Y.R. B C. 719 sprang upon the bridge himself. Agrippa and Hiero, two 35 of the generals, and one of his body-guard, Lucius, and Volas ran with him, only these four with a few armor-bearers. He had almost crossed the bridge when the soldiers, overcome by shame, rushed after him in crowds. Then this bridge, being overweighted, fell also, and the men on it went down in a heap. Some were killed and others were carried away with broken bones. Augustus was injured in the right leg and in both arms. Nevertheless, he ascended the tower with his signals forthwith and showed himself safe and sound, lest dismay should arise from a report of his death. In order that the enemy might not fancy that he was going to give in and retire he began to construct new bridges; by which means he struck terror into the Metulians, who thought that they were contending against an unconquerable will. 21. The next day they sent messengers to Augustus offering to give fifty hostages whom he might select, and promising to receive a garrison and to assign to them the highest hill while they themselves would occupy the other. When the garrison entered and he ordered them to lay down their arms they were very angry. They shut their wives and children up in their council-chamber and stationed guards there with orders to set fire to the building in case things went wrong with them, and then they attacked the Romans with desperation. Since, however, they made the attack from a lower position upon those occupying higher ground, they were completely overpowered. Then the guards set fire to the council-chamber and many of the women killed their children and themselves. Others, holding in their arms their children still alive, leaped into the flames. Thus all the Metulian youth perished in battle and the greater part of the non-combatants by fire. Their city was entirely consumed, and, large as it was, not a trace of it now remains. After the destruction of Metulus the remainder of the Iapydes, being terror-stricken, surrendered to Augustus. The transalpine lapydes were then for the first time brought in subjection to the Romans. After Augustus departed the Poseni 720 rebelled and Marcus Helvius was sent against them. He 34 conquered them and after punishing the leaders of the revolt with death sold the rest as slaves. Y.R. 719 22. At an earlier time the Romans twice attacked the country of the Segestani, but obtained no hostages nor anything else, for which reason the Segestani became very arrogant. Augustus advanced against them through the Pannonian territory, which was not yet under subjection to the Romans. Pannonia is a wooded country extending from the Iapydes to the Dardani. The inhabitants do not live in cities, but scattered through the country or in villages according to relationship. They have no common council and no rulers over the whole nation. They number 100,000 fighting men, but they do not assemble in one body, because they have no common government. When Augustus advanced against them they took to the woods, from which they darted out and slew the stragglers of the army. As long as Augustus hoped that they would surrender voluntarily he spared their fields and villages. As none of them came in he devastated the country with fire and sword for eight days, until he came to the Segestani. Theirs is also Pannonian territory, on the river Save, on which is situated a city strongly fortified by the river and by a very large ditch encircling it. For this reason Augustus greatly desired to possess it as a magazine convenient for a war against the Dacians and the Bastarnæ on the other side of the Ister, which is there called the Danube, but a little lower down is called the Ister. The Save flows into it, and Augustus caused ships to be built in the latter stream to bring provisions to the Danube for him. 23. For these reasons he desired to obtain possession of Segesta. As he was approaching, the Segestani sent to inquire what he wanted. He replied that he desired to station a garrison there and to have them give him 100 hostages in order that he might use the town safely as a base of operations in his war against the Dacians. He also asked for as much food as they were able to supply. The chief men of the town acquiesced, but the common people were furious, yet consented to the giving of the hostages, perhaps because they were not their children, but those of the notables. When the garrison came up, however, they could not bear the sight of them, but shut the gates in a mad fury and stationed themselves on the walls. Thereupon Augustus bridged the river and surrounded the place with ditch and B. C. 35 Y.R. B.C. 719 palisade, and, having blockaded them, raised two mounds. 35 Upon these the Segestani made frequent assaults and, being unable to capture them, endeavored to destroy them with torches and fire thrown from above. When aid was sent to them by the other Pannonians Augustus met and ambuscaded this reënforcement, destroyed a part of their force, and put the rest to flight. After this they got no more help from the Pannonians. 720 24. Thus the Segestani, after enduring all the evils of a siege, were taken by force on the thirtieth day, and then for the first time they began to beg. Augustus, admiring them for their bravery and yielding to their prayers, neither killed nor banished them, but contented himself with a fine. He caused a part of the city to be separated from the rest by a wall, and in this he placed a garrison of twenty-five cohorts. Having accomplished this he went back to Rome, intending to return to Illyria in the spring. But a rumor becoming current that the Segestani had massacred the garrison, he set forth hastily in the winter. However, he found that the rumor was false, yet not without cause. They had been in danger from a sudden uprising of the Segestani and had lost many men by reason of its unexpectedness, but on the next day they rallied and put down the insurgents. Augustus turned his forces to Dalmatia, another Illyrian country bordering on Taulantia. CHAPTER V Second War against the Dalmatians - The City of Promona taken - 25. The Dalmatians, after the slaughter of the five cohorts 34 under Gabinius and the taking of their standards, elated by their success, had not laid down their arms for ten years. When Augustus advanced against them they made an alliance with each other for mutual aid in war. They had upwards of 12,000 fighting men under a general named Versus. He occupied Promona, the city of the Liburni, and fortified it, although it was very strong by nature. It is a mountain stronghold surrounded on all sides by sharppointed hills like saw-teeth. The greater part of his forces Y.R. 720 were stationed in the town, but he placed guards on the hills and all of them looked down upon the Romans from elevated positions. Augustus in plain sight began to draw a wall around the whole, but secretly he sent his bravest men to seek a path to the highest of the hills. These, concealing themselves in the woods, fell upon the guards by night while they were asleep, slew them, and signalled to Augustus in the twilight. He led the bulk of the army to make an attempt upon the city, and sent another force to hold the height that had been taken, while the captors of it should get possession of the lower hills. Terror and confusion fell upon the barbarians everywhere, for they believed themselves to be attacked on all sides. Especially were those on the hills alarmed lest they should be cut off from their supply of water, for which reason they all fled to Promona. 26. Augustus surrounded the town, and two hills which were still held by the enemy, with a wall forty stades in length. When Testimus, another Dalmatian general, brought an army to the relief of the place Augustus met him and drove him back to the mountains, and while Testimus was still looking on he took Promona before the line of circumvallation was finished. For when the citizens made a sally and were sharply repulsed, the Romans pursued them and entered the town with them, where they killed a third part of them. The remainder took refuge in the citadel, at the gates of which a Roman cohort was placed to keep watch. On the fourth night the barbarians asaulted them, and they fled terror-stricken from the gates. Augustus repulsed the enemy's assault, and the following day received their surrender. The cohort that had abandoned its position was obliged to cast lots, and every tenth man suffered death. The lot fell upon two centurions among others. It was ordered, as a further punishment, that the surviving members of the cohort should subsist on barley instead of wheat for that summer. 27. Promona being thus taken, Testimus, who was still looking on, disbanded his army, telling them to scatter in all directions. For this reason the Romans were not able to pursue them long, as they feared to divide themselves into small bands, being ignorant of the roads, and the foot VOL. IT B.C 34 Y.R. B. C. 720 prints of the fugitives being much confused. They took 34 the town of Sunodium at the edge of the forest in which the army of Gabinius had been entrapped by the Dalmatians in a long and deep gorge between two mountains. There also they laid an ambuscade for Augustus, but after he had burned Sunodium he sent soldiers around by the summits of the mountains to keep even pace with him on either side while he passed through the gorge. He cut down trees and captured and burned all the towns he found on his way. While he was besieging the city of Setovia a force of barbarians came to its assistance, which he met and prevented from entering the place. In this conflict he was struck by a stone on the knee and was confined for several days. When he recovered he returned to Rome to perform the duties of the consulship with Volcatius Tullus, his colleague, leaving Statilius Taurus to finish the war. 721 28. Entering upon his new consulship on the Calends 33 of January, and delivering the government to Autronius Pætus the same day, he started back to Dalmatia at once, the triumvirate still existing; for two years remained of the second five-year period which the triumvirs themselves had ordained and the people confirmed. And now the Dalmatians, oppressed by hunger and cut off from foreign supplies, met him on the road and delivered themselves up with supplications, giving 700 of their children as hostages, as Augustus demanded, and also the Roman standards taken from Gabinius. They also promised to pay the tribute that had been in arrears since the time of Gaius Cæsar and to be obedient henceforth. Augustus deposited the standards in the portico called the Octavia. After the Dalmatians were prostrated Augustus advanced against the Derbani, who likewise begged pardon with supplications, gave hostages, and promised to pay the past-due tribute.1 In like manner other tribes at his approach gave hostages for observing the treaties that he made with them. Some, however, he was prevented by sickness from reaching. These gave no hostages and made no treaties. It appears, however, that they were subjugated later. Thus Augustus subdued the whole Illyrian country, not only the parts that 1 At this point there is a lacuna in the text. |