History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

Independently of the above considerations, Orleans, by its position on a declivity uniformly inclined toward the Loire, does not at all answer to the conditions of a Gaulish oppidum. If we admit Orleans to be Genabum, it becomes very difficult to assign a convenient site for the oppida of Vellaunodunum and Noviodunum.

Vellaunodunum. The situation of the territory of the Boii being admitted, as well as that of Genabum, we have to find, on the road which Cæsar pursued from Sens to Gorgobina, the intermediate points of Vellaunodunum and Noviodunum.

On the direct line from Sens to Gien, at the distance of 40 kilomètres from Sens, we meet with the little town of Triguères. The hill which overlooks it from the north agrees with the position of the ancient oppidum; the remains of walls, fosses, and parapets have been found on it. Farther, there were discovered in 1856, at 500 mètres to the north-west of Triguères, the ruins of a large semi-elliptical theatre, capable of containing from 5,000 to 6,000 spectators. In another direction, the ruins of a Druidical monument have been pointed out; in fact, everything leads to the belief that there existed at Triguères, in the Gallo-Roman period, an important centre, which had been preceded by a Gaulish establishment anterior to the conquest. A road paved with stones, considered by some as a Gaulish or Celtic way, but accepted by all archæologists as a Roman road, goes direct from Sens to Triguères, by Courtenay, and passes along the eastern side of the oppidum. Another ancient way leads similarly from Triguères to Gien. We feel no hesitation, after what precedes, in placing Vellaunodunum at Triguères.

It will be objected that the distance from Sens to this little town (40 kilomètres) is too small to have taken the Roman army, without baggage, three days’ march; but Cæsar does not say that he employed three days in proceeding from Agedincum to Vellaunodunum: he informs us merely that, leaving all his baggage at Agedincum, he journeyed towards the country of the Boii, and that on the second day he arrived at Vellaunodunum. Nothing, therefore, obliges us to suppose that, before it marched, the Roman army was concentrated or encamped at Agedincum itself. Persons unacquainted with military art are apt to suppose that an army lives and marches always concentrated on one point.

Cæsar, although he was effecting the concentration of his troops before entering into campaign, did not keep them massed at the gates of Sens, but he probably distributed them in échelon in the neighbourhood of the town, along the Yonne. When afterwards he decided on marching to the succour of the Boii, we must suppose that the first day was employed in concentrating the whole army at Sens itself, in leaving the baggage there, perhaps also in crossing the Yonne, a long operation for more than 60,000 men. The first day having passed, the army continued its march next day, and arrived at Triguères the day following, having performed two days’ march of 20 kilomètres each. We see, then, that the distance between Sens and Triguères does not prevent us from identifying this latter locality with Vellaunodunum. Triguères is distant 44 kilomètres from Gien, the distance which separated Vellaunodunum from Genabum, and which might have been marched in two days.

Noviodunum. To find the site of Noviodunum, we must seek a position which agrees best with the “Commentaries” in the triangle formed by the three known points, Gien, Le Bec-d’Allier, and Bourges. Since, according to the text, Vercingetorix did not raise the siege of the town of the Boii until he had heard of Cæsar’s arrival on the left bank of the Loire, and since the two hostile armies, marching towards each other, met at Noviodunum, it follows that this last-named town must be about half-way between the spot where the Loire was passed and the town of the Boii; on another hand, since Cæsar took several days to reach Bourges from Noviodunum, there must have been a rather considerable distance between those two last-named towns. Moreover, in order that the inhabitants of Noviodunum should have seen in the distance, from the top of their walls, the cavalry of Vercingetorix, the town must necessarily have been situated on an eminence. Lastly, the cavalry combat, fought at a small distance from the town, proves that the ground was sufficiently flat to permit that engagement.

It is, therefore, because certain points hitherto indicated do not answer to the conditions required by the text, that we have not admitted, as representing Noviodunum, the towns of Nouan-le-Fuselier, Pierrefitte-sur-Saudre, Nohant-en-Goût, Neuvy-en-Sullias, or Neuvy-sur-Barangeon. In fact, some of these are too far from Bec-d’Allier, while others are too near Bourges, and most of them are situated in a plain.

Sancerre, on the contrary, answers all the conditions of the text. It is situated on a hill which rises 115 mètres above the valley watered by the Loire. Encircled on all sides by deep ravines, it can only be approached from one point, situated to the east, where the ancient Roman road of Bourges terminated, which is still at the present day called the Big Road (le Gros Chemin). The Abbé Lebœuf, as early as 1727, had designated this town as the ancient Noviodunum. It is near Saint-Satur, at the very foot of the mountain of Sancerre, that a Gallo-Roman town existed, of which, within the last few years, numerous foundations have been found. It is probable that this Gallo-Roman town had succeeded to a great centre of Gaulish population, for the Bituriges must necessarily have occupied in their territory a point so admirably fortified by nature, and which commanded the course of the Loire, the line of boundary between them and the Ædui. The present town seems to have kept within the very limits of the ancient oppidum; it has the form of an ellipse of from 700 to 800 mètres in length on a breadth of about 500 mètres, capable of containing a population of from 4,000 to 5,000 inhabitants. At Sancerre there was also, at the extremity of one of the streets, towards the north, a gate called the Gate of Cæsar (Porte de César), which was demolished in the beginning of the nineteenth century. By adopting Sancerre, all the movements of the commencement of the campaign of 702 are easily explained. This town is forty-six kilomètres from Gien, forty-eight kilomètres from Le Bec-d’Allier, distances nearly equal, so that Vercingetorix and Cæsar, starting almost at the same time from two opposite points, may have met under its walls. Its elevated position allowed the eye to range far towards the south along the valley of the Loire, through which the inhabitants would have seen the approach of the cavalry of Vercingetorix. Cæsar may have occupied with his army the heights of Verdigny or Saint-Satur, to the north of Sancerre. A cavalry engagement may have taken place in the valley of Saint-Satur, or on the plain between Ménétréol and Saint-Thibaud. The captain of staff Rouby has examined with the greatest care the places just mentioned.

Cæsar, after the surrender of Noviodunum, marches towards Bourges. Vercingetorix follows him by short marches (minoribus itineribus). The Roman general, having Bourges before him, and a hostile army on his left, marches slowly and with precaution. Perhaps he took three or four days to perform the forty-five kilomètres which separate Sancerre from Bourges. At last, after having reconnoitred the site of Avaricum, he must have traversed the marshes of the Yèvre, at a distance of three or four kilomètres from that town, so as to take up a position to the south-east of the oppidum, in that part which was not surrounded by the river and the marshes, and which only offered a narrow passage. As to Vercingetorix, he follows, or rather hovers on, the Roman army, taking up his position on its left, and still keeping up his communication with Avaricum, hesitating whether he shall deliver it to the flames.

468

De Bello Gallico, VII. 13.

469

Archælogists have pretended they find traces still existing of the camp of Vercingetorix in the neighbourhood of Bourges, not considering that Cæsar declares that the Gaulish chief did not, for the first time, think of retrenching his camp in the Roman fashion till after the siege of this town. We believe that Vercingetorix, although he came from the east, encamped to the south of Bourges. It was, indeed, natural that he should place himself between the Roman army and the land of the Arverni, whence, probably, it drew its provisions. Besides, if he had placed his camp to the east of Bourges, he would have intercepted the provisions which Cæsar expected from the land of the Ædui, which the text does not say.

470

The ravine which descends to the Auron is still recognised at the present day, between the Portes Saint-Michel and Saint-Paul, by the sudden incline of the ground. Old plans of Bourges designate it by the name of the Vallée Saint-Paul. The opposite ravine, which runs towards the Porte Bourbonnoux, has disappeared under the successive fillings up composing the soil of the garden of the archbishop’s palace. The ridge of land forming the avenue cannot have been in Cæsar’s time more than 100 mètres broad. It has lost its primitive physiognomy, especially by the formation of the Place Sérancourt, in 1700, on a site the level of which did not then exceed that of the field of the present fair. The depression of the ground which existed before the wall is more visible; it has been filled-up during the different sieges of Bourges.

471

This is evident, since the Romans, in order to be able to give the assault, were obliged to construct a terrace eighty feet high. General de Gœler believed this measurement exaggerated. Nevertheless, as this terrace was constructed in a ravine, it was necessary that it should compensate a difference of level of eighty mètres, of which thirty, perhaps, represent the height of the wall.

472

Vercingetorix, encamped first towards Dun-le-Roi, had approached nearer Bourges. He had established his new camp to the east of that of Cæsar, perhaps at La Chenevière, at the confluence of the Yèvre and the brook of Villabon, fourteen kilomètres from Bourges.

473

See the quotation from Vegetius, p. 143, note (1).

474

We read in Vitruvius, on occasion of the siege of Marseilles: “When the tortoise approached to batter the wall, they let down a cord furnished with a slip-knot, in which they caught the ram, and raised its head so high, by means of a wheel, that they prevented its striking the wall.” (Vitruvius, X. 16.)

475

Titus Livius expresses himself thus in speaking of the beseiged in Ambracia, who dug a mine to meet that of the enemies: “Aperiunt viam rectam in cuniculum.” (XXXVII. 7.)

476

Several authors have thought that these beams, instead of being placed perpendicularly to the direction of the wall, were placed parallel to that direction. This interpretation appears to us inadmissable. The beams so placed would have no solidity, and would easily have been torn down. We see on the Trajan Column walls constructed as we describe; moreover, the Latin expression trabes directæ can leave no doubt, for the word directus means always perpendicular to a direction. (See De Bello Gallico, IV. 17, directa materia injecta, and the dissertation in the Philologus, Jahrganges 19, Heft. 3.)

477

The name of pluteus was given generally to all kinds of covering with hurdles or with skins. (Festus, in voce Pluteus. – Vitruvius, X. 20.) – Vegetius (IV. 15) applies the name of pluteus to a kind of penthouse, of wicker-work or skins, mounted on three wheels, and protecting the men placed behind it, so that they might shoot at the defenders.

478

They gave this name to a small engine resembling the balistæ, which threw darts. These scorpions composed, as it were, the field-artillery of the ancients.

479

De Bello Gallico, VII. 32.

480

It is very probably that Cæsar proceeded first to Noviodunum (Nevers), since he informs us that he had established in that town a great magazine and provisions of every kind.

481

At present the Allier is fordable almost everywhere in summer; but in the course of nineteen centuries the bed of the river must have been considerably raised.

482

The commentators are not agreed on this passage. I have adopted the version which seemed to me the best, and which MM. Köchly and Rustow have followed in their German translation, Stuttgart, 1862.

483

Dio Cassius, XL. 35.

484

Cæsar, on leaving Decize, followed, no doubt the Gaulish road which led to the Allier, and the existence of which may be assumed from the later construction of the Roman road which goes from Decize to Bourbon-l’Archambault (Aquæ Borvonis), and which crossed the Allier a little below Moulins. Thence he followed the course of the river for some days, constantly in face of the enemy. In order to pass it by the help of a stratagem, he took advantage of the remains of a bridge; and, as this bridge indicates that there must have been a road, it becomes a question to find among the ancient roads which crossed the Allier that which Cæsar followed. Now we only know two Roman roads leading to the Allier below Moulins, one at Varennes, the other at Vichy. We adopt Varennes. That locality is seventy-seven kilomètres from Gergovia, reckoning them along the Allier, and Cæsar took five days to perform them; but, as the four legions sent forward to deceive the enemy returned during the night, in order to rejoin him, they must have suffered great fatigues; hence it is to be presumed that the next day the first march was very short. The fifth also was not long, for, according to the “Commentaries,” Cæsar had time on the day of his arrival to fortify his camp, to reconnoitre the place, and to engage in a cavalry combat. Besides, the country, interspersed with woods and marshes, was unknown to him; and we believe that we do not depart from the truth if we admit that the first and the last march were of no more than ten kilomètres, and the three others of nineteen, which gives a total of seventy-seven kilomètres, the distance from Varennes to Gergovia. When Cæsar left Gergovia, he crossed the Allier again, but at a point nearer to Gergovia, being in haste to place the river between him and the enemy. Indeed, on the second day after his check, he fought a successful cavalry engagement, broke up his camp, and the following day (tertio die) crossed the Allier again, according to our opinion, at Vichy, which is only fifty-five kilomètres from Gergovia.

485

The Artières receives, on the north of Gergovia, the little brook of Clémensat, marked on Plate 21.

486

It is by seeking the essential conditions required for the placing of troops that Commandant Baron Stoffel succeeded in finding the camps. Cæsar had to place from 30,000 to 40,000 men in the neighbourhood of water, at a convenient distance from Gergovia, and in such a manner as to preserve his line of operation upon Nevers, where his magazines were. These necessities indicated that the principal camp would be near the Auzon, and to the east. Moreover, it must be sufficiently near the oppidum, that from the top of the mountain of Gergovia could be seen what was going on in it; and yet sufficiently distant that the objects could not be clearly distinguished. The camp must be in the plain; Dio Cassius (XL. 36) formally says, “Cæsar remained in the plain, not having been able to take (for placing his camp) a place strong by its elevation;” and then the “Commentaries” inform us that the Romans only occupied one single hill, namely, the one they took by surprise (La Roche-Blanche). Lastly, it was indispensable that there should be in front of the camp a space sufficiently large to admit of cavalry engagements.

487

Vercingetorix, placed in the centre of a kind of semicircle, might easily be considered by Cæsar as surrounded by his numerous troops (collocaverat copias circum se).

488