Meanwhile, the chiefs and principes of the Nervii proposed an interview to Cicero. They repeated to him what Ambiorix had said to Sabinus: “All Gaul is in arms; the Germans have passed the Rhine; the quarters of Cæsar and his lieutenants are attacked.” They added: “Sabinus and his cohorts have perished; the presence of Ambiorix is a proof of their veracity; Cicero would deceive himself if he reckoned on the succour of the other legions. As to them, they have no hostile intention, provided the Romans will discontinue occupying their country. The legion has full liberty to retire without fear whither it likes.” Cicero replied “that it was not the custom of the Roman people to accept conditions from an enemy in arms; but that, if they consented to lay them down, he would serve them as a mediator with Cæsar, who would decide.”
Deceived in their expectation of intimidating Cicero, the Nervii surrounded the camp with a rampart nine feet high, and a fosse fifteen wide. They had observed the Roman works in the preceding campaigns, and learnt from some prisoners to imitate them. But, as they did not possess the necessary instruments of iron, they were obliged to cut the turf with their swords, to take the earth with their hands, and to carry it in their cloaks. We may judge of their great number by the fact that in less than three hours they completed a retrenchment of 15,000 feet in circuit.[432] On the following days, they raised towers to the height of the vallum, prepared hooks (falces), and covered galleries (testudines), which they had similarly been taught by the prisoners.[433]
On the seventh day of the siege, a great wind having arisen, the enemies threw into the camp fiery darts, and launched from their slings balls of burning clay (ferventes fusili ex argilla glandes).[434] The barracks, roofed with straw, in the Gaulish manner, soon took fire, and the wind spread the flames in an instant through the whole camp. Then, raising great shouts, as though they had already gained the victory, they pushed forward their towers and covered galleries, and attempted, by means of ladders, to scale the vallum; but such were the courage and steadiness of the Roman soldiers, that, though surrounded with flames, overwhelmed with a shower of darts, and knowing well that the fire was devouring their baggage and their property, not one of them quitted his post, or even dreamt of turning his head, so much did that desperate struggle absorb their minds. This was their most trying day. Meanwhile, many of the enemies were killed and wounded, because, crowding to the foot of the rampart, the last ranks stopped the retreat of the first. The fire having been appeased, the barbarians pushed up a tower against the vallum.[435] The centurions of the third cohort, who happened to be there, drew their men back, and, in bravado, invited, by their gesture and voice, the enemies to enter. Nobody ventured. Then they drove them away by a shower of stones, and the tower was burnt. There were in that legion two centurions, T. Pulio and L. Vorenus, who emulated each other in bravery by rushing into the midst of the assailants. Thrown down in turn, and surrounded by enemies, they mutually rescued each other several times, and returned into the camp without wounds. Defensive arms then permitted individual courage to perform actual prodigies.
Still the siege continued, and the number of the defenders diminished daily; provisions began to fall short, as well as the necessaries for tending the wounded.[436] The frequent messengers sent by Cicero to Cæsar were intercepted, and some of them cruelly put to death within view of the camp. At last, Vertico, a Nervian chieftain who had embraced the cause of the Romans, prevailed upon one of his slaves to take charge of a letter to Cæsar. His quality of a Gaul enabled him to pass unperceived, and to give intelligence to the general of Cicero’s danger.
Cæsar received this information at Amiens towards the eleventh hour of the day (four o’clock in the afternoon). He had only at hand three legions—that of Trebonius, at Amiens; that of M. Crassus, whose quarters were at Montdidier, in the country of the Bellovaci, at a distance of twenty-five miles; and lastly, that which, under C. Fabius, was wintering in the country of the Morini, at Saint-Pol.[437] (See Plate 14.) He despatched a courier to Crassus, charged with delivering to him his order to start with his legion in the middle of the night, and join him in all haste at Amiens, to relieve there the legion of Trebonius. Another courier was sent to the lieutenant C. Fabius, to direct him to take his legion into the territory of the Atrebates, which Cæsar would cross, and where their junction was to be effected. He wrote similarly to Labienus, to march with his legion towards the country of the Nervii, if he could without peril. As to the legion of Roscius and that of Plancus, which were too far distant, they remained in their quarters.
Crassus had no sooner received his orders than he began his march; and next day, towards the third hour (ten o’clock), his couriers announced his approach. Cæsar left him at Amiens, with one legion, to guard the baggage of the army, the hostages, the archives, and the winter provisions. He immediately started in person, without waiting for the rest of the army, with the legion of Trebonius, and four hundred cavalry from the neighbouring quarters. He followed, no doubt, the direction from Amiens to Cambrai, and made that day twenty miles (thirty kilomètres). He was subsequently joined on his road, probably towards Bourcies, between Bapaume and Cambrai, by Fabius, who had not lost a moment in executing his orders. Meanwhile arrived the reply of Labienus. He informed Cæsar of the events which had taken place among the Eburones, and of their effect among the Treviri. These latter had just risen. All their troops had advanced towards him, and surrounded him at a distance of three miles. In this position, fearing that he should not be able to resist enemies proud of a recent victory, who would take his departure for a flight, he thought that there would be danger in quitting his winter quarters.
Cæsar approved of the resolution taken by Labienus, although it reduced to two the three legions on which he counted; and, although their effective force did not amount to more than 7,000 men, as the safety of the army depended on the celerity of his movements, he proceeded by forced marches to the country of the Nervii; there he learnt from prisoners the perilous situation of Cicero. He immediately engaged, by the promise of great recompenses, a Gaulish horseman to carry a letter to him: it was written in Greek,[438] in order that the enemy, if he intercepted it, might not know its meaning. Further, in case the Gaul could not penetrate to Cicero, he had directed him to attach the letter to the amentum (see page 37, note 2) of his javelin, and throw it over the retrenchments. Cæsar wrote that he was approaching in great haste with his legions, and he exhorted Cicero to persevere in his energetic defence. According to Polyænus, the despatch contained these words: θαῥῥεἱν βοἡθειαν προσδἑχου (“Courage! expect succour”).[439] As soon as he arrived near the camp, the Gaul, not daring to penetrate to it, did as Cæsar had directed him. By chance his javelin remained two days stuck in a tower. It was only on the third that it was seen and carried to Cicero. The letter, read in the presence of the assembled soldiers, excited transports of joy. Soon afterwards they perceived in the distance the smoke of burning habitations, which announced the approach of the army of succour. At that moment, after a five days’ march, it had arrived within twenty kilomètres of Charleroi, near Binche, where it encamped. The Gauls, when they were informed of it by their scouts, raised the siege, and then, to the number of about 60,000, marched to meet the legions.
Cicero, thus liberated, sent another Gaul to announce to Cæsar that the enemy were turning all their forces against him. At this news, received towards the middle of the night, Cæsar informed his soldiers, and strengthened them in their desire of vengeance. At daybreak next day he raised his camp. After advancing four miles, he perceived a crowd of enemies on the other side of a great valley traversed by the stream of the Haine.[440] Cæsar did not consider it prudent to descend into the valley to engage in combat against so great a number of troops. Moreover, Cicero once rescued, there was no need for hurrying his march; he therefore halted, and chose a good position for retrenching—mount Sainte-Aldegonde. Although his camp, containing hardly 7,000 men, without baggage, was necessarily of limited extent, he diminished it as much as possible by giving less width to the streets, in order to deceive the enemy as to his real strength. At the same time he sent out scouts to ascertain the best place for crossing the valley.
That day passed in skirmishes of cavalry on the banks of the stream, but each kept his positions: the Gauls, because they were waiting for re-enforcements; Cæsar, because he counted on his simulated fear to draw the enemies out of their position, and compel them to fight on his side of the Haine, before his camp. If he could not succeed, he obtained time to reconnoitre the roads sufficiently to pass the river and valley with less danger. On the morrow, at daybreak, the enemy’s cavalry came up to the retrenchments, and attacked that of the Romans. Cæsar ordered his men to give way, and return into the camp; at the same time he caused the height of the ramparts to be increased, the gates to be stopped up with mere lumps of turf, and directed his soldiers to execute his directions with tumultuous haste and all the signs of fear.
The Gauls, drawn on by this feint, passed the stream, and formed in order of battle in a disadvantageous place. Seeing that the Romans had even abandoned the vallum, they approached nearer to it, threw their missiles over it from all sides, and caused their heralds to proclaim round the retrenchments that, until the third hour (ten o’clock), every Gaul or Roman who should desert to them should have his life saved. At last, having no hope of forcing the gates, which they supposed to be solidly fortified, they carried their boldness so far as to begin to fill up the fosse, and to pull down the palisades with their hands. But Cæsar held his troops in readiness to profit by the excessive confidence of the Gauls: at a signal given, they rush through all the gates at once; the enemy does not resist, but takes to flight, abandoning their arms, and leaves the ground covered with his dead.