were no means of getting more timber for the earthworks, for all the trees far and wide about Massilia had been cut down and employed for the siege, and therefore it was determined to make a terrace of a new kind, consisting of two brick walls each six feet thick which were connected by cross pieces of timber, and were about the same height as the former terrace. Where either the distance between the walls or the weakness of the timber seemed to require it, pillars were placed, crossbeams were laid on them to strengthen the work, and all the wood was covered with hurdles, and the hurdles with clay. Under this covering the soldiers being protected on the right and left by the wall and in front by blinds brought up without danger all that was wanted. The work went on quick, and the loss of the works which had cost so much time was quickly repaired by the skill and labour of the soldiers. Openings were left at places in the wall for the convenience of sallying out. When the enemy saw that the damage was so soon repaired contrary to their expectation, and that there was no opportunity for practising further treachery or making fresh sallies, and no means remained of attacking the Roman soldiers or firing their works, and the new terrace showed that all the city on the land side might be shut in by walls and towers in the same way and they would then be unable to show themselves on their walls, because the Roman terrace was raised close up to them, and the shortness of the distance prevented them from using the military engines on which they greatly relied; and further, when it was plain that they must now fight from the wall and towers on equal terms with the Romans for whom they were no match in courage, they asked and obtained a truce on the same terms as before (B. C. ii. 16). Caesar now returned from Spain and was before the town. Exhausted by all their sufferings, reduced to great want of food, twice defeated in a naval battle, routed in frequent sallies, afflicted also with pestilence from being so long shut up, and by the change of diet, for they were compelled to eat old panic and musty barley which had been collected in the 7 Panicum is a genus of grasses, and the name Panicum miliaceum is given to millet, which is cultivated in the south of Europe and in tropical countries and is used as food. See Pliny, 18. 7. 3. public granaries for such an emergency; one tower also being thrown down, the wall in great part damaged, with no hope of aid from the provinces and the armies which, as they now knew, had submitted to Caesar, the Massiliots at last determined to surrender without treachery. A few days before the surrender L. Domitius having learned the intention of the Massiliots secured three vessels, two of which he assigned to his friends and one he kept for himself, and having taken the opportunity of a storm he set sail. The ships of Brutus, which according to custom were on the watch near the port, raised anchor as soon as they saw the three vessels and pursued. The vessel of Domitius made a great effort to escape and being aided by the storm got off; the other two alarmed by the presence of the Roman vessels returned to the port. The Massiliots obeying Caesar's commands produced their arms and military engines, brought their vessels out of the port and dockyards and delivered up all the money in the treasury. When this was done, Caesar spared the place more out of regard to the name and antiquity of the town than for any service that it had done to him. He left two legions there as a garrison, sent forward the rest to Italy, and marched towards Rome. Caesar says nothing of the treachery of the townsmen nor does he give any other reason for his clemency than these few contemptuous words. The townspeople had caused much trouble, and their base behaviour during the truce merited punishment; but the sack of the town and the massacre of the people would have damaged Caesar's cause. He deprived the Massiliots of the power of injuring him, and he was satisfied." 8 Vitruvius (x. 16) describes some mining operations during a siege of Massilia, which may be Caesar's siege. I know of no other: the townsmen suspecting that the besiegers were mining under the wall and ditch, made a deeper mine under the ditch, and thus their counter-mines, which were deeper, caused the bottom of the ditch to fall in. In those parts where a mine could not be made under the wall they constructed a long and broad excavation, like a fish-pond, opposite to the parts where the enemy's mines were driven, and filled it with water. When the mines were opened, the force of the water which flowed in threw down the supports of the mines, and the men in them were destroyed by the water and the fall of the roofs of the mines.-There is something more. CHAPTER IX. CAESAR IN ROME. B.C. 49. On his road to Rome, as it seems, Caesar was delayed a short time by a mutiny of some of his soldiers at Placentia. This fact is not mentioned in the Civil War, and it has been conjectured that the passage in which Caesar spoke of it has been lost. It is also possible that he said nothing about it. We can hardly suppose that the compilers invented the story. Caesar's soldiers (Appian, B. C. ii. 47) when they reached Placentia complained to the commanders that they were still kept in service and had not received the five minae which Caesar had promised them at Brundisium. But in fact they were probably dissatisfied, as Dion states, with Caesar because he had not allowed them to plunder and do as they liked, for they thought that, as he wanted their services, he must gratify their wishes. However Caesar was not a man who would allow his soldiers to spoil his designs, and he taught them a useful lesson. He never showed his great talents and resolute character more than in dealing with mutinous soldiers. On hearing of the mutiny Caesar hastened from Massilia to Placentia and addressed the men. Dion Cassius (41, c. 27) has in his usual fashion written a tedious speech and presented it to us as Caesar's. It consists of nine rhetorical chapters. Appian has given a short address. Caesar said to the soldiers: "You know what speed I employ in all that I do the war is prolonged not by us, but by our enemies who fly before us: you, who in Gallia have had your reward in serving under me, and have sworn to follow me to the end of this war, are now : deserting me in the midst of it, mutinying against your commanders and attempting to impose your orders upon those whose orders it is your duty to receive." He then told the soldiers that he would follow the usage of the Romans and decimate the ninth legion, which began the mutiny. This declaration was received with loud lamentations, and the tribunes entreated Caesar to pardon the men. With difficulty he was prevailed upon to limit the decimation to one hundred and twenty men, who were judged to be the chief movers in the mutiny, and out of this number twelve were taken by lot and executed. However it was proved that one of the twelve was not in the camp, when the mutiny began, and in place of this soldier Caesar executed the centurion who had denounced him. Suetonius (Caesar, c. 69) reports that the whole legion was ignominiously disbanded and only admitted to service again after much entreaty and the punishment of the guilty. M. Antonius, whom Caesar had left to take care of Italy, discharged his duty to his master faithfully. He lived a loose irregular life, but he did not neglect his business, which was to look after suspected persons and to make himself popular with the soldiers. Cicero says (Phil. ii. 24) that in one of his progresses Antonius rode in an "essedum," preceded by lictors among whom appeared in an open palanquin the mima or actress Cytheris, whom respectable persons from the towns on the route of Antonius were obliged to meet, and they saluted her under the name of Volumnia. There followed a waggon load of abominable fellows, as Cicero describes them. Antonius' mother Julia brought up the rear and followed the mistress of her filthy son as if the woman were her son's wife. Cicero states that this was better known to all who were then in Italy than to himself who was not then in Italy; and yet he was in his villa at Cumae, as he says in one of his letters (Ad Attic. x. 16), when the actress appeared in one of the progresses of Antonius. Cicero (Ad Attic. x. 13. 1), gives another instance of the man's manners. At certain towns, Antonius summoned the ten chief decuriones and the magistrates (iv. viri). They came to his villa in the morning. First of all he slept to the third hour. Then, when he was told that the deputies from Naples and Cumae were waiting, he ordered them to come the next day; he wished to take his bath and a purge. But the man was wakeful enough to look after Cicero. He had already urged him not to leave Italy, and to trust in Caesar who was then in Spain. But Cicero wished to be out of the way, and he often wrote to tell Antonius that he had no hostile intentions towards Caesar, that he had not forgotten Caesar's friendship, that he could have been with Pompeius, if he chose; that he did not like going about with his lictors, whom he still retained, as if he had not yet given up the hope of a triumph, and this was the reason why he wished to go away though he had not quite made up his mind about the matter. Cicero has preserved the answer of Antotonius (Ad Att. x. 10) which is a curious piece of evidence and gives us as much information about the state of affairs in Italy as if the events happened in our own times. "How truly," says Antonius, "do you tell me of your purpose; for he who intends to be neutral, stays at home: he who goes away is considered to pass judgment on one of the two parties. But it is not my business to determine whether a man can properly go away or not. Caesar has imposed this duty on me not to permit any person to leave Italy, and therefore it is of no importance whether I approve of your design or not, if I cannot allow you to be an exception to his orders. I advise you to write to Caesar and ask his permission. I do not doubt that you will obtain it, especially as you promise that you will have regard to our friendship." Cicero was much annoyed at this laconic and sharp note as he calls it (σκυτάλη Λακωνική). He saw that this man, who was devoted to pleasure, was sharp enough to discover his intentions. Appian states that when Caesar arrived at Rome, the terrified people elected him Dictator without a vote of the senate or any magistrate proposing him; and yet, if Appian ever read Caesar's own history, he must have known that Caesar heard of his appointment before he left Massilia. The election, as Dion (41, c. 36) remarks, was contrary to usage, for Lepidus was a praetor, and a man could only be named Dictator by a consul and after a Senatusconsultum had authorized the nomination. Cicero also (Ad Attic. ix. 9. 3; ix. 15. 2) states that the conduct of Lepidus was unconstitutional. |