on the
Georgics
of Virgil_,
III.
III.
Napoleon - History of Julius Caesar - b
The eighteen
ships appropriated to the cavalry might transport 450 horses, at the
rate of twenty-five horses each ship.
[352] The port of Dover extended formerly from the site of the present
town, between the cliffs which border the valley of the Dour or of
Charlton. (_See Plate 17. _) Indeed, from the facts furnished by ancient
authors, and a geological examination of the ground, it appears certain
that once the sea penetrated into the land, and formed a creek which
occupied nearly the whole of the valley of Charlton. The words of Cæsar
are just justified: “Cujus loci hæc erat natura, atque ita montibus
angustis mare continebatur, uti ex locis superioribus in littus telum
adjici posset. ” (IV. 23. )
The proofs of the above assertion result from several facts related in
different notices on the town of Dover. It is there said that in 1784
Sir Thomas Hyde Page caused a shaft to be sunk at a hundred yards from
the shore, to ascertain the depth of the basin at a remote period; it
proved that the ancient bed of the sea had been formerly thirty English
feet below the present level of the high tide. In 1826, in sinking a
well at a place called _Dolphin Lane_, they found, at a depth of
twenty-one feet, a bed of mud resembling that of the present port, mixed
with the bones of animals and fragments of leaves and roots. Similar
detritus have been discovered in several parts of the valley. An ancient
chronicler, named Darell, relates that “Wilbred, King of Kent, built in
700 the church of St. Martin, the ruins of which are still visible near
the market-place, on the spot where formerly ships cast anchor. ”
The town built under the Emperors Adrian and Septimus Severus occupied a
part of the port, which had already been covered with sand; yet the sea
still entered a considerable distance inland. (_See Plate 17. _)
It would appear to have been about the year 950 that the old port was
entirely blocked up with the maritime and fluvial alluvium which have
been increasing till our day, and which at different periods have
rendered it necessary to construct the dykes and quays which have given
the port its present form.
[353] “Constat enim aditus insulæ esse munitos mirificis molibus. ”
(Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 16. )
[354] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.
[355] The Emperor Julian (p. 70, edit. Lasius) makes Cæsar say that he
had been the first to leap down from the ship.
[356] It is in the text, _in scopulum vicinum insulæ_, which must be
translated by “a rock near the isle of Britain,” and not, as certain
authors have interpreted it, “a rock isolated from the continent. ”
(Valerius Maximus, III. ii. 23. )--In fact, these rocks, called _Malms_,
are distinctly seen at low water opposite the arsenal and marine
barracks at Deal.
[357] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.
[358] Cæsar himself had only carried three servants with him, as Cotta
relates. (Athenæus, _Deipnosophist. _, VI. 105. )
[359] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 53.
[360] At the battle of Arcola, in 1796, twenty-five horsemen had a great
influence on the issue of the day. (_Mémoires de Montholon, dictées de
Sainte-Hélène,_ II. 9. )
[361] _De Bello Gallico_, IV. 36 and 37.
[362] _De Bello Gallico_, IV. 38.
[363] Dio Cassius, XL. 1. --See Strabo, IV. , p. 162, edit. Didot.
[364] _De Bello Gallico_, V. I.
[365] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 56. XL. 1.
[366] This opinion has been already supported by learned archæologists.
I will cite especially M. Mariette; Mr. Thomas Lewin, who has written a
very interesting account of Cæsar’s invasions of England; and lastly, M.
l’Abbé Haigneré, archivist of Boulogne, who has collected the best
documents on this question.
[367] Strabo, IV. 6, p. 173.
[368] According to the Itinerary of Antoninus, the road started from
Bagacum (_Bavay_), and passed by Pons-Scaldis (_Escaut-Pont_), Turnacum
(_Tournay_), Viroviacum (_Werwick_), Castellum (_Montcassel, Cassel_),
Tarvenna (_Thérouanne_), and thence to Gesoriacum (_Boulogne_).
According to Mariette, medals found on the road demonstrate that it had
been made in the time of Agrippa; moreover, according to the same
Itinerary of Antoninus, a Roman road started from Bavay, and, by
Tongres, ended at the Rhine at Bonn. (See _Jahrbücher des Vereins von
Alterthums Freunden_, Heft 37, Bonn, 1864. Now, admitting that there had
been already under Augustus a road which united Boulogne with Bonn, we
understand the expression of Florus, who explains that Drusus amended
this road by constructing bridges on the numerous water-courses which it
crossed, _Bonnam et Gesoriacum pontibus junxit_. (Florus, IV. 12. )
[369] Suetonius, _Caligula_, 46. --The remains of the pharos of Caligula
were still visible a century ago.
[370] Suetonius, _Claudius_, 17.
[371] Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 1.
[372] Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 7, 8.
[373] Eumenius, _Panegyric of Constantinus Cæsar_, 14.
[374] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, cited by Mr. Lewin.
[375] “Qui tertia vigilia Morino solvisset a portu. ” (Florus, III. 10. )
[376] Strabo, IV. 5, p. 166.
[377] “Ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos, nec portu quam Gesoriacum
vocant quicquam notius habet. ” (Pomponius Mela, III. 2. )--“Μορινὡν
Γησοριακον ἑπἱνειον. ” (Ptolemy, II. ix. 3. )
[378] “Hæc [Britannia] abest a Gesoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo
trajectu quinquaginta M. ” (Pliny, _Hist. Nat. _, IV. 30. )
[379] The camp of Labienus, during the second expedition, was, no doubt,
established on the site now occupied by the high town. From thence it
commanded the surrounding country, the sea, and the lower course of the
Liane.
[380] _Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire_, tom. IV. , I. 17.
[381] What is now called _Romney Marsh_ is the northern part of a vast
plain, bounded on the east and south by the sea, and on the west and
north by the line of heights at the foot of which the military canal has
been cut. It is difficult to determine what was the aspect of Romney
Marsh in the time of Cæsar. Nevertheless, the small elevation of the
plain above the level of the sea, as well as the nature of the soil,
lead us to conclude that the sea covered it formerly up to the foot of
the heights of Lymne, except at least in the part called
_Dymchurch-Wall_. This is a long tongue of land, on which are now raised
three forts and nine batteries, and which, considering its height above
the rest of the plain, has certainly never been covered by the sea.
These facts appear to be confirmed by an ancient chart in the Cottonian
collection in the British Museum.
Mr. Lewin appears to have represented as accurately as possible the
appearance of Romney Marsh in the time of Cæsar, in the plate which
accompanies his work. The part not covered by the sea extended, no
doubt, as he represents it, from the bay of Romney to near Hythe, where
it terminated in a bank of pebbles of considerable extent. But it
appears to us that it would have been difficult for the Roman army to
land on a bank of pebbles at the very foot of the rather steep heights
of Lymne. Mr. Lewin places the Roman army, in the first expedition, at
the foot of the heights, on the bank of pebbles itself, surrounded on
almost all sides by the sea. In the second expedition, he supposes it to
have been on the heights, at the village of Lymne; and, to explain how
Cæsar joined his fleet to the camp by retrenchments common to both, he
admits that this fleet was drawn on land as far as the slope of the
heights, and shut up in a square space of 300 mètres each side, because
we find there the ruins of an ancient castle called _Stutfall Castle_.
All this is hardly admissible.
[382] Word for word, this expression signifies that the ships set sail
four days after the arrival of the Romans in England. The Latin language
often employed the ordinal number instead of the cardinal number. Thus,
the historian Eutropius says, “Carthage was destroyed 700 years after it
was founded, _Carthago septingentesimo anno quam condita erat deleta
est_. ” Are we, in the phrase, _post diem quartum_, to reckon the day of
the arrival? --Virgil says, speaking of the seventeenth day, _septima
post decimam_. --Cicero uses the expression _post sexennium_ in the sense
of _six years_. It is evident that Virgil counts seven days after the
tenth. If the tenth was comprised in this number, the expression
_septima post decimam_ would signify simply the _sixteenth day_. On his
part, Cicero understands clearly the six years as a lapse of time which
was to pass, starting from the moment in which he speaks. Thus, the
_post diem quartum_ of Cæsar must be understood in the sense of four
days accomplished, without reckoning the day of landing.
[383] Titus Livius, XLIV. 37.
[384] We must now go back to the fourteenth day before the full moon,
that is, to the 17th of August, 699, to find a day on which high tide
took place at Dover towards midday.
[385] Mr. Lewin has stated that the country between Deal and Sandwich
produces no wheat. This assertion is tolerably true for the tongue of
marshy land which separates those two localities; but what does it
signify, since wheat grows in great quantities in all the part of the
county of Kent situated to the west of the coast which extends from the
South Foreland to Deal and Sandwich?
[386] It is almost impossible to fix with certainty the day when Cæsar
quitted Britain; we know only that it was a short time before the
equinox (_propinqua die æquinoxii_), which, according to the
calculations of M. Le Verrier, fell on the 26th of September, and that
the fleet started a little after midnight. If we admit a passage of nine
hours, with a favorable wind (_ipse idoneam tempestatem nactus_), as on
the return of the second expedition, Cæsar would have arrived at
Boulogne towards nine o’clock in the morning. As the fleet could not
enter the port until the tide was in, it is sufficient, to know
approximatively the date of Cæsar’s return, to seek what day in the
month of September, 699, there was high tide at that hour at Bolougne.
Now, in this port, the tide is always at its height towards nine o’clock
in the morning two or three days before full moon and before new moon;
therefore, since the full moon of the month of September, 699, took
place on the 14th, it must have been about the 11th or 12th of September
that Cæsar returned to Gaul. As to the two ships which were driven
farther down, Mr. Lewin (_Invasion of Britain by J. Cæsar_) explains
this accident in a very judicious manner. He states that we read in the
tide-tables of the English Admiralty the following recommendation: “In
approaching Boulogne when the tide is flowing in, great attention must
be paid, because the current, which, on the English side, drags a ship
towards the east, on the Boulogne side drags them, on the contrary,
towards the Somme. ” Nothing, then, is more natural than that the two
Roman transport ships should be driven ashore to the south of Boulogne.
[387] “It was there (the mouth of the Seine) that Cæsar established his
naval arsenal, when he passed over to that island (Britain. )” (Strabo,
II. 160. )
[388] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 3, 4.
[389] The Meldæ dwelt on the Marne, in the country around Meaux; and as
we have seen, according to Strabo, that Cæsar had established his naval
arsenal at the mouth of the Seine, there is nothing extraordinary in the
circumstance that some of the ships were built near Meaux. But it is not
reasonable to suppose, with some writers, that the Meldæ dwelt at the
mouth of the Scheldt, and believe that Cæsar had left important
shipyards in an enemy’s country, and out of reach of protection.
[390] The five legions which Cæsar led into Britain made, at about 5,000
men each, 25,000 men. There were, in addition to these, 2,000 cavalry.
If we suppose, as in the first expedition, twenty-five horses per ship,
it would require eighty to contain the cavalry. In the preceding year,
eighty transport ships had been sufficient for two legions, without
baggage--200 ought to have been enough for five legions; but as the
“Commentaries” give us to understand that those vessels were narrower,
and that the troops had their baggage, it may be believed that they
required double the number of ships, that is, 400, for the transport of
the five legions, which would make about sixty-two men in a ship. There
would remain 160 transport ships for the Gaulish and Roman chiefs, the
valets, and the provisions. The twenty-eight galleys were, no doubt, the
true ships of war, destined to protect the fleet and the landing.
[391] According to a passage in the “Commentaries” (Book V. 26), there
was in the Roman army a body of Spanish cavalry.
[392] Dio Casstas, XL. 1.
[393] De Bella Galtico, V. 8.
[394] This appears to us to be evident, since we shall see subsequently
Cæsar inclosed his fleet within the retrenchments contiguous to his
camp.
[395] As in the first expedition the disaster which happened to his
fleet must have proved to Cæsar the danger to which the vessels were
exposed on the coast, the above reflection indicates that, in his second
expedition, he chose a better anchorage, at a few kilomètres farther to
the north.
[396] Ten cohorts formed a legion; but Cæsar does not employ this last
expression, because, no doubt, he drew from each of his legions two
cohorts, which he left for the guard of the camp. In this manner he
preserved the tactical number of five legions, which was more
advantageous, and caused each legion to participate in the honour of
combating.
[397] If from the sea-shore, near Deal, where we suppose that the Romans
established their camp, we describe, with a radius of twelve miles, an
arc of a circle, we cut towards the west, the villages of Kingston and
Barham, and more to the north, the village of Littlebourne, a stream
called the Little Stour, which rises near Lyminge, flows from south to
north across a rather irregular country, and falls into the Great Stour.
This stream is incontestably the _flumen_ of the “Commentaries. ” There
is the less room for error, as we find no other stream in the part of
the county of Kent comprised between the coast of Deal and the Great
Stour, and as this latter runs too far from Deal to answer to the text.
Although the Little Stour is not, between Barham and Kingston, more than
from three to four mètres broad, we need not be astonished at the
denomination of _flumen_ given to it by Cæsar, for he employs the same
expression to designate simple rivulets, such as the Ose and the
Oserain. (_De Bello Gallico_, VII. 69, _Alesia_. )
But did Cæsar reach the Little Stour towards Barham and Kingston or
towards Littlebourne? The doubt is allowable. We believe, nevertheless,
that the country of Barham and Kingston agrees best with the idea we
form from reading the “Commentaries. ” The heights on the left bank of
the Little Stour are not so broken as to prevent chariots and cavalry
from manœuvring on them, and the Britons might have occupied, as the
text requires, a commanding position, _locus superior_, on the banks
which end at the river in gentle slopes.
This stream, considering its little depth, does not form any real
obstacle. Now it appears, in fact, to result from the recital of the
“Commentaries,” that the engagement as it was not of a serious
character, and that Cæsar’s cavalry passed it without difficulty. This
last fact forms an objection to the Great Stour, which several authors,
and among others General de Gœler, take for the _flumen_ of the text; it
is sufficiently broad and sufficiently steep-banked towards Sturry,
where they place the scene of the action, to render the passage
difficult for cavalry. Moreover, Sturry is fifteen, and not twelve miles
from the coast of Deal.
[398] It is evident that this place must not be sought at more than a
few kilomètres from the Little Stour; for it must be remembered that the
Romans had landed the day before, that they had made a night march of
twelve miles, and that they have just given battle. Unfortunately, the
country situated to the west of Kingston is so much broken and wooded,
that it is impossible to choose one site rather than another to make a
British _oppidum_. Perhaps it might be placed towards Bursted or Upper
Hardres.
[399] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 9.
[400] It has appeared to us interesting to explain how Cæsar could join
the fleet to his camp.
The Roman camp must have been on flat ground, to allow of the
possibility of drawing up the ships of the fleet. Supposing that the
mean size of each ship was twenty-five mètres long by six mètres broad,
and that the 800 ships composing the fleet had been placed at two mètres
from each other, on five lines separated by a distance of three mètres,
the fleet would have covered a rectangle of 1,280 mètres by 140, joined
with the camp by other trenches. It is, of course, understood that the
lightest boats would form the line farthest from the sea.
[401] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 11.
[402] This is the expression of Cæsar, but it is certain that this
number does not indicate the shortest distance from the Thames to the
Straits. Cæsar, no doubt, meant to tell us the length of the route he
took from the sea to the Thames.
[403] On the chariots of the Britons consult Strabo (IV. , p. 166), and
Dio Cassius (LXXVI. 12). Cæsar spoke of many thousand cavalry and
war-chariots, in the third book of a Memoir addressed to Cicero, but
which is lost. (Junius Philargyrus, _Comm.
on the Georgics of Virgil_,
III. , p. 204. )
[404] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 17.
[405] There remains not the slightest vestige in the county of Kent
which might help us in tracing the march of the Roman army. The camp of
Holwood, near Keston, which the English maps call _Cæsar’s Camp_, does
not belong to the period of which we are treating. On St. George’s Hill,
near Walton-on-the-Thames, no camp ever existed.
Unfortunately, it is no more possible to ascertain the exact place where
Cæsar crossed the Thames by a ford. We are convinced of this by the
researches of all kinds made by the officers Stoffel and Hamelin. The
boatmen of the Thames all assured them that between Shepperton and
London there are now reckoned eight or nine places fordable; the most
favourable is that at Sunbury. At Kingston, where General de Gœler
places the passage, nothing leads us to suppose that a ford ever
existed. The same thing must be said of Coway Stakes. At Halliford, in
spite of the termination of the word, the inhabitants have no tradition
of an ancient ford. The only thing which appears to us evident is, that
the Roman army did not pass below Teddington. We know that this village,
the name of which comes from _Tide-end-town_, marks the last point of
the Thames where the tide is felt. We cannot believe that Cæsar would
expose himself to be surprised during his passage by an increase of the
volume of water.
[406] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 18. --Polyænus expresses himself thus:
“Cæsar, when he was in the isle of Britain, sought to pass a great
river. Cassivellaunus, King of the Britons, opposed the passage with a
numerous cavalry and many chariots. Cæsar had a very great elephant, an
animal which the Britons had never seen; he armed it with iron flakes,
and placed on its back a great tower filled with archers and slingers,
all men of skill, and caused it to advance into the river. The Britons
were struck with astonishment at the view of such an enormous animal,
which was unknown to them. And is it necessary to say that their horses
were frightened at it, since we know that, even among the Greeks, the
presence of an elephant causes the horses to flee? Much more were those
of the barbarians unable to support the view of an elephant armed and
loaded with a tower from which flew stones and arrows. Britons, horses,
and chariots, all equally took flight; and the Romans, by means of the
terror caused by a single animal, passed the river without danger. ”
(_Strateg. _, VIII. 23, § 5. )
[407] After having crossed the Thames, Cæsar invaded the territory of
Cassivellaunus, and directed his march to the _oppidum_ of that chief.
Certain commentators place this _oppidum_ to the west of Wendover (_see
Plate 15_), others at St. Albans, the ancient _Verulamium_. All we can
possibly say is, that the brief indications of the “Commentaries” seem
to agree best with the latter locality.
[408] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 22.
[409] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 23.
[410] Strabo, p. 167.
[411] Pliny, _Hist. Nat. _, IX. , 116. --Solinus, LIII. 28.
[412] “I have received, on the 4th of the nones of June (the 1st of
June, according to the concordance here adopted, _see Appendix A_), your
letter dated from Placentia; that of the following day, dated from Lodi,
arrived on the very day of the nones (4th of June). ” It was accompanied
with a letter from Cæsar, expressing his satisfaction at the arrival of
Quintus. (Cicero, _Epist. ad Quintum_, II. 15.
[413] Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 15. This letter was closed on the
5th of the calends of August, answering to the 26th of July.
[414] “I have received, on the day of the ides of September (the 9th of
September), your fourth letter, dated from Britain on the 4th of the
ides of August (8th of August). ” (_Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 1.
[415] “The 11th of the calends of October (16th of September) your
courier arrived; he has taken twenty days on the road; my uneasiness was
mortal. ” (_Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 1. )--“Cæsar has written to me from
Britain a letter, dated on the calends of September (28th of August),
which I received on the 4th of the calends of October. It appears that
affairs are not going on ill with him. Cæsar adds, to prevent me from
being surprised at not hearing from you, that you were not with him when
he came to the coast (23rd of September). ”
[416] Cicero, _Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 3.
[417] At ten miles to the east of Deal it is high tide half an hour
later than at Dover, and the reflux begins there four hours after the
hour of high tide.
[418] Those who refuse to admit Boulogne and Deal for the points of
Cæsar’s embarking and landing, pretend that so long a time was not
necessary to effect so short a passage. But a fleet requires a longer
time to navigate the more numerous it is; resembling in that an army,
which marches much more slowly than a single man.
[419] Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 17.
[420] To find the time required, we must suppose that, by some delay or
by the absence of regular couriers, Cæsar’s letter to Cicero had been
thirteen days on the road between Lodi and Rome.
[421] Much uncertainty exists in regard to the distribution of the
legions; yet the location of two of the winter quarters appears to us
certain, Samarobriva (_Amiens_) and Aduatuca (_Tongres_). If now, from a
point situate near to the Sambre, from Bavay as the centre, we describe
a circle, we shall see that Cæsar’s winter quarters, except those of
Normandy, were all comprised in a radius of 100 miles, or 148
kilomètres. The researches which Major Cohausen kindly made for me, and
those of MM. Stoffel and Locqueyssie, have enabled me to determine
approximately the winter quarters.
[422] The brother of the orator.
[423] The Commandant of Artillery, De Locqueyssie, has found on the
Ourthe, near the village of Lavacherie (_Duchy of Luxemburg_), the
remains of a Roman camp with triangular fosses, and in a position which
appears to agree with the date of the “Commentaries. ”
[424] Under the name of _Belgium_, we must only comprise a part of the
peoples of Belgic Gaul, such as the Atrebates, the Ambiani, and the
Bellovaci. (_De Bello Gallico_, V. 24, 25, 46; VIII. 46. )
[425] _Unam legionem, quam proxime trans Padum
conscripserat. _--According to the use of the good Latin writers,
_proxime_ does not mean _recently_, but _in the last place_. Through an
incorrect interpretation of this phrase, General de Gœler has supposed
that Cæsar had, at this time, brought from Italy the 15th legion; this
legion, as we shall see, was only raised at a later period.
[426] More than fourteen different localities have been proposed for
identification with Aduatuca. If some writers have advanced good
arguments for placing Aduatuca on the right bank of the Meuse, others
have believed that they have offered equally good ones for seeking it on
the left bank of that river; but the greater part of them have admitted
this or that site for the most futile reasons. Nobody has dreamt of
resolving the question by the simplest of all means--which consists in
seeking if, among the different sites proposed, there is one which, by
the form of the ground, agrees with the requirements of the narrative
given in the “Commentaries. ” Now, Tongres is in this position, and it
alone, and so completely satisfies them that we cannot think of placing
Aduatuca elsewhere. In fact, Tongres is situated in the country occupied
formerly by the Eburones, and, as Cæsar expresses it, _in modiis finibus
Eburonum_, which signifies entirely in the country of the Eburones, and
not in the centre of the country. It is moreover enclosed in a circle of
a hundred miles radius, comprising all the winter quarters of the Roman
army except those of Roscius. This locality fulfils all the conditions
required for the establishment of a camp; it is near a river, on a
height which commands the neighborhood, and the country produces wheat
and forage. At two miles towards the west is a long defile, _magna
convallis_, the vale of Lowaige, where the relation of the massacre of
the cohorts of Sabinus is perfectly explained. At three miles from
Tongres we find a plain, separated from the town by a single hill; on
the same side as this hill rises a rounded eminence--that of Berg, to
which the name of tumulus may be fairly applied. Lastly, the Geer, the
banks of which were formerly marshy, defended through a large extent the
height of Tongres. (_See Plate 18. _)
[427] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 25.
[428] See the notice by M. M. F. Driesen on the position of Aduatuca, in
the _Bulletins de l’Académie Royale de Belgique_, 2nd series, tom. XV.
No. 3.
[429] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 37.
[430] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 39.
[431] The towers of the Romans were constructed of timber of small size,
bound together by cross pieces. (_See Plate 27, fig. 8. _) They still
raise scaffolding at Rome in the same manner at the present day.
[432] Although the text has _passuum_, we have not hesitated in
substituting _pedum_, for it is very improbable that Gauls could have
made, in three hours’ time, a countervallation of more than 22
kilomètres.
[433] The siege machine called _testudo_, “a tortoise,” was ordinarily a
gallery mounted upon wheels, made of wood strongly squared, and covered
with a solid blindage. It was pushed against the wall of the place
besieged. It protected the workmen employed either in filling the fosse,
or in mining the wall, or in working the ram. The siege operations of
the Gauls lead us to presume that the camp of Cicero was in a fort
surrounded by a wall. (_See_, on the word _falces_, note (1) on p. 143. )
[434] In the coal-basin, in the centre of which Charleroy is situated,
the coal layers crop out of the surface of the soil on different points.
Still, at the present day, they knead the clay with small coal. But,
what is most curious, people have found at Breteuil (Oise), as in the
ruins of Carthage, a quantity of ovoid balls made of pottery.
[435] It will be seen that we use indifferently the terms _vallum_ and
_rampart_.
[436] Dio Cassius, XL. 8.
[437] It has appeared to us that the movement of concentration of Cæsar
and Fabius did not allow the winter quarters of the latter to be placed
at Therouanne or at Montreuil-sur-Mer, as most authors have supposed.
These localities are too far distant from the route from Amiens to
Charleroy to have enabled Fabius to join Cæsar on the territory of the
Atrebates, as the text of the Commentaries requires. For this reason, we
place Fabius at Saint-Pol.
[438] The “Commentaries” say, _Græcis conscriptam litteris_; but
Polyænus and Dio Cassius affirm that the letter was written in Greek.
[439] Polyænus, _Strateg. _, VIII. xxiii. 6.
[440] We admit that Cicero encamped at Charleroi: all circumstances
concur in justifying this opinion. Charleroi is situated on the Sambre,
near the Roman road from Amiens to Tongres (_Aduatuca_), and, as the
Latin text requires, at fifty miles from this latter town. On the high
part of Charleroi, where the camp was, no doubt, established, we command
the valley of the Sambre, and we can see, in the distance towards the
west, the country through which Cæsar arrived. Moreover, the valley of
the Haine and mount Sainte-Aldegonde, above the village of Carnières,
agree perfectly with the details of the combat in which the Gauls were
defeated.
[441] From Amiens to Charleroi it is 170 kilomètres. Cæsar must have
arrived on the territory of the Nervii, towards Cambrai, _the morning of
the third day_, counting from his departure from Amiens, after marching
ninety kilomètres. He immediately sends the Gaulish horseman to Cicero.
This horseman has to perform eighty kilomètres. He can only take eight
to nine hours, and arrive at the camp in the afternoon of the third day.
He throws his javelin, which remains where it was fixed _the third_ and
_the fourth day_. The _fifth_ day it was discovered, and the smoke of
the fires is then seen. Cæsar, then, arrived on the fifth day (reckoning
thirty kilomètres for a day’s march) at Binche, twenty kilomètres from
Charleroi. That town is on a sufficiently elevated knoll to allow the
smoke to be seen. The siege lasted about fifteen days.
[442] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 53.
[443] “I have read with a lively joy what you tell me of the courage and
strength of mind of Cæsar in this cruel trial. ” (Cicero, _Epist. ad
Quintum_, III. viii. 166. )
[444] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 67. --Polyænus, _Strateg. _, VIII. xxiii.
[445] One is on the site of the citadel of Amiens; the second is near
Tirancourt; the third is the camp of l’Etoile. (_See the Dissertation
sur les Camps Romains de la Somme_, by the Comte L. d’Allonville. )
[446] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 58.
[447] _Précis des Guerres de César_, by Napoleon, Chapter V. 5.
[448] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 4.
[449] The “Commentaries,” after having informed us (V. 24) that Labienus
established himself in the country of the Remi, on the confines of that
of the Treviri, give us afterwards to understand that he encamped among
the Treviri, where he had passed the winter, “Labienum cum una legione,
quæ in eorum finibus hiemaverat. ” (VI. 7. ) We believe, with certain
authors, that the country in which he encamped was either on the
boundary of the two countries, or ground of which the Remi and the
Treviri disputed the possession. Is it not evident, moreover, that after
the catastrophe of Aduatuca and the insurrection of the people seduced
by Ambiorix, everything dictated to Labienus the necessity of engaging
himself no further in a hostile country, by separating himself from the
other legions?
[450] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 6.
[451] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 8.
[452] See page 82.
[453] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 29.
[454] We must suppose from this that, during his march, Cæsar crossed
the territory of the Segni and Condrusi, or that at least he passed not
far from it. This consideration has induced us to extend this territory
farther towards the north than is generally done. (_See Plates 1 bis and
13. _)
[455] Cæsar might very well say that the Scheldt mingles his waters with
those of the Meuse. Several ancient authors share in this opinion. This
took place by the eastern arm of the Scheldt, formerly more developed
than in modern times, which spread itself in the space which, according
to Tacitus, formed the _immense mouth of the Meuse_ (_immensum Mosæ
os_).
[456] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 34.
[457] Forty-five kilomètres reckoned down from Bonn bring us to the
confluence of the Wipper and the Rhine.
[458] Cæsar complained of the conduct of Quintus, when he wrote to
Cicero the orator: “He did not keep within the camp, as would have been
the duty of a prudent and scrupulous general. ” (Charisius, p. 101. )
[459] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 42.
[460] An ancient manuscript belonging to Upper Auvergne, the manuscript
of Drugeac, informs us that this custom continued long in use, and that
it still existed in the Middle Ages. Rough towers were built for this
purpose on the heights, 400 or 500 mètres apart; watchmen were placed in
them, who transmitted the news from one to another by sonorous
monosyllables.
ships appropriated to the cavalry might transport 450 horses, at the
rate of twenty-five horses each ship.
[352] The port of Dover extended formerly from the site of the present
town, between the cliffs which border the valley of the Dour or of
Charlton. (_See Plate 17. _) Indeed, from the facts furnished by ancient
authors, and a geological examination of the ground, it appears certain
that once the sea penetrated into the land, and formed a creek which
occupied nearly the whole of the valley of Charlton. The words of Cæsar
are just justified: “Cujus loci hæc erat natura, atque ita montibus
angustis mare continebatur, uti ex locis superioribus in littus telum
adjici posset. ” (IV. 23. )
The proofs of the above assertion result from several facts related in
different notices on the town of Dover. It is there said that in 1784
Sir Thomas Hyde Page caused a shaft to be sunk at a hundred yards from
the shore, to ascertain the depth of the basin at a remote period; it
proved that the ancient bed of the sea had been formerly thirty English
feet below the present level of the high tide. In 1826, in sinking a
well at a place called _Dolphin Lane_, they found, at a depth of
twenty-one feet, a bed of mud resembling that of the present port, mixed
with the bones of animals and fragments of leaves and roots. Similar
detritus have been discovered in several parts of the valley. An ancient
chronicler, named Darell, relates that “Wilbred, King of Kent, built in
700 the church of St. Martin, the ruins of which are still visible near
the market-place, on the spot where formerly ships cast anchor. ”
The town built under the Emperors Adrian and Septimus Severus occupied a
part of the port, which had already been covered with sand; yet the sea
still entered a considerable distance inland. (_See Plate 17. _)
It would appear to have been about the year 950 that the old port was
entirely blocked up with the maritime and fluvial alluvium which have
been increasing till our day, and which at different periods have
rendered it necessary to construct the dykes and quays which have given
the port its present form.
[353] “Constat enim aditus insulæ esse munitos mirificis molibus. ”
(Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 16. )
[354] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.
[355] The Emperor Julian (p. 70, edit. Lasius) makes Cæsar say that he
had been the first to leap down from the ship.
[356] It is in the text, _in scopulum vicinum insulæ_, which must be
translated by “a rock near the isle of Britain,” and not, as certain
authors have interpreted it, “a rock isolated from the continent. ”
(Valerius Maximus, III. ii. 23. )--In fact, these rocks, called _Malms_,
are distinctly seen at low water opposite the arsenal and marine
barracks at Deal.
[357] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.
[358] Cæsar himself had only carried three servants with him, as Cotta
relates. (Athenæus, _Deipnosophist. _, VI. 105. )
[359] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 53.
[360] At the battle of Arcola, in 1796, twenty-five horsemen had a great
influence on the issue of the day. (_Mémoires de Montholon, dictées de
Sainte-Hélène,_ II. 9. )
[361] _De Bello Gallico_, IV. 36 and 37.
[362] _De Bello Gallico_, IV. 38.
[363] Dio Cassius, XL. 1. --See Strabo, IV. , p. 162, edit. Didot.
[364] _De Bello Gallico_, V. I.
[365] Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 56. XL. 1.
[366] This opinion has been already supported by learned archæologists.
I will cite especially M. Mariette; Mr. Thomas Lewin, who has written a
very interesting account of Cæsar’s invasions of England; and lastly, M.
l’Abbé Haigneré, archivist of Boulogne, who has collected the best
documents on this question.
[367] Strabo, IV. 6, p. 173.
[368] According to the Itinerary of Antoninus, the road started from
Bagacum (_Bavay_), and passed by Pons-Scaldis (_Escaut-Pont_), Turnacum
(_Tournay_), Viroviacum (_Werwick_), Castellum (_Montcassel, Cassel_),
Tarvenna (_Thérouanne_), and thence to Gesoriacum (_Boulogne_).
According to Mariette, medals found on the road demonstrate that it had
been made in the time of Agrippa; moreover, according to the same
Itinerary of Antoninus, a Roman road started from Bavay, and, by
Tongres, ended at the Rhine at Bonn. (See _Jahrbücher des Vereins von
Alterthums Freunden_, Heft 37, Bonn, 1864. Now, admitting that there had
been already under Augustus a road which united Boulogne with Bonn, we
understand the expression of Florus, who explains that Drusus amended
this road by constructing bridges on the numerous water-courses which it
crossed, _Bonnam et Gesoriacum pontibus junxit_. (Florus, IV. 12. )
[369] Suetonius, _Caligula_, 46. --The remains of the pharos of Caligula
were still visible a century ago.
[370] Suetonius, _Claudius_, 17.
[371] Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 1.
[372] Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 7, 8.
[373] Eumenius, _Panegyric of Constantinus Cæsar_, 14.
[374] Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, cited by Mr. Lewin.
[375] “Qui tertia vigilia Morino solvisset a portu. ” (Florus, III. 10. )
[376] Strabo, IV. 5, p. 166.
[377] “Ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos, nec portu quam Gesoriacum
vocant quicquam notius habet. ” (Pomponius Mela, III. 2. )--“Μορινὡν
Γησοριακον ἑπἱνειον. ” (Ptolemy, II. ix. 3. )
[378] “Hæc [Britannia] abest a Gesoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo
trajectu quinquaginta M. ” (Pliny, _Hist. Nat. _, IV. 30. )
[379] The camp of Labienus, during the second expedition, was, no doubt,
established on the site now occupied by the high town. From thence it
commanded the surrounding country, the sea, and the lower course of the
Liane.
[380] _Histoire du Consulat et de l’Empire_, tom. IV. , I. 17.
[381] What is now called _Romney Marsh_ is the northern part of a vast
plain, bounded on the east and south by the sea, and on the west and
north by the line of heights at the foot of which the military canal has
been cut. It is difficult to determine what was the aspect of Romney
Marsh in the time of Cæsar. Nevertheless, the small elevation of the
plain above the level of the sea, as well as the nature of the soil,
lead us to conclude that the sea covered it formerly up to the foot of
the heights of Lymne, except at least in the part called
_Dymchurch-Wall_. This is a long tongue of land, on which are now raised
three forts and nine batteries, and which, considering its height above
the rest of the plain, has certainly never been covered by the sea.
These facts appear to be confirmed by an ancient chart in the Cottonian
collection in the British Museum.
Mr. Lewin appears to have represented as accurately as possible the
appearance of Romney Marsh in the time of Cæsar, in the plate which
accompanies his work. The part not covered by the sea extended, no
doubt, as he represents it, from the bay of Romney to near Hythe, where
it terminated in a bank of pebbles of considerable extent. But it
appears to us that it would have been difficult for the Roman army to
land on a bank of pebbles at the very foot of the rather steep heights
of Lymne. Mr. Lewin places the Roman army, in the first expedition, at
the foot of the heights, on the bank of pebbles itself, surrounded on
almost all sides by the sea. In the second expedition, he supposes it to
have been on the heights, at the village of Lymne; and, to explain how
Cæsar joined his fleet to the camp by retrenchments common to both, he
admits that this fleet was drawn on land as far as the slope of the
heights, and shut up in a square space of 300 mètres each side, because
we find there the ruins of an ancient castle called _Stutfall Castle_.
All this is hardly admissible.
[382] Word for word, this expression signifies that the ships set sail
four days after the arrival of the Romans in England. The Latin language
often employed the ordinal number instead of the cardinal number. Thus,
the historian Eutropius says, “Carthage was destroyed 700 years after it
was founded, _Carthago septingentesimo anno quam condita erat deleta
est_. ” Are we, in the phrase, _post diem quartum_, to reckon the day of
the arrival? --Virgil says, speaking of the seventeenth day, _septima
post decimam_. --Cicero uses the expression _post sexennium_ in the sense
of _six years_. It is evident that Virgil counts seven days after the
tenth. If the tenth was comprised in this number, the expression
_septima post decimam_ would signify simply the _sixteenth day_. On his
part, Cicero understands clearly the six years as a lapse of time which
was to pass, starting from the moment in which he speaks. Thus, the
_post diem quartum_ of Cæsar must be understood in the sense of four
days accomplished, without reckoning the day of landing.
[383] Titus Livius, XLIV. 37.
[384] We must now go back to the fourteenth day before the full moon,
that is, to the 17th of August, 699, to find a day on which high tide
took place at Dover towards midday.
[385] Mr. Lewin has stated that the country between Deal and Sandwich
produces no wheat. This assertion is tolerably true for the tongue of
marshy land which separates those two localities; but what does it
signify, since wheat grows in great quantities in all the part of the
county of Kent situated to the west of the coast which extends from the
South Foreland to Deal and Sandwich?
[386] It is almost impossible to fix with certainty the day when Cæsar
quitted Britain; we know only that it was a short time before the
equinox (_propinqua die æquinoxii_), which, according to the
calculations of M. Le Verrier, fell on the 26th of September, and that
the fleet started a little after midnight. If we admit a passage of nine
hours, with a favorable wind (_ipse idoneam tempestatem nactus_), as on
the return of the second expedition, Cæsar would have arrived at
Boulogne towards nine o’clock in the morning. As the fleet could not
enter the port until the tide was in, it is sufficient, to know
approximatively the date of Cæsar’s return, to seek what day in the
month of September, 699, there was high tide at that hour at Bolougne.
Now, in this port, the tide is always at its height towards nine o’clock
in the morning two or three days before full moon and before new moon;
therefore, since the full moon of the month of September, 699, took
place on the 14th, it must have been about the 11th or 12th of September
that Cæsar returned to Gaul. As to the two ships which were driven
farther down, Mr. Lewin (_Invasion of Britain by J. Cæsar_) explains
this accident in a very judicious manner. He states that we read in the
tide-tables of the English Admiralty the following recommendation: “In
approaching Boulogne when the tide is flowing in, great attention must
be paid, because the current, which, on the English side, drags a ship
towards the east, on the Boulogne side drags them, on the contrary,
towards the Somme. ” Nothing, then, is more natural than that the two
Roman transport ships should be driven ashore to the south of Boulogne.
[387] “It was there (the mouth of the Seine) that Cæsar established his
naval arsenal, when he passed over to that island (Britain. )” (Strabo,
II. 160. )
[388] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 3, 4.
[389] The Meldæ dwelt on the Marne, in the country around Meaux; and as
we have seen, according to Strabo, that Cæsar had established his naval
arsenal at the mouth of the Seine, there is nothing extraordinary in the
circumstance that some of the ships were built near Meaux. But it is not
reasonable to suppose, with some writers, that the Meldæ dwelt at the
mouth of the Scheldt, and believe that Cæsar had left important
shipyards in an enemy’s country, and out of reach of protection.
[390] The five legions which Cæsar led into Britain made, at about 5,000
men each, 25,000 men. There were, in addition to these, 2,000 cavalry.
If we suppose, as in the first expedition, twenty-five horses per ship,
it would require eighty to contain the cavalry. In the preceding year,
eighty transport ships had been sufficient for two legions, without
baggage--200 ought to have been enough for five legions; but as the
“Commentaries” give us to understand that those vessels were narrower,
and that the troops had their baggage, it may be believed that they
required double the number of ships, that is, 400, for the transport of
the five legions, which would make about sixty-two men in a ship. There
would remain 160 transport ships for the Gaulish and Roman chiefs, the
valets, and the provisions. The twenty-eight galleys were, no doubt, the
true ships of war, destined to protect the fleet and the landing.
[391] According to a passage in the “Commentaries” (Book V. 26), there
was in the Roman army a body of Spanish cavalry.
[392] Dio Casstas, XL. 1.
[393] De Bella Galtico, V. 8.
[394] This appears to us to be evident, since we shall see subsequently
Cæsar inclosed his fleet within the retrenchments contiguous to his
camp.
[395] As in the first expedition the disaster which happened to his
fleet must have proved to Cæsar the danger to which the vessels were
exposed on the coast, the above reflection indicates that, in his second
expedition, he chose a better anchorage, at a few kilomètres farther to
the north.
[396] Ten cohorts formed a legion; but Cæsar does not employ this last
expression, because, no doubt, he drew from each of his legions two
cohorts, which he left for the guard of the camp. In this manner he
preserved the tactical number of five legions, which was more
advantageous, and caused each legion to participate in the honour of
combating.
[397] If from the sea-shore, near Deal, where we suppose that the Romans
established their camp, we describe, with a radius of twelve miles, an
arc of a circle, we cut towards the west, the villages of Kingston and
Barham, and more to the north, the village of Littlebourne, a stream
called the Little Stour, which rises near Lyminge, flows from south to
north across a rather irregular country, and falls into the Great Stour.
This stream is incontestably the _flumen_ of the “Commentaries. ” There
is the less room for error, as we find no other stream in the part of
the county of Kent comprised between the coast of Deal and the Great
Stour, and as this latter runs too far from Deal to answer to the text.
Although the Little Stour is not, between Barham and Kingston, more than
from three to four mètres broad, we need not be astonished at the
denomination of _flumen_ given to it by Cæsar, for he employs the same
expression to designate simple rivulets, such as the Ose and the
Oserain. (_De Bello Gallico_, VII. 69, _Alesia_. )
But did Cæsar reach the Little Stour towards Barham and Kingston or
towards Littlebourne? The doubt is allowable. We believe, nevertheless,
that the country of Barham and Kingston agrees best with the idea we
form from reading the “Commentaries. ” The heights on the left bank of
the Little Stour are not so broken as to prevent chariots and cavalry
from manœuvring on them, and the Britons might have occupied, as the
text requires, a commanding position, _locus superior_, on the banks
which end at the river in gentle slopes.
This stream, considering its little depth, does not form any real
obstacle. Now it appears, in fact, to result from the recital of the
“Commentaries,” that the engagement as it was not of a serious
character, and that Cæsar’s cavalry passed it without difficulty. This
last fact forms an objection to the Great Stour, which several authors,
and among others General de Gœler, take for the _flumen_ of the text; it
is sufficiently broad and sufficiently steep-banked towards Sturry,
where they place the scene of the action, to render the passage
difficult for cavalry. Moreover, Sturry is fifteen, and not twelve miles
from the coast of Deal.
[398] It is evident that this place must not be sought at more than a
few kilomètres from the Little Stour; for it must be remembered that the
Romans had landed the day before, that they had made a night march of
twelve miles, and that they have just given battle. Unfortunately, the
country situated to the west of Kingston is so much broken and wooded,
that it is impossible to choose one site rather than another to make a
British _oppidum_. Perhaps it might be placed towards Bursted or Upper
Hardres.
[399] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 9.
[400] It has appeared to us interesting to explain how Cæsar could join
the fleet to his camp.
The Roman camp must have been on flat ground, to allow of the
possibility of drawing up the ships of the fleet. Supposing that the
mean size of each ship was twenty-five mètres long by six mètres broad,
and that the 800 ships composing the fleet had been placed at two mètres
from each other, on five lines separated by a distance of three mètres,
the fleet would have covered a rectangle of 1,280 mètres by 140, joined
with the camp by other trenches. It is, of course, understood that the
lightest boats would form the line farthest from the sea.
[401] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 11.
[402] This is the expression of Cæsar, but it is certain that this
number does not indicate the shortest distance from the Thames to the
Straits. Cæsar, no doubt, meant to tell us the length of the route he
took from the sea to the Thames.
[403] On the chariots of the Britons consult Strabo (IV. , p. 166), and
Dio Cassius (LXXVI. 12). Cæsar spoke of many thousand cavalry and
war-chariots, in the third book of a Memoir addressed to Cicero, but
which is lost. (Junius Philargyrus, _Comm.
on the Georgics of Virgil_,
III. , p. 204. )
[404] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 17.
[405] There remains not the slightest vestige in the county of Kent
which might help us in tracing the march of the Roman army. The camp of
Holwood, near Keston, which the English maps call _Cæsar’s Camp_, does
not belong to the period of which we are treating. On St. George’s Hill,
near Walton-on-the-Thames, no camp ever existed.
Unfortunately, it is no more possible to ascertain the exact place where
Cæsar crossed the Thames by a ford. We are convinced of this by the
researches of all kinds made by the officers Stoffel and Hamelin. The
boatmen of the Thames all assured them that between Shepperton and
London there are now reckoned eight or nine places fordable; the most
favourable is that at Sunbury. At Kingston, where General de Gœler
places the passage, nothing leads us to suppose that a ford ever
existed. The same thing must be said of Coway Stakes. At Halliford, in
spite of the termination of the word, the inhabitants have no tradition
of an ancient ford. The only thing which appears to us evident is, that
the Roman army did not pass below Teddington. We know that this village,
the name of which comes from _Tide-end-town_, marks the last point of
the Thames where the tide is felt. We cannot believe that Cæsar would
expose himself to be surprised during his passage by an increase of the
volume of water.
[406] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 18. --Polyænus expresses himself thus:
“Cæsar, when he was in the isle of Britain, sought to pass a great
river. Cassivellaunus, King of the Britons, opposed the passage with a
numerous cavalry and many chariots. Cæsar had a very great elephant, an
animal which the Britons had never seen; he armed it with iron flakes,
and placed on its back a great tower filled with archers and slingers,
all men of skill, and caused it to advance into the river. The Britons
were struck with astonishment at the view of such an enormous animal,
which was unknown to them. And is it necessary to say that their horses
were frightened at it, since we know that, even among the Greeks, the
presence of an elephant causes the horses to flee? Much more were those
of the barbarians unable to support the view of an elephant armed and
loaded with a tower from which flew stones and arrows. Britons, horses,
and chariots, all equally took flight; and the Romans, by means of the
terror caused by a single animal, passed the river without danger. ”
(_Strateg. _, VIII. 23, § 5. )
[407] After having crossed the Thames, Cæsar invaded the territory of
Cassivellaunus, and directed his march to the _oppidum_ of that chief.
Certain commentators place this _oppidum_ to the west of Wendover (_see
Plate 15_), others at St. Albans, the ancient _Verulamium_. All we can
possibly say is, that the brief indications of the “Commentaries” seem
to agree best with the latter locality.
[408] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 22.
[409] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 23.
[410] Strabo, p. 167.
[411] Pliny, _Hist. Nat. _, IX. , 116. --Solinus, LIII. 28.
[412] “I have received, on the 4th of the nones of June (the 1st of
June, according to the concordance here adopted, _see Appendix A_), your
letter dated from Placentia; that of the following day, dated from Lodi,
arrived on the very day of the nones (4th of June). ” It was accompanied
with a letter from Cæsar, expressing his satisfaction at the arrival of
Quintus. (Cicero, _Epist. ad Quintum_, II. 15.
[413] Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 15. This letter was closed on the
5th of the calends of August, answering to the 26th of July.
[414] “I have received, on the day of the ides of September (the 9th of
September), your fourth letter, dated from Britain on the 4th of the
ides of August (8th of August). ” (_Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 1.
[415] “The 11th of the calends of October (16th of September) your
courier arrived; he has taken twenty days on the road; my uneasiness was
mortal. ” (_Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 1. )--“Cæsar has written to me from
Britain a letter, dated on the calends of September (28th of August),
which I received on the 4th of the calends of October. It appears that
affairs are not going on ill with him. Cæsar adds, to prevent me from
being surprised at not hearing from you, that you were not with him when
he came to the coast (23rd of September). ”
[416] Cicero, _Epist. ad Quintum_, III. 3.
[417] At ten miles to the east of Deal it is high tide half an hour
later than at Dover, and the reflux begins there four hours after the
hour of high tide.
[418] Those who refuse to admit Boulogne and Deal for the points of
Cæsar’s embarking and landing, pretend that so long a time was not
necessary to effect so short a passage. But a fleet requires a longer
time to navigate the more numerous it is; resembling in that an army,
which marches much more slowly than a single man.
[419] Cicero, _Epist. ad Atticum_, IV. 17.
[420] To find the time required, we must suppose that, by some delay or
by the absence of regular couriers, Cæsar’s letter to Cicero had been
thirteen days on the road between Lodi and Rome.
[421] Much uncertainty exists in regard to the distribution of the
legions; yet the location of two of the winter quarters appears to us
certain, Samarobriva (_Amiens_) and Aduatuca (_Tongres_). If now, from a
point situate near to the Sambre, from Bavay as the centre, we describe
a circle, we shall see that Cæsar’s winter quarters, except those of
Normandy, were all comprised in a radius of 100 miles, or 148
kilomètres. The researches which Major Cohausen kindly made for me, and
those of MM. Stoffel and Locqueyssie, have enabled me to determine
approximately the winter quarters.
[422] The brother of the orator.
[423] The Commandant of Artillery, De Locqueyssie, has found on the
Ourthe, near the village of Lavacherie (_Duchy of Luxemburg_), the
remains of a Roman camp with triangular fosses, and in a position which
appears to agree with the date of the “Commentaries. ”
[424] Under the name of _Belgium_, we must only comprise a part of the
peoples of Belgic Gaul, such as the Atrebates, the Ambiani, and the
Bellovaci. (_De Bello Gallico_, V. 24, 25, 46; VIII. 46. )
[425] _Unam legionem, quam proxime trans Padum
conscripserat. _--According to the use of the good Latin writers,
_proxime_ does not mean _recently_, but _in the last place_. Through an
incorrect interpretation of this phrase, General de Gœler has supposed
that Cæsar had, at this time, brought from Italy the 15th legion; this
legion, as we shall see, was only raised at a later period.
[426] More than fourteen different localities have been proposed for
identification with Aduatuca. If some writers have advanced good
arguments for placing Aduatuca on the right bank of the Meuse, others
have believed that they have offered equally good ones for seeking it on
the left bank of that river; but the greater part of them have admitted
this or that site for the most futile reasons. Nobody has dreamt of
resolving the question by the simplest of all means--which consists in
seeking if, among the different sites proposed, there is one which, by
the form of the ground, agrees with the requirements of the narrative
given in the “Commentaries. ” Now, Tongres is in this position, and it
alone, and so completely satisfies them that we cannot think of placing
Aduatuca elsewhere. In fact, Tongres is situated in the country occupied
formerly by the Eburones, and, as Cæsar expresses it, _in modiis finibus
Eburonum_, which signifies entirely in the country of the Eburones, and
not in the centre of the country. It is moreover enclosed in a circle of
a hundred miles radius, comprising all the winter quarters of the Roman
army except those of Roscius. This locality fulfils all the conditions
required for the establishment of a camp; it is near a river, on a
height which commands the neighborhood, and the country produces wheat
and forage. At two miles towards the west is a long defile, _magna
convallis_, the vale of Lowaige, where the relation of the massacre of
the cohorts of Sabinus is perfectly explained. At three miles from
Tongres we find a plain, separated from the town by a single hill; on
the same side as this hill rises a rounded eminence--that of Berg, to
which the name of tumulus may be fairly applied. Lastly, the Geer, the
banks of which were formerly marshy, defended through a large extent the
height of Tongres. (_See Plate 18. _)
[427] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 25.
[428] See the notice by M. M. F. Driesen on the position of Aduatuca, in
the _Bulletins de l’Académie Royale de Belgique_, 2nd series, tom. XV.
No. 3.
[429] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 37.
[430] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 39.
[431] The towers of the Romans were constructed of timber of small size,
bound together by cross pieces. (_See Plate 27, fig. 8. _) They still
raise scaffolding at Rome in the same manner at the present day.
[432] Although the text has _passuum_, we have not hesitated in
substituting _pedum_, for it is very improbable that Gauls could have
made, in three hours’ time, a countervallation of more than 22
kilomètres.
[433] The siege machine called _testudo_, “a tortoise,” was ordinarily a
gallery mounted upon wheels, made of wood strongly squared, and covered
with a solid blindage. It was pushed against the wall of the place
besieged. It protected the workmen employed either in filling the fosse,
or in mining the wall, or in working the ram. The siege operations of
the Gauls lead us to presume that the camp of Cicero was in a fort
surrounded by a wall. (_See_, on the word _falces_, note (1) on p. 143. )
[434] In the coal-basin, in the centre of which Charleroy is situated,
the coal layers crop out of the surface of the soil on different points.
Still, at the present day, they knead the clay with small coal. But,
what is most curious, people have found at Breteuil (Oise), as in the
ruins of Carthage, a quantity of ovoid balls made of pottery.
[435] It will be seen that we use indifferently the terms _vallum_ and
_rampart_.
[436] Dio Cassius, XL. 8.
[437] It has appeared to us that the movement of concentration of Cæsar
and Fabius did not allow the winter quarters of the latter to be placed
at Therouanne or at Montreuil-sur-Mer, as most authors have supposed.
These localities are too far distant from the route from Amiens to
Charleroy to have enabled Fabius to join Cæsar on the territory of the
Atrebates, as the text of the Commentaries requires. For this reason, we
place Fabius at Saint-Pol.
[438] The “Commentaries” say, _Græcis conscriptam litteris_; but
Polyænus and Dio Cassius affirm that the letter was written in Greek.
[439] Polyænus, _Strateg. _, VIII. xxiii. 6.
[440] We admit that Cicero encamped at Charleroi: all circumstances
concur in justifying this opinion. Charleroi is situated on the Sambre,
near the Roman road from Amiens to Tongres (_Aduatuca_), and, as the
Latin text requires, at fifty miles from this latter town. On the high
part of Charleroi, where the camp was, no doubt, established, we command
the valley of the Sambre, and we can see, in the distance towards the
west, the country through which Cæsar arrived. Moreover, the valley of
the Haine and mount Sainte-Aldegonde, above the village of Carnières,
agree perfectly with the details of the combat in which the Gauls were
defeated.
[441] From Amiens to Charleroi it is 170 kilomètres. Cæsar must have
arrived on the territory of the Nervii, towards Cambrai, _the morning of
the third day_, counting from his departure from Amiens, after marching
ninety kilomètres. He immediately sends the Gaulish horseman to Cicero.
This horseman has to perform eighty kilomètres. He can only take eight
to nine hours, and arrive at the camp in the afternoon of the third day.
He throws his javelin, which remains where it was fixed _the third_ and
_the fourth day_. The _fifth_ day it was discovered, and the smoke of
the fires is then seen. Cæsar, then, arrived on the fifth day (reckoning
thirty kilomètres for a day’s march) at Binche, twenty kilomètres from
Charleroi. That town is on a sufficiently elevated knoll to allow the
smoke to be seen. The siege lasted about fifteen days.
[442] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 53.
[443] “I have read with a lively joy what you tell me of the courage and
strength of mind of Cæsar in this cruel trial. ” (Cicero, _Epist. ad
Quintum_, III. viii. 166. )
[444] Suetonius, _Cæsar_, 67. --Polyænus, _Strateg. _, VIII. xxiii.
[445] One is on the site of the citadel of Amiens; the second is near
Tirancourt; the third is the camp of l’Etoile. (_See the Dissertation
sur les Camps Romains de la Somme_, by the Comte L. d’Allonville. )
[446] _De Bello Gallico_, V. 58.
[447] _Précis des Guerres de César_, by Napoleon, Chapter V. 5.
[448] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 4.
[449] The “Commentaries,” after having informed us (V. 24) that Labienus
established himself in the country of the Remi, on the confines of that
of the Treviri, give us afterwards to understand that he encamped among
the Treviri, where he had passed the winter, “Labienum cum una legione,
quæ in eorum finibus hiemaverat. ” (VI. 7. ) We believe, with certain
authors, that the country in which he encamped was either on the
boundary of the two countries, or ground of which the Remi and the
Treviri disputed the possession. Is it not evident, moreover, that after
the catastrophe of Aduatuca and the insurrection of the people seduced
by Ambiorix, everything dictated to Labienus the necessity of engaging
himself no further in a hostile country, by separating himself from the
other legions?
[450] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 6.
[451] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 8.
[452] See page 82.
[453] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 29.
[454] We must suppose from this that, during his march, Cæsar crossed
the territory of the Segni and Condrusi, or that at least he passed not
far from it. This consideration has induced us to extend this territory
farther towards the north than is generally done. (_See Plates 1 bis and
13. _)
[455] Cæsar might very well say that the Scheldt mingles his waters with
those of the Meuse. Several ancient authors share in this opinion. This
took place by the eastern arm of the Scheldt, formerly more developed
than in modern times, which spread itself in the space which, according
to Tacitus, formed the _immense mouth of the Meuse_ (_immensum Mosæ
os_).
[456] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 34.
[457] Forty-five kilomètres reckoned down from Bonn bring us to the
confluence of the Wipper and the Rhine.
[458] Cæsar complained of the conduct of Quintus, when he wrote to
Cicero the orator: “He did not keep within the camp, as would have been
the duty of a prudent and scrupulous general. ” (Charisius, p. 101. )
[459] _De Bello Gallico_, VI. 42.
[460] An ancient manuscript belonging to Upper Auvergne, the manuscript
of Drugeac, informs us that this custom continued long in use, and that
it still existed in the Middle Ages. Rough towers were built for this
purpose on the heights, 400 or 500 mètres apart; watchmen were placed in
them, who transmitted the news from one to another by sonorous
monosyllables.
