Caesar. Life of a Colossus (Adrian Goldsworthy) Yale University Press by Adrian Goldsworthy

Author:Adrian Goldsworthy [Goldsworthy, Adrian]
Format: epub
Published: 2010-07-12T14:42:43.358000+00:00

MONTAG

G

NE DEB

18

U

336

S

ulin

S

REA

b

Y

aR

426

C

D

267

1

Oze

259

H

16

Ditch

Wall

418

MONT AUXOIS

251

F

Oze

Ozerain

255

T

PENNEV

K

E

403

LLE

Brenne

O

11

zer

A

351

ain

PURGATOIRE

B

0

1 mile

MONTAGNE DE FLAVIGNY

0

1 km

Siege of Alesia: plan based on recent and nineteenth century excavations. Not all of the area has been fully excavated, given the vast size of the site. Vercingetorix sent his cavalry away before the blockade was closed, telling them to return to their tribes and raise a relief army. The fate of Gaul would be decided at Alesia, for Caesar would be pinned there just as surely as he had bottled up Vercingetorix. Stocks of grain in Alesia were taken under central control to be doled out as a fair ration, while the cattle were distributed to individuals to look after them until they were slaughtered. The Gauls settled down to wait for rescue and the final clash with Caesar. The Romans toiled on to complete their line of circumvallation, completely surrounding the hill. The site was located and excavated under the aegis of Napoleon III, who had a personal passion for this episode of France’s history. More recently, modern techniques and further work has added to a picture that in all important respects strikingly conforms to the description given in the Commentaries –the dimensions of the actual trenches are not always as regular as Caesar suggests, but since these were so extensive this is unsurprising. In the west where the plain was open, the Romans dug a straight-sided ditch some 20 feet in width, which ran from one stream to the other. This was 337

pr oconsul 58–50 BC

intended as an obstacle to delay any attack and give warning of its approach. Four hundred paces ( c. 130 yards) further back was the main defence line. This consisted of a double ditch, the inner one flooded wherever this was possible, and behind this a 12-foot high rampart strengthened with high towers at 80foot intervals. In front of the ditches were a series of obstacles and traps to which the legionaries gave macabre nicknames. The stakes with ends that had been sharpened and fire hardened were ‘marker-stones’ ( cippi), those hidden in circular pits covered in foliage were lilies ( lilia), from their shape, while the caltrops and spikes half buried were spurs ( stimuli). Such traps might cause an attacker some casualties, especially if he came under cover of darkness, but their main function was to slow a charge down and rob it of momentum, as men were forced to walk past them somewhat gingerly. The defences were strong enough so that even a small number of men could hold the lines under all but the heaviest assault, so that much of the army would be free to forage and to continue building. As soon as this line was complete, the proconsul set his men to building another, even longer line – a line of contravallation – facing outwards to defend against the relief army that was bound to come. It was vital to hunt out as much grain and round up as many farm animals as possible before it arrived, and Caesar instructed his men to gather sufficient to supply the entire army for thirty days.

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