
and Centurions who had gone there as a guard, for having by their valour
confirmed them in their purpose. He remitted the tax which the Roman
citizens had promised to Varro for the public use: he restored their
goods to those who he was informed had incurred that penalty by speaking
too freely, having given public and private rewards to some: he filled
the rest with flattering hopes of his future intentions; and having
stayed two days at Corduba, he set out for Gades: he ordered the money
and ornaments which had been carried away from the temple of Hercules,
and lodged in the houses of private persons, to be replaced in the
temple. He made Quintus Cassius governor of the province, and assigned
him four legions. He himself, with those ships which Marcus Varro had
built, and others which the Gaditani had built by Varro's orders,
arrived in a few days at Tarraco, where ambassadors from the greatest
part of the nearer province waited his arrival. Having in the same
manner conferred marks of honour both publicly and privately on some
states, he left Tarraco, and went thence by land to Narbo, and thence to
Massilia. There he was informed that a law was passed for creating a
dictator, and that he had been nominated dictator by Marcus Lepidus the
praetor.
XXII.--The Massilians, wearied out by misfortunes of every sort, reduced
to the lowest ebb for want of corn, conquered in two engagements at sea,
defeated in their frequent sallies, and struggling moreover with a fatal
pestilence, from their long confinement and change of victuals (for they
all subsisted on old millet and damaged barley, which they had formerly
provided and laid up in the public stores against an emergency of this
kind), their turret being demolished, a great part of their wall having
given way, and despairing of any aid, either from the provinces or their
armies, for these they had heard had fallen into Caesar's power,
resolved to surrender now without dissimulation. But a few days before,
Lucius Domitius, having discovered the intention of the Massilians, and
having procured three ships, two of which he gave up to his friends,
went on board the third himself, having got a brisk wind, put out to
sea. Some ships, which by Brutus's orders were constantly cruising near
the port, having espied him, weighed anchor, and pursued him. But of
these, the ship on board of which he was, persevered itself, and
continuing its flight, and by the aid of the wind got out of sight: the
other two, affrighted by the approach of our galleys, put back again
into the harbour. The Massilians conveyed their arms and engines out of
the town, as they were ordered: brought their ships out of the port and
docks, and delivered up the money in their treasury. When these affairs
were despatched, Caesar, sparing the town more out of regard to their
renown and antiquity than to any claim they could lay to his favour,
left two legions in garrison there, sent the rest to Italy, and set out
himself for Rome.
XXIII.--About the same time Caius Curio, having sailed from Sicily to
Africa, and from the first despising the forces of Publius Attius Varus,
transported only two of the four legions which he had received from
Caesar, and five hundred horse, and having spent two days and three
nights on the voyage, arrived at a place called Aquilaria, which is
about twenty-two miles distant from Clupea, and in the summer season has
a convenient harbour, and is enclosed by two projecting promontories.
Lucius Caesar, the son, who was waiting his arrival near Clupea with ten
ships which had been taken near Utica in a war with the pirates, and
which Publius Attius had had repaired for this war, frightened at the
number of our ships, fled the sea, and running his three-decked covered
galley on the nearest shore, left her there and made his escape by land
to Adrumetum. Caius Considius Longus, with a garrison of one legion,
guarded this town. The rest of Caesar's fleet, after his flight, retired
to Adrumetum. Marcus Rufus, the quaestor, pursued him with twelve ships,
which Curio had brought from Sicily as convoy to the merchantmen, and
seeing a ship left on the shore, he brought her off by a towing rope,
and returned with his fleet to Curio.