Annals of a Fortress Part 5

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 shining 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 furnishing 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.]

A bridge was soon let down on the rampart from the face of the tower, and the Romans, advancing in good order, took possession of the defences (Fig. 12).

Catognatus and his retainers, to the number of five or six hundred, had not expected this turn of events, and had taken refuge in the stronghold built beyond the Nemede, at the southern part of the Oppidum.

When the besiegers, whom no one thought any longer of resisting, were drawn up in force on the rampart, and had occupied the towers--killing those who occupied them rather as refugees than as defenders--they separated into three large bodies: the two wings marched along the inner side of the rampart, taking one after another the towers upon it, and entered the enclosures and houses, killing those who endeavoured to resist. The centre troop, drawn up in the form of a wedge, marched right on and swept the plateau. The unfortunate defenders fled, and crowded together along the side of the Nemede. Many endeavoured to gain the stronghold, but the entrances were closed and the bridge destroyed.

Catognatus was thus abandoning the greater part of his followers and leaving them to the mercy of the enemy. The warriors of the Val d'Avon threw away their arms, and with out-stretched hands implored quarter of the Romans. t.i.turius then stayed the slaughter, and told the defenders that if they gave up Catognatus and the Helvetii who had taken refuge among them, their lives should be spared. Pointing to the lofty fort, beyond the Nemede, the besieged replied that it was not in their power to surrender Catognatus, who had taken refuge there with a small number of his followers, but that they would immediately deliver up the Helvetii still among them. The legate wishing to act with mildness, according to Caesar's instructions, contented himself with this a.s.surance. The Helvetii were immediately delivered up, and the people of Avon, disarmed and stripped of their warlike accoutrements, were sent back to the valley, with the exception of a hundred hostages. The few chiefs, however, who had remained among them, having been put in fetters, were to be kept, with a view to being placed at Caesar's disposal. As to the Helvetii, who numbered five or six hundred, t.i.turius kept some as hostages; the rest, having been disarmed, were ordered to return to their country by the most direct route: provisions for the journey were distributed among them.

The buildings of the Nemede and its grove prevented Catognatus from seeing what was going on beneath its walls, but as he no longer heard war-cries nor the clash of arms, he concluded that his men had surrendered. As for himself and his retainers, knowing that they had no mercy to hope for, they prepared themselves for defence, and resolved to sell their lives as dearly as possible.

A deep ditch partly cut in the rock separated the stronghold from the Nemede. The defences consisted of an enclosure, made in Gallic fashion, of trunks of trees alternating with layers of stone surmounted by wattling. A large quadrangular tower, constructed in the same way, enclosing four stories, and terminated by a roof of reeds covering a crenelation, served as a place of retreat. Within the enclosure were wooden huts for the garrison; as the tower, which was only twenty paces wide by twenty deep, and whose walls were thick (about three paces), could barely contain a hundred men.

t.i.turius reconnoitred the approaches. The ditch interrupted all communication with the Oppidum, and ended against its ramparts. Towards the south, the stronghold rose immediately over the escarpment, which on this side was so steep that no ditch had been required. But a palisade on the outside, fixed in a mound, prevented approach to the base of the stronghold. As stated before, the walls of the upper town occupying the southern slopes extended to the rampart of the Oppidum. But these walls had been abandoned by the warriors of Catognatus who had taken refuge in the stronghold. On quitting the upper town they had set fire to the bridge, seeing which, the Romans posted opposite the head of the bridge had pa.s.sed this latter without meeting any resistance, and had succeeded in extinguishing the flames. The bridge was promptly repaired.

The legate, therefore, effected a communication with his troops in the northern quarter, who were then occupying the upper town, and completely invested the stronghold. Time pressed, and as he had already lost twelve days before the Oppidum, haste was necessary.

In the first place, he sent one of the Gallic prisoners to hold a parley with the defenders of the stronghold. He promised to spare their lives if they would give up their chief, and the Helvetii that might be among them. If, on the other hand, the attack was once commenced, they must expect to be all put to the sword.

The messenger was received by a shower of stones, and returned bleeding to the legate, who could no longer hesitate. The order was given to fill up the ditch, and to speed the work; the centurions, employing threats and blows at need, compelled a good many of the vanquished to carry f.a.ggots and earth. Protecting themselves with mantelets, the Romans suffered only trifling loss, for the besieged had but few missiles.

Besides, t.i.turius had brought up the engines of war, demolished those parts of the wall of the Nemede which might embarra.s.s the operations, and posted the best slingers and archers on the flanks, so that the rampart of the stronghold, riddled with projectiles, was scarcely tenable. At night the filling-in of the fosse was consolidated by timberwork, on which were spread brushwood and turf.

At the first hour of the day a cohort advanced in slow march on the ground thus made, forming the _testudo_ (Fig. 13).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 13]

Some of the defenders endeavoured to resist; but they were few in number, and exposed to the projectiles which the auxiliary troops of slingers and archers incessantly discharged upon them in an oblique direction. The rampart was soon taken; but darts, stones, and flaming b.a.l.l.s of pitch and tow were hurled upon the a.s.sailants from the tower, and if they attempted to approach it, planks and pots filled with gravel. It was necessary, therefore, to set up screens on the rampart even; for to abandon that would have revived the courage of the defenders. Here the Romans lost several men, and many were wounded. To set fire to the tower was scarcely possible; for constructions of timber mingled with stone do not readily take fire t.i.turius, however, placed one of his catapults so that the projectiles thrown by it should reach the roof of the tower; and when satisfied that this object was attained (it was towards sunset), kept up a continuous discharge of burning missiles--consisting of darts wrapped in tow saturated with oil and tar--on the roof, which soon caught fire. The legate made sure that as the floors of the tower were of timber, the roof when it fell in would communicate the fire to the ground story; and in fact, the roof had not long fallen in when a dense column of smoke, accompanied by sparks which appeared as if issuing from a vast chimney, shot forth from the summit of the tower.

Catognatus, and those of his followers who had crowded into the stronghold, despairing of maintaining it, then opened a concealed aperture, which gave egress on the sides of the upper town; and without bucklers, a sword in one hand, a flaming brand in the other, rushed with terrible cries on the Romans, who were keeping guard outside the palisading on that side, and who, surprised by this column of warriors, opposed but a feeble resistance, and made an attempt to rally and fall upon the flanks of the fugitives. It was night, and the slopes were steep, occupied here and there by houses and palisading enclosing gardens. The Romans were ill-acquainted with the ground, and often got into places whence there was no exit.

Catognatus and his followers, reduced to about two hundred men, rapidly descended the paths with which they were familiar; and in pa.s.sing threw their brands upon the thatched roofs, or into the barns filled with hay and straw. The inhabitants rushed out in bewilderment, not knowing whence the attack came. Seeing parties of Romans pa.s.sing by seeking egress, entering the gardens and the houses, and breaking through the gates and barricades to reach Catognatus and his men, they cried "Treachery!" and threw stones at them, thinking their object was to burn and ma.s.sacre. The women, with dishevelled hair, threw themselves in their path, covering them with abuse; others hurled furniture and whatever came to hand upon them from the windows. Rendered furious by these obstacles, by the failure of their pursuit, and the attacks of the inhabitants, and seeing it was useless to reason with these terror-stricken people, the Romans killed all they encountered.

Hearing this outcry, and seeing the sky lit up by the flames, the legate guessed what had happened, and sent two cohorts over the ramparts on the town side, with injunctions to march with orderly pace down the paths, rallying the Roman troops, and driving the inhabitants before them. At the same time, he sent a centurion, by the bridge of boats which he had formed across the river above the town, to warn the Roman detachments that could be got together in the lower town and at the gateway of the bridge, not to let any one pa.s.s out from the upper town.

Catognatus, with most of his warriors, had in fact got as far as the bridge; but he found it guarded by a body of Romans. He attempted to cut his way through them; but as the bridge was somewhat long, the enterprise was hazardous. The commander of the guard, an old soldier, had marshalled his men at the first alarm, seeing that this pa.s.sage must be defended at any cost. Barricading the entrance with all the materials they could collect, they awaited the fugitives behind their bucklers.

When Catognatus presented himself and--uttering the war-cry--sought to force his way through, he was met at close quarters with a shower of darts. The whole foremost rank of the fugitives fell right and left: the others, rendered frantic by despair, pa.s.sed over their bodies and threw themselves upon the front of the Romans, who had now taken to their swords. A fearful struggle commenced, lighted only by the gleam of the conflagration. The Romans, having the glare in their faces, aimed badly, while the Gallic warriors knew where to strike.

The column of fugitives began to melt before the Roman front, whose gaps were immediately filled up. Then came up the centurion, with fifty men whom he had rallied. Seeing themselves supported, the Roman guard took the offensive, and pressed on to the platform of the bridge, hewing down the remnant of the defenders of the Oppidum like bushes in a thicket.

Not one of these warriors drew back; all met their death in the pa.s.s through which they had thought to make their way.

It was with great difficulty that order was restored in the upper town, and only when they saw the Romans extinguishing the fires did the inhabitants begin to understand what had happened.

Next morning the body of Catognatus was found lying on the bridge; his head was sent to Caesar, and the expedition being terminated, t.i.turius led back the legion and the auxiliaries to their quarters among the aedui.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: _Fideles_--warriors devoted to the chief.]

[Footnote 3: The Saone.]