Colleen McCullough - 5. Caesar

"Why do they make their column so long?" asked King Teutomarus of King Vercingetorix as they sat their horses atop a hill and watched that seemingly endless procession. "Why not march on a much wider front? They could still keep to their precious columns, simply have four or five or six columns parallel to each other." "Because," said King Vercingetorix patiently, "no army is big enough to attack along a thin column's full length. Even if I had the three or four hundred thousand men I hope to have after the muster at Carnutum, I'd be stretched thin. Though with that many men, I'd certainly try. The Roman snake is very clever. No matter whereabouts the column is attacked, the rest of it can act like wings, turn and enfold the attackers. And they are so rigorously drilled that they can form themselves into one or several squares in the time it would take us to marshal a charge. One reason I want thousands of archers. I've heard that a scant year ago the Parthians attacked a Roman column on the march, and routed it. Thanks to their archers and an all-horse army." "Then you're going to let them go?" asked King Teutomarus. "Not unscathed, no. I have thirty thousand horse against their six thousand. Nice odds. No infantry battle, Teutomarus. But we will have a cavalry battle. Oh, for the day when I can employ horse archers!" Vercingetorix attacked with his cavalry in three separate groups as Caesar's army marched not far from the north bank of the Icauna River. The Gallic strategy depended upon Caesar's reluctance to allow his relatively slender horse contingent a free rein away from the infantry column; Vercingetorix was convinced Caesar would order them to hug the column, content himself with fending the Gallic assault off. So confident were the Gauls that they had publicly sworn an oath before their king: no man who had not ridden twice through the Roman infantry column would ever know again the pleasures of his home, his wife, his children. One of the three Gallic groups massed nine thousand strong on either Roman flank, while the third began to harry the head of the column. But the trouble was that ground for such a huge horse attack had to be fairly flat and negotiable: easy ground for the Roman foot to wheel upon, form square, draw all the baggage and artillery inside. Nor did Caesar do as Vercingetorix had expected. Instead of ordering his horse to stay close and protect the infantry, he used the infantry to protect itself and split his cavalry into three groups of two thousand. Then he sent it out under Labienus to contend with the Gauls on open ground. The Germans on the right flank won the day; they gained the top of a ridge, dislodged the Gauls, who were terrified of German cavalry, and rode into them screaming. The Gauls broke to the south and were driven headlong to the river, where Vercingetorix himself drew up his infantry and tried to contain the panic. But nothing could stop Germans in full cry, especially superbly mounted. The Ubii warriors, hair coiled into a complicated knot on top of their bare heads, rode everyone down, in the grip of a killing frenzy. Less adventurous, the Remi felt their pride pricked, and did their best to emulate the Germans. It was Vercingetorix who retreated, with the Germans and the Remi harassing his rear all day. Luckily the night was a dark one; Caesar's cavalry retired, enabling the King of Gaul to put his men into a makeshift camp. "So many Germans!" said Gutruatus, shivering. "Mounted on Remi horses," said Vercingetorix bitterly. "Oh, we owe the Remi a reckoning!" "And there's our main trouble," said Sedulius. "We prate of being united, but some of our peoples refuse to, and some don't have their hearts in it." He glared at Litaviccus. "Like the Aedui!" "The Aedui proved their mettle today," said Litaviccus, his teeth clenched. "Cotus, Cavarillus and Eporedorix haven't come back. They're dead." "No, I saw Cavarillus captured," said Drappes, "and I saw the other two in the retreat. Not everyone is here. Some took off at a tangent, I think to loop round Caesar and head west." "What happens now?" asked Teutomarus. "I think," said Vercingetorix slowly, "that now we wait for the general muster. Only a few days away. I had hoped to go to Carnutum in person, but this setback I must stay with the army. Gutruatus, I entrust you with the muster at Carnutum. Take Sedulius and his Lemovices, Drappes and his Senones, Teutomarus and his Nitiobriges, and Litaviccus and his Aedui with you. I'll keep the rest of the cavalry and our eighty thousand foot with me Mandubii, Bituriges and all my Arverni. How far is it to Alesia, Daderax?" The chief thane of the Mandubii answered without hesitation. "About fifty miles eastward, Vercingetorix." "Then we'll go to earth in Alesia for a few days. Only a few days. I don't intend another Avaricum." "Alesia is no Avaricum," said Daderax. "It's too big, too high and too hedged in to be stormed or invested. Even if the Romans try to set up some sort of blockade similar to the one at Avaricum, they can't pen us in any more than they can attack us. When we want to leave, we'll be able to leave." "Critognatus, how much food have we with us?" Vercingetorix asked his Arvernian cousin. "Enough for ten days if Gutruatus and those going west let us have almost everything." "How much food is there in Alesia, Daderax, given that there will be eighty thousand of us as well as ten thousand cavalry?" "Enough for ten days. But we'll be able to bring more food in. The Romans can't block the whole perimeter." He chuckled. "Hardly a scrap of level ground!" "Then tomorrow we'll split our forces as I've indicated. To Carnutum with Gutruatus, most of the cavalry and a few foot. To Alesia with me, most of the foot and ten thousand horse."

The lands which belonged to the Mandubii lay at an altitude of about eight hundred feet above sea level, with rugged hills rising another six hundred and fifty feet above that. Alesia, their principal stronghold, lay atop a flattish, diamond-shaped mount surrounded by hills of much the same height. On the two long sides, which looked north and south, these adjacent hills crowded in on it, while to the east the end of a ridge almost connected with it. In the bottom of the steep terrain on the two long sides flowed two rivers. To complete its natural excellence, Alesia was most precipitous on the west, where, in front of it, lay the only open and level ground in the area, a little three-mile-long valley where the two rivers flowed almost side by side. Formidably walled in murus Gallicus style, the citadel occupied the steeper western end of the mount; the eastern end sloped gradually downward and was unwalled. Several thousand Mandubii dependents were sheltering in the town women, children and old ones whose warrior men were off to war. "Yes, I remember it correctly," said Caesar curtly when the army arrived on the little two-rivers plain at the western end of the mount. "Trebonius, what do the scouts report?" "That Vercingetorix has definitely gone to earth inside, Caesar. Together with about eighty thousand foot and ten thousand horse. All the cavalry seem to be bivouacked outside the walls on the eastern end of the table. It's safe enough to ride east if you'd like to see for yourself." "Are you implying that I wouldn't go if it wasn't safe?" Trebonius blinked. "After all these years? I should hope not! Blame my tongue; it made hard work of what should have been a simple sentence." Riding a very ordinary German nag, Caesar swung its mean head around ungently and kicked it several times in the ribs to get it moving. "Ooo-er! Why is he so touchy?" whispered Decimus Brutus. "Because he was hoping it wasn't as bad as he remembered," said Fabius. "Why should that sour his day? He can't possibly take the place," said Antony. Labienus shouted with laughter. "That's what you think, Antonius! Still, I'm glad we've got you. With those shoulders you'll dig magnificently." "Dig?" "And dig, and dig, and dig." "Not his legates, surely!" "It all depends how far and how much. If he starts digging, we start digging." "Ye Gods, I'm working for a madman!" "I wish I were half as mad," said Quintus Cicero wistfully. In single file the legates rode behind Caesar along the river flowing past the southern side of Alesia; Antony could see how big the flattish top was, well over a mile from west to east. How it frowned. The rocky outcrops on its flanks. A man could climb to the top easily enough, yes, but not in a military assault. He'd be too short of breath when he arrived to fight, and a target for every spearman or archer atop the walls. Even the half-mile on the eastern end was difficult work for anyone trying to gain a foothold, nor was there room to maneuver. "They've got in before us," said Caesar, pointing to the bottom of the eastern slope, where the road began to wind upward to the citadel. The Gauls had built a six-foot wall from the banks of the north river to the south river, then fronted the wall with a ditch containing water. Two shorter walls scrambled up the north and south sides of the mount some distance behind the main one. Manning these defenses, some of the Gallic cavalry began to call and jeer; Caesar's response was to smile, wave. But from where the legates sat on their German nags, Caesar didn't look at all genial. Back on the little plain the legions were pitching camp with smooth efficiency. "Marching camps only, Fabius," said Caesar. "Properly done, but not more. If we're going to finish this war here, there's no point in expending energy on something we'll replace within a very few days." His legates, gathered round, said nothing. "Quintus, you're the logging man. Get started at dawn. And don't throw the promising branches away: we need sharpened stakes. Cut saplings for the breastworks, battlements and tower shielding. Sextius, take the Sixth and forage. Bring in every single thing you can find. I need charcoal, so look for it. Not for hardening sharpened stakes, they'll have to go on ordinary fires. The charcoal is for working all the iron we've got. Antistius, the iron is your job. Put the smiths to building their furnaces, and tell them to search out their goad molds. Sulpicius, you're in charge of digging. Fabius, you'll build the breastworks, battlements and towers. As quartermaster, Antonius, your job is to keep my army adequately supplied. I'll strip you of your citizenship, sell you into slavery and then legally crucify you if you don't perform. Labienus, you're the defense man. Stick to cavalry if you can I need the soldiers for construction duty. Trebonius, you're my second-in-command; you'll follow me everywhere. Decimus and Hirtius, you follow me too. I need millions of everything, and I want at least thirty days' food here, is that understood?" No one else was asking, so Antony did. "What's the plan?" Caesar looked at his second-in-command. "What's the plan, Trebonius?" "We circumvallate," said Trebonius. Antony gaped. "Circumvallate?" "It is a long word, Antonius, I agree," said Caesar affably. "Cir-cum-val-late. It means we construct fortifications all the way around Alesia until, so to speak, our fortifications swallow their own tail. Vercingetorix doesn't believe I can shut him up on top of that mountain. But I can. And I will." "It's miles!" cried Antony, still gaping. "And there's no flat land for most of the way around!" "We fortify up hill and down dale, Antonius. If we can't go around, we go over the top. The main fortifications will embrace the entire perimeter. Two ditches, the outer one fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep, with sloping sides and a trough bottom. It will be filled with water. Right behind it, the second ditch will also be fifteen feet wide and eight feet deep, but V-shaped, no foothold in the bottom. Our wall will rise straight off the back of this ditch, twelve feet of earth excavated out of the ditches. What does that tell you about our wall, Antonius?" Caesar barked. "That on the inside our side the wall will be twelve feet high, but on the outside their side it will be twenty feet high because it rises straight out of an eight-foot ditch," said Antony. "Thank the Gods he's found a butt!" whispered Decimus Brutus to Quintus Cicero. "Inevitable. Antonius is family," said Quintus Cicero, the expert on families. "Excellent, Antonius!" said Caesar heartily. "The fighting platform inside at the top of the wall will be ten feet wide. Above it, breastworks for looking over and battlements for dodging behind when not looking over. Understand that, Antonius? Good! Every eighty feet around the perimeter, towers three storeys higher than the fighting platform. Any questions, Antonius?" "Yes, General. You describe these as the main fortifications. What else do you have in mind?" "Wherever the ground is flat and likely to see massed attacks, we dig a straight-sided trench twenty feet wide and fifteen feet deep, four hundred paces that's two thousand feet, Antonius! away from our water-filled ditch. Is that clear?" "Yes, General. What do you intend to do with the four hundred paces that's two thousand feet, General! between the perpendicular trench and the water-filled ditch?" "I thought I'd plant a garden. Trebonius, Hirtius, Decimus, let's ride. I want to measure the circumvallation." "What's your estimate?" asked Antony, grinning. "Between ten and twelve miles." "He's mad," said Antony to Fabius with conviction. "Ah, but it's such a beautiful madness!" said Fabius, smiling.