[523] We believe that these castella were palisaded redoubts having a recess attached, similar to the wooden blockhouses represented on the Trajan Column; often even these recesses alone composed the castellum.
[524] It was not, as will be remarked, the countervallation which was 11,000 feet in extent, but the line of investment.
[525] Eadem altitudine. See paragraph XIII., Details on the Excavations of Alesia, page 364.
[526] Dolabratis, diminished to a point, and not delibratis, peeled.
[527] In the excavations at Alesia, five stimuli have been found, the form of which is represented in Plate 27. The new names which Cæsar’s soldiers gave to these accessory defenses prove that they were used for the first time.
[528] This appears from a passage in De Bello Civili, III. 47.
| The Ædui and their clients, the Segusiavi, the Ambluareti, the men. Aulerci-Brannovices, and the Blannovii | MEN. 35,000 |
| The Arverni, with the people in their dependence, as the Cadurci-Eleutheri, the Gabali, the Vellavi | 35,000 |
| The Senones, the Sequani, the Bituriges, the Santones, the Ruteni, the Carnutes (each 12,000) | 72,000 |
| The Bellovaci | 10,000 |
| The Lemovices | 10,000 |
| The Pictones, the Turones, the Parisii, the Helvii (each 8,000) | 32,000 |
| The Suessiones, the Ambiani, the Mediomatrice, the Petrocorii, the Nervii, the Morini, the Nitiobriges (each 5,000) | 35,000 |
| The Aulerci-Cenomanni | 5,000 |
| The Atrebates | 4,000 |
| The Veliocasses, the Lexovii, the Aulerci-Eburovices (each 3,000) | 9,000 |
| The Rauraci and the Boii (each 3,000) | 6,000 |
| Lastly, the peoples who dwelt on the shores of the ocean, and whom the Gauls called Armoricans, amongst whom were the Curiosolites, the Redones, the Ambibari, the Caletes, the Osismii, the Lemovices-Armoricani, the Veneti, and the Unelli, had to furnish together | 30,000 |
| Total | 283,000 |
[530] See note on [page 143].
[531] This passage proves clearly that the army of succour attacked also the circumvallation of the plain. In fact, how can we admit that, of 240,000 men, only 60,000 should have been employed? It follows, from the accounts given in the “Commentaries,” that among this multitude of different peoples, the chiefs chose the most courageous men to form the corps of 60,000 which operated the movement of turning the hills; and that the others, unaccustomed to war, and less formidable, employed in the assault of the retrenchments in the plain, were easily repulsed.