History of Julius Cæsar, Vol. 2 of 2

by Emperor of the French Napoleon III

[512] Plutarch, Cæsar, 36.

[513] See above, page 87.

[514] See above, page 108, note (2).

[515] We learn from the text that he formed three camps. This disposition was necessitated by circumstances and the character of the locality. The heights of Sacquenay form, in fact, three promontories, V, V, V (see Plate 24), advancing towards the north; the road to Dijon passes over the one to the left, the road to Pontallier over the one in the middle. By establishing three camps on these three promontories, Vercingetorix occupied each of these roads with one-third of his army, whilst he backed his right wing against the Vingeanne.

The Gaulish army had there a position of great natural strength, for, to attack it, the enemy would have to climb high hills which were easy to defend; it was, moreover, protected by two watercourses: one, the Vingeanne, which covered its right; the other, the Badin, a small tributary of the Vingeanne, which protected its front. In the space comprised between these two watercourses and the road from Dijon to Langres, a ground extends, measuring five kilomètres in every direction, slightly broken in some parts, but almost flat everywhere else, particularly between the Vingeanne and the hillock of Montsaugeon. Near the road, and to the west, arise hills which command it, as well as the whole country as far as Badin and the Vingeanne.

[516] The field of battle of the Vingeanne, which H.M. Defay, of Langres, first pointed out, answers perfectly to all the requirements of the Latin narrative, and, moreover, material proofs exist which are undeniable evidences of the struggle. We allude to the tumuli which are found, some at Prauthoy, others on the banks of the Vingeanne, at Dardenay, and Cusey, and those which, at Pressant, Rivières-les-Fosses, Chamberceau, and Vesvres, mark, as it were, the line of retreat of the Gaulish army, to a distance of twelve kilomètres.

Two of these tumuli are situated near each other, between Prauthoy and Montsaugeon (see Plate 24, where the tumuli are marked). There is one near Dardenay, three to the west of Cusey, one at Rivières-les-Fosses, another at Chamberceau. We will not mention those which have been destroyed by agriculture, but which are still remembered by the inhabitants.

Researches lately made in these tumuli have brought to light skeletons, many of which had bronze bracelets round the arms and legs, calcined bones of men and horses, thirty-six bracelets, several iron circles which were worn around the neck, iron rings, fibulæ, fragments of metal plates, pieces of Celtic pottery, an iron sword, &c.

It is a fact worthy of remark, that the objects found in the tumuli at Rivières-les-Fosses and Chamberceau bear so close a resemblance to those of the tumuli on the banks of the Vingeanne, that we might think they had come from the hand of the same workman. Hence there can be no doubt that all these tumuli refer to one and the same incident of war. (Several of these objects are deposited in the Museum of Saint-Germain.)

We must add that the agricultural labourers of Montsaugeon, Isomes, and Cusey have found during many years, when they make trenches for drainage, horse-shoes buried a foot or two deep under the soil. In 1860, at the dredging of the Vingeanne, hundreds of horse-shoes, the inhabitants say, of excellent metal, were extracted from the gravel of the river, at a depth of two or three feet. They are generally small, and bear a groove all round, in which the heads of the nails were lodged. A great number of these horse-shoes have preserved their nails, which are flat, have a head in the form of a T, and still have their rivet—that is, the point which is folded back over the hoof—which proves that they are not shoes that have been lost, but shoes of dead horses, the foot of which has rotted away in the soil or in the gravel. Thirty-two of these horse-shoes have been collected. One of them is stamped in the middle of the curve with a mark, sometimes found on Celtic objects, and which has a certain analogy with the stamp on a plate of copper found in one of the tumuli of Montsaugeon.