Part 5 (1/2)
Catognatus also adopted the stratagem of sending emissaries to the houses of the people under the guise of travellers. They professed to have seen Caesar's troops, and to have found them half-starved and utterly dest.i.tute; they affirmed that the best of them had been obliged frequently to retreat before the Helvetii; that they were reduced by three-fourths, and that the remainder of their army was composed of raw recruits and of auxiliaries, who were only waiting for an opportunity to return home.
These reports, spread through the valley, were still more efficacious than Catognatus's discourse; for the Gauls have always been inclined to lend a willing ear to representations that flatter their desires, without inquiring whether they are true or false. If any of the older men shook their heads and said that it would be as well to know what was asked of them before a.s.suming a hostile att.i.tude, they were treated with contempt. Catognatus, seeing all the people inclined to resist, had trunks of trees mingled with earth and pebbles heaped up before the weaker points of the Oppidum.
They re-dug the ditch before the walls of the left bank and surrounded with palisades the part of the city that had remained unprotected on the right bank. In addition to this, Catognatus had a cutting dug at a hundred paces from the Oppidum between its northern salient and the plateau. These works, hastily undertaken, were still unfinished when the arrival of the Roman troops was announced. The infantry were advancing in good order in the valley on the left bank, while the cavalry followed the hills on the same side. Not a man quitted the ranks to go and pillage the houses, and neither songs nor shouts were heard. The helmets of polished bronze worn by the legionaries were s.h.i.+ning in the sun, and, seen from a distance, the troop resembled a long fiery serpent uncoiling in the meadows.
From the elevated tower occupied by Catognatus the slightest movements of the Romans were visible. They soon deployed along the rivulet, their left being against the river and their right protected by the cavalry on the hills. The lieutenant, t.i.turius, then sent an envoy into the city.
He was commissioned to announce to the magistrates that the Romans appeared as friends, but that since Catognatus had given an asylum to some of the Helvetii, and had notoriously exercised his power to prevent the aedui from furnis.h.i.+ng the supplies promised to the army commanded by Caesar, and which had come into Gaul with the sole purpose of hindering the Helvetii from devastating,--that is, strictly in the character of allies,--they must deliver up the said Catognatus and the Helvetian refugees to the lieutenant t.i.turius without delay: that if this was done the Romans would only demand provisions for ten days,--a reasonable requirement, as between allies; after which they would return to the aedui.
Catognatus, surrounded by his princ.i.p.al Ambactes, was present in the a.s.sembly of the magistrates when the envoy delivered his commission.
Seeing them hesitating, he replied to the summons as follows: ”Here is the object of your search. I am Catognatus; I have afforded an asylum to certain of the Helvetii, who are my friends, and whose hospitality I myself have shared; I am allied with the Helvetii as I am allied with the Romans. If the Romans had been beaten by the Helvetii, and any of them escaped from ma.s.sacre had taken refuge here, would they consider it honourable for me to give them up to their enemies, had they come here in arms to demand them? If such was the usual conduct of the Romans, I should blush to be their ally. To the vague accusation respecting the influence I am alleged to have exercised over the policy of the aedui, I have nothing to reply. The aedui act according to their own good pleasure, and it is not for me to interfere with them. The Romans should demand satisfaction of the aedui if they have not fulfilled their engagements. As to myself, the Romans have asked nothing of me, and I have promised them nothing: what business have they here? If they had a message to send me, was it necessary that the bearer should be escorted by a legion? Is this how allies should treat each other? Go and tell the legate that we are at home here; that if he comes as a friend we shall treat him as a friend; but that if he presumes to dictate to us and treat us as children, we shall answer him as men who know how to act for themselves.” ”He is right! he is right!” was the unanimous exclamation of the Ambactes; and overwhelming the envoy with insults, they thrust him out. Catognatus had to interpose to prevent the crowd from tearing him to pieces.
t.i.turius was instructed to show the greatest possible consideration for the inhabitants, that the neighbouring peoples might not be irritated; and to adhere scrupulously to the terms of the demand transmitted by the envoy--simply to require the surrender of the Helvetii and Catognatus.
On the other hand, his orders were to accomplish the expedition with all possible despatch, as Caesar had but a few legions with him. The legate, therefore, refrained from investing the city and the Oppidum, and, as he had no reason to fear the immediate arrival of help to the enemy, he judged it best to direct all his efforts to the plateau, hoping to take the fortress by a vigorous effort. It was, however, to be feared that if the Oppidum was taken by a.s.sault, Catognatus and a part of the Helvetii might succeed in escaping.
At night, therefore, the legate was devising a plan by which, with the eight thousand men or thereabouts of which his force consisted, he might at the same time prevent all means of escape from within, and make a vigorous attack upon the Oppidum, when a centurion came to tell him that some of the inhabitants requested a private interview with him.
The inhabitants in question were magistrates of the lower town....
Falling at t.i.turius's feet, they told him with tears that it was with no good will they submitted to the dominion of Catognatus and his warriors; that the demands presented that day to the a.s.sembly by the envoy were nothing but reasonable, since the Helvetii had entered Gaul only as marauders, and that Catognatus had used his influence to embarra.s.s the march of the Romans their allies, who had come to destroy the Helvetii; that they the magistrates had no authority over the warriors, and very little over the populace, enthralled as they were, and deceived by the agents of Catognatus; that this chief and his men had taken refuge in the Oppidum, and the part of the town situated at the extremity of the promontory, abandoning the part built on the right bank; that, in fact, they entreated the legate to occupy that part of the city with his troops, who would be well received, and who, they hoped, would not give themselves up to any excesses, since they were treated as friends.
t.i.turius raised them, and, speaking kindly to them, promised to do what they asked; but, fearing treachery, stated that he must keep them as hostages. The magistrates surrendered themselves to his disposal, declaring that his troops would find the gates open, the posts unoccupied, and the inhabitants in great excitement, but by no means hostile, if they were well treated.
On their arrival, the Romans had inst.i.tuted a ferry on the river below the town. A reconnoitring party despatched immediately reported that the egresses were in fact free, and that no one appeared behind the walls.
t.i.turius therefore invested all the egresses, and towards midnight a thousand men selected from among the auxiliaries were in possession of the lower town, without any sound of disturbance or sign of disorder. In the morning the Gallic warriors posted at the head of the bridge saw the Romans before them, and were vehement in their abuse of the inhabitants, threatening to burn the town as soon as they had driven away the Roman troops. Meantime, the Romans demolished several houses adjoining the head of the bridge, and made use of the _debris_ to form a semi-circular intrenchment of contravallation, ending against the river at its two extremities. t.i.turius established some posts along the rivulet; and on the larger stream above the city he constructed a bridge of boats guarded by two posts at either end. This accomplished, he removed with the bulk of his troops to the northern part of the plateau.
Next day he examined the position, after having filled up a part of the intrenchment; but Catognatus had done away with the egresses of the northern front, and completed the rampart at this point. The a.s.sault was vigorously repulsed. This success emboldened the besieged, and they began to overwhelm the legate with sarcasms. Seeing that he could not take the Oppidum by storm, in presence of a determined and numerous body of men, he resolved upon a regular siege.
Although the cutting dug by the defenders between the Oppidum and the plateau was only a bowshot from the rampart, in a few hours it was almost entirely filled up, consolidated, and levelled. Then t.i.turius had a great number of trees felled in the woods extending along the northern plateau, and brought in front of the camp.
This wood being duly prepared, an _agger_ was commenced fifteen paces from the ramparts, in spite of the darts and stones hurled by the besieged.
This _agger_ consisted of a terrace about a hundred paces long, ten feet high and twenty deep, with a gap in the middle twelve paces wide. From the two sides of this interval extended at right angles two galleries (_vineae_), solidly constructed with trunks of trees and covered in; these galleries were about a hundred paces long. The _agger_ was made of trunks of trees piled up, mingled with earth, with inclines for reaching the summit. This was a work of some days; and as during that time the Romans made no attack, and thought only of protecting those engaged in it from the missiles thrown from the ramparts, the besieged did not cease to ridicule them (for they were within hearing), asking them if they were intending to build a city and pa.s.s the winter there. But one morning the warriors of the Oppidum saw a wooden tower rising at the extremity of the two galleries. This tower, the woodwork of which had been prepared beforehand, was set up within the day; its summit rose more than ten feet above the top of the towers of the rampart (Fig. 10).
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 10.]
The Gauls contemplated this structure with uneasiness, although they did not comprehend its importance; so Catognatus resolved to set fire to the works during the night. With this view he had placed on the ramparts, behind the wattling, barrels filled with pitch, grease, and dry sticks; then he placed two bodies in readiness to go out by the eastern and western gates, provided with vessels full of resin, tow, and grease.
These troops were to make their way along the outside of the defences, and simultaneously attack the flanks of the besiegers, while the men posted on the ramparts were to remove a portion of the wattling, and to roll the barrels, after setting them on fire, against the _agger_ whose front was raised on the counterscarp of the ditch.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 11.]
The Romans had been able to see these preparations from the summit of the tower; moreover, they stationed a strong guard on the flanks of the plateau every evening. The legate at nightfall had these points protected by stakes, and had a quant.i.ty of _stimuli_ (Fig. 11) driven into the ground outside. About the third hour of the night the besieged issued noiselessly from the two gates and came within half a bowshot of the Roman posts. At a signal given from the interior, the two bodies rushed at once on the besiegers' flanks. But even before they could reach the palisades, many of them, wounded by the _stimuli_, fell uttering cries of pain. Those who reached the besiegers' posts, thinned by the darts showered upon them, and hesitating on seeing so many of their party fall, were more inclined to fly than to continue the attack when they saw themselves in their turn taken in flank and rear by the besiegers. The defenders on the ramparts, whom the darkness of the night prevented from seeing clearly what was taking place, and not knowing whether the confusion arose from the flight of the Romans or of their own men, dared not discharge stones and arrows.
Meanwhile the lighted barrels were being rolled in front of the galleries, which had already begun to take fire. By the glare of the flames they could see the Roman soldiers mount on the terrace carrying baskets full of wet earth, which they threw on the barrels; and the defenders killed or wounded many of them. At this moment some of the fugitives who had taken part in the two sorties, re-entered the camp calling out that they were pursued by the Romans.
Catognatus had barely time to send troops to defend the two egresses and to protect the retreat of his men. He himself took up a position in the centre of the Oppidum with a chosen band, that he might be able to a.s.sist the quarter that should be most closely pressed. Aided by this diversion the Romans, less hara.s.sed by darts from the rampart, were able to extinguish the fire. They took advantage of the last hours of the night to advance the tower along the galleries by means of rollers, as far as the edge of the _agger_, and in the morning the warriors of the Val d'Avon were not a little surprised to see this ponderous wooden structure commanding the whole rampart and the towers of the defences.
At dawn, showers of stones and arrows hurled from the top of the besiegers' tower prevented them from approaching the defences, and two catapults swept the part of the Oppidum in front of it with enormous missiles, which, hissing through the air, killed or shattered to fragments all they encountered. Two _onagri_ overwhelmed with stones the scaffolding set up by the defenders on their front to attack the _agger_, and smashed it in pieces.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 12.]