CHAPTER XIII. BLOCKADE NEAR DYRRHACHIUM. B.C. 48. THE day after Caesar's arrival at Asparagium (c. 41), he brought out all his troops and offered Pompeius battle. But Pompeius would not leave his position, and Caesar led his men back to their camp. On the next day he set out with his army and took a very circuitous and difficult road to Dyrrhachium, in the expectation that Pompeius might either be forced to retire thither or might be cut off from communication with this place in which he had stored his supplies and munitions of war. Pompeius not knowing Caesar's purpose, and seeing that he set out by a route which was in a different direction from the road to Dyrrhachium, thought that he was compelled to leave his position by want of supplies; but being informed by scouts of the road which Caesar had taken, he broke up his camp on the next day in the hope of being able by a shorter road to frustrate Caesar's design. This was what Caesar expected. Exhorting his men to bear patiently the fatigue, and giving them rest from their march only for a small part of the night, he reached Dyrrhachium in the morning, just at the time when the head of Pompeius' columns was seen at a distance coming in sight; and there he made a camp. Goeler supposes that Caesar, instead of marching from the neighbourhood of Asparagium in a north-west direction, took an eastern direction as if he were seeking the interior of Macedonia; and the scouts of Pompeius did not know that his course was to Dyrrhachium till they saw his army climbing the steep sides of the Graba-Balkan, and then turning to the north west. Caesar certainly could not have marched direct to Dyrrhachium, for he was face to face with Pompeius on the Genusus; and his purpose in turning to the east was to deceive the enemy as to his real object, which he has explained. Caesar succeeded in placing himself on the south-west side of Dyrrhachium, and Pompeius was thus shut out from communication with the town by land. Goeler (p. 16) computes that Caesar made this march in two days and two nights, halting during the first night. Pompeius perhaps made his march during the night, the night of the day which followed Caesar's departure from his camp,-for Pompeius' advancing columns were seen by Caesar in the morning. The time of the year was about the end of February or the beginning of March, when the days were short and the roads bad. Goeler reckons Caesar's march at fifteen or sixteen hours; and that of Pompeius, which was due north from Asparagium, at five hours and a half. But Pompeius did not advance as far as Dyrrhachium, for Caesar had placed himself between Pompeius and the town. By this hard marching, which is equal to German endurance in the last French war (1871), Caesar anticipated his less vigilant adversary.' It is necessary to know the nature of the ground about Dyrrhachium, if we would understand the obstinate struggle between the two armies before this town. I shall follow Goeler's description, which is founded on the valuable Austrian map of this part of Turkey, published in 1829.2 1 A remark may be made here. A short chapter of Caesar often contains matter for much thought and reflection, and it is worth the labour, if the campaign is worth studying; and I think that it is. There is some difficulty about the words "postero die" which occur twice in this chapter (41). If we suppose that Caesar was only one night on the road, the march would be impossible. 2 "Die vortreffliche Karte des K. K. Oesterr. Generalquartiermeisterstabs über die Türkei." Gocler, himself a soldier, apologizes for differing from the Emperor Napoleon's remarks on the blockade of Dyrrhachium in his Précis: first because the emperor had not such maps as Goeler had; and second, because Napoleon did not occupy himself with those minute inquiries which are necessary in the examination of Caesar's Commentaries, which assume as known to the reader so much that is unknown and can only be learned by laborious inquiry. Goeler's observation is true, and those who read Caesar without this necessary knowledge cannot understand him. Four hours north of a place named Ilbessan on the Genusus, the Graba-Balkan mountains run due east to Mount Spileon. At the western end the Grabo-Balkan joins the mountains which enclose the valley of the Lisana, at the head of which is a fort now named Petrella. From this junction the GrabaBalkan sends out three branches to the Hadriatic Sea. The northern branch runs in a north-western direction to Cape Rodoni, which is a little south of the site of Lissus. The middle branch runs due west, and forms the narrow peninsula on which Dyrrhachium (Durazzo) stood, and terminates in the present Cape Pali. This middle branch, at a point about three hours east of Dyrrhachium, itself sends out a branch in the form of a bow and in a south-west direction; this secondary branch encloses the coast of the bay of Dyrrhachium in the form of a half-moon, and makes a natural amphitheatre, which was the scene of the contest between Pompeius and Caesar. The valley of the little river Lisana lies between this northern and middle branch, but in the lower part of its course the river turns north through a great swamp which is north of Dyrrhachium, and enters the sea about four hours' distance from that town. The southern branch from the Graba-Balkan runs at first nearly due south, and then turns west when it approaches the north bank of the Genusus. It continues a western course along the Genusus to the sea, and thus forms the northern boundary of the lower basin of the Genusus, and the southern boundary of the basin of the small river Palamnus, now the Spirnatza. The northern boundary of the basin of the Spirnatza is the middle mountain range which terminates in the peninsula of Durazzo. The coast immediately north of Durazzo contains numerous rocks and steep cliffs, and still farther north is the great swamp. In a coast of six hours in length there is no landingplace. South of the mouth of the Genusus as far as Aulon (Aulona) south of the Aous, the shallowness of the sea prevents a landing. It is only in the bight of the bay of Dyrrhachium that we find tolerable landing-places, and even here in some places the coast is high and rocky. Lucan (vi. 19—28, Oudendorp) has a good description of the site of Dyrrhachium. The place was not protected by art and the labour of man, but by natural defences. On all sides it was shut in by the sea and by rocks which dashed back the assault of the waves, and there was only a little hill which prevented the site from being an island: "The dread of ships, high cliffs support the walls, And when the south wind stirs the Ionian wave, Dyrrhachium had long been the usual landing-place for those who crossed the Hadriatic from Brundisium to the opposite coast. From Dyrrhachium, as already observed, the great Roman military road, the Via Egnatia, ran to Thessalonica, and it was continued east of Thessalonica as far as a place named Cypsela near the river Hebrus (Maritza). There was a shorter passage from Hydruntum (Otranto) south of Brundisium to Apollonia on the opposite coast, and a road was made inland from Apollonia and joined the Egnatia (p. 127). Pompeius being shut out from Dyrrhachium, made his camp at Petra, an elevated place which formed a tolerable harbour for vessels and protected them against some winds. He ordered part of his ships of war to assemble here, and corn and supplies to be brought from the province of Asia and all the countries which were in his power. Petra is a high rocky position on the coast, about three miles south of the isthmus which connects the peninsula of Dyrrhachium with the main land. Caesar's camp was also on the coast opposite to Pompeius and between him and Dyrrhachium. It appears also from what follows that he occupied the isthmus of Dyrrhachium and thus shut in the town on the land side: a small force was sufficient for this purpose. Caesar judging that the war would 3 Goeler contends that Petra is a rocky height, where there is a small bay, and he places it south of Dyrrhachium and north of the Palamnus. It has been placed at the northern extremity of a small peninsula which is north of Dyrrhachium, now Cape Pali: and it is placed there in my Atlas; but it is a great mistake. Goeler has proved (p. 21) that the struggle between Caesar and Pompeius was south of that town; and this is quite plain as soon as we compare Caesar's narrative with a good map, such as those in Goeler's work. Tafel i. ii. VOL. V. M be prolonged had no hope of receiving supplies from Italy, for all the coasts were well guarded by the ships of Pompeius; and his own vessels, which were built during the winter in Sicily, Gallia, and Italy, did not arrive. He therefore sent Q. Tillius and his legatus L. Canuleius into Epirus to look after corn; and as these parts were at some distance, he established magazines in certain places and required the neighbouring towns to carry their grain to them. He also ordered all the corn to be collected from Lissus, from the country of the Parthini and all the fortified places; but the amount was small, for owing to the poverty of the soil in these rough and mountainous parts, the inhabitants generally consumed imported grain, and Pompeius also had plundered the Parthini by sending among them his cavalry, who broke open and carried off all the stores of corn which the people had buried in their houses, to hide them from the plunderer; or it may have been their usage to keep the corn in subterranean cellars, as was once done in Apulia." For these reasons Caesar formed his plans according to the nature of the ground. The camp of Pompeius was surrounded by many lofty and rugged hills, which Caesar occupied with detachments of troops, and he constructed forts there. Then making use of such facilities as each spot presented, he drew his line of contrevallation from one fort to another with the design of enclosing Pompeius; and as Caesar was in want of supplies and Pompeius was strong in cavalry, with the further purpose of securing grain and other necessaries for his army with less risk and also preventing the cavalry of Pompeius from foraging. He had also another object in view, which was to diminish the reputation on which Pompeius chiefly relied for his influence among foreign nations, when it should be reported all over the world that he was blockaded by Caesar and did not dare to fight. Pompeius would not leave the coast and Dyrrhachium, where he had placed his material of war, missiles, arms, and military engines, and was furnished with supplies by his ships; nor could he prevent Caesar from making 4 And may be still. "All the large streets and open squares of Foggia are undermined with vaults, where corn is buried and preserved sound from year to year." (Swinburne, The Two Sicilies, i. 138.) |