Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome by Stephen Dando-Collins Page B
Authors: Stephen Dando-Collins
Tags: Historical
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camp.
For more than seven days Cicero and his surrounded legion held out without being able to send a messenger for help, but finally a loyal native of the area managed to get through enemy lines to Caesar, eighty miles away. Caesar immediately sent orders for the three nearest legions to march to Cicero’s aid, and set off himself with a cavalry force. The 10th Legion would have been one of the three. General Labienus sent word that tribesmen were massing three miles from his camp and he and his legions didn’t dare leave the protection of its walls, so the relief force was reduced to just one legion, possibly the 10th, plus cavalry, a total of seven thousand men.
A messenger galloped back to Cicero with a dispatch from Caesar, written in Greek so the tribesmen couldn’t understand it if it fell into the wrong hands. But the courier couldn’t get through the enemy. So, pre-tending to be one of the attackers, he joined their next raid against the Roman camp, and threw a javelin with the message tied to it. The javelin lodged in the woodwork of a Roman guard tower and went unnoticed for another two days before a sentry spotted the message, unfurled it, and took it to General Cicero.
Caesar was to write that the general read the message aloud to his exhausted legionaries: “Caesar is coming with the legions!” he announced.
“He tells us to hold on and put on a bold front!”
As Cicero’s legionaries cheered with relief, lookouts yelled that they could at that very moment see smoke on the horizon—farm buildings put to the torch by advancing Roman troops.
When they realized that Caesar was approaching, the Belgians gave up the siege and advanced to meet him. With only some five thousand infantrymen and two thousand cavalry, Caesar was significantly outnumbered, so he chose a camp site at the most favorable location he could find and set his men to work furiously constructing trenches and walls of earth c06.qxd 12/5/01 4:56 PM Page 52
52
C A E S A R ’ S
l e g i o n
as the enemy advanced on him. Caesar was always thinking, always inno-vative, and at the camp gates he had his men build walls made of a single brick’s thickness of earth. From the outside, it looked as if the gates were as solid as the walls, and the tribesmen didn’t even bother to attack there, gates normally being the most heavily defended part of any Roman camp.
Instead, they tried to storm the walls at various places.
With sixty thousand Belgians and their German allies congregated around the walls, Caesar gave an order. His flag dropped, trumpets sounded.
The apparently solid walls at the gateways suddenly tumbled outward, and the Roman cavalry charged out into the massed ranks of the enemy. The results were panic and slaughter. Tribesmen were still running at sundown.
Caesar and the 10th were then able to link up with General Cicero and his legion. When the besieged legion paraded for their commander in chief, Caesar saw that nine out of ten legionaries were wounded. He praised the men, and he praised the centurions and tribunes, for holding off a much superior force for so long. This was the stuff that legion legends were made of. Unfortunately, we don’t know which legion deserves the credit for such stout resistance.
:
Caesar and his generals spent the rest of the winter putting out the fires of revolt along the Rhine and nearby regions. During the winter, which Caesar spent in Gaul with the legions for the first time because of the volatile situation, three legions were raised in northern Italy and Switzerland—a whole new enlistment for the 14th Legion, to replace the cohorts wiped out in Belgium with General Sabinus, and two brand-new legions, the 15th and the 16th. Caesar now commanded ten legions, the largest Roman army in the field at the time.
The campaigning season of 53 b.c. saw Caesar use the large number of troops at his disposal in a single dominating force that crushed resistance throughout northern France,
For more than seven days Cicero and his surrounded legion held out without being able to send a messenger for help, but finally a loyal native of the area managed to get through enemy lines to Caesar, eighty miles away. Caesar immediately sent orders for the three nearest legions to march to Cicero’s aid, and set off himself with a cavalry force. The 10th Legion would have been one of the three. General Labienus sent word that tribesmen were massing three miles from his camp and he and his legions didn’t dare leave the protection of its walls, so the relief force was reduced to just one legion, possibly the 10th, plus cavalry, a total of seven thousand men.
A messenger galloped back to Cicero with a dispatch from Caesar, written in Greek so the tribesmen couldn’t understand it if it fell into the wrong hands. But the courier couldn’t get through the enemy. So, pre-tending to be one of the attackers, he joined their next raid against the Roman camp, and threw a javelin with the message tied to it. The javelin lodged in the woodwork of a Roman guard tower and went unnoticed for another two days before a sentry spotted the message, unfurled it, and took it to General Cicero.
Caesar was to write that the general read the message aloud to his exhausted legionaries: “Caesar is coming with the legions!” he announced.
“He tells us to hold on and put on a bold front!”
As Cicero’s legionaries cheered with relief, lookouts yelled that they could at that very moment see smoke on the horizon—farm buildings put to the torch by advancing Roman troops.
When they realized that Caesar was approaching, the Belgians gave up the siege and advanced to meet him. With only some five thousand infantrymen and two thousand cavalry, Caesar was significantly outnumbered, so he chose a camp site at the most favorable location he could find and set his men to work furiously constructing trenches and walls of earth c06.qxd 12/5/01 4:56 PM Page 52
52
C A E S A R ’ S
l e g i o n
as the enemy advanced on him. Caesar was always thinking, always inno-vative, and at the camp gates he had his men build walls made of a single brick’s thickness of earth. From the outside, it looked as if the gates were as solid as the walls, and the tribesmen didn’t even bother to attack there, gates normally being the most heavily defended part of any Roman camp.
Instead, they tried to storm the walls at various places.
With sixty thousand Belgians and their German allies congregated around the walls, Caesar gave an order. His flag dropped, trumpets sounded.
The apparently solid walls at the gateways suddenly tumbled outward, and the Roman cavalry charged out into the massed ranks of the enemy. The results were panic and slaughter. Tribesmen were still running at sundown.
Caesar and the 10th were then able to link up with General Cicero and his legion. When the besieged legion paraded for their commander in chief, Caesar saw that nine out of ten legionaries were wounded. He praised the men, and he praised the centurions and tribunes, for holding off a much superior force for so long. This was the stuff that legion legends were made of. Unfortunately, we don’t know which legion deserves the credit for such stout resistance.
:
Caesar and his generals spent the rest of the winter putting out the fires of revolt along the Rhine and nearby regions. During the winter, which Caesar spent in Gaul with the legions for the first time because of the volatile situation, three legions were raised in northern Italy and Switzerland—a whole new enlistment for the 14th Legion, to replace the cohorts wiped out in Belgium with General Sabinus, and two brand-new legions, the 15th and the 16th. Caesar now commanded ten legions, the largest Roman army in the field at the time.
The campaigning season of 53 b.c. saw Caesar use the large number of troops at his disposal in a single dominating force that crushed resistance throughout northern France,
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