824 vendidit: perh. referred to by Verg. Aen. vi. 621-2:
Vendidit hic auro patriam dominumque potentem
Imposuit; fixit leges pretio atque refixit.
CIVIL WAR, 49-45 B.C. (6)
Dyrrachium.
Caesar’s line of circumvallation, 48 B.C.
Erat nova et inusitata belli ratio cum tot castellorum numero tantoque spatio et tantis munitionibus et toto obsidionis genere, tum etiam reliquis rebus. Nam quicumque alterum obsidere conati sunt, perculsos atque infirmos hostes adorti aut proelio superatos 5 aut aliqua offensione permotos continuerunt, cum ipsi numero equitum militumque praestarent; causa autem obsidionis haec fere esse consuevit, ut frumento hostes prohiberent. At tum integras atque incolumes copias Caesar inferiore militum 10 numero continebat, cum illi omnium rerum copia abundarent; cotidie enim magnus undique navium numerus conveniebat, quae commeatum supportarent, neque ullus flare ventus poterat, quin aliqua ex parte secundum cursum haberent. Ipse autem consumptis 15 omnibus longe lateque frumentis summis erat in angustiis. Sed tamen haec singulari patientia milites ferebant. Recordabantur enim eadem se superiore anno in Hispania perpessos labore et patientia maximum bellum confecisse, meminerant ad 20 Alesiam magnam se inopiam perpessos, multo etiam maiorem ad Avaricum maximarum se gentium victores discessisse.
Caesar, de B. C. iii. 47.
Context. In Jan. (48 B.C.) Caesar set sail from Brundisium and landed safely in Epirus. After a junction with Antonius, who followed him from Brundisium with reinforcements, Caesar established himself close to Dyrrachium (Durazzo), the key of the whole military situation. Pompeius refused to fight, and encamped on a hill close to the sea at Petra, a short distance S. of Dyrrachium, where his fleets could bring him supplies. Caesar now determined to hem him in by a line of circumvallation.
2 tanto spatio: eventually the whole circuit of circumvallation covered at the least 16 miles: to this was afterwards added, just as before Alesia, an outer line of defence.