Expedition against Dumnacus.
V. During this time, Caninius Rebilus, who had first been appointed to go into the country of the Ruteni, but who had been detained by partial insurrections in the region situated between the Creuse and the Vienne, learnt that numerous hostile bands were assembling in the country of the Pictones; he was informed of this by letters from Duratius, their king, who, amid the defection of a part of his people, had remained invariably faithful to the Romans. He started immediately for Lemonum (Poitiers). On the road, he learnt from prisoners that Duratius was shut up there, and besieged by several thousand men under the orders of Dumnacus, chief of the Andes. Rebilus, at the head of two weak legions, did not dare to measure his strength with the enemy; he contented himself with establishing his camp in a strong position. At the news of his approach, Dumnacus raised the siege, and marched to meet the legions. But, after several days’ fruitless attempts to force their camp, he returned to attack Lemonum.
Meanwhile, the lieutenant Caius Fabius, occupied in pacifying several peoples, learnt from Caninius Rebilus what was going on in the country of the Pictones; he marched without delay to the assistance of Duratius. The news of the march of Fabius deprived Dumnacus of all hope of opposing at the same time the troops shut up in Lemonum and the army of succour. He abandoned the siege again in great haste, not thinking himself safe until he had placed the Loire between him and the Romans; but he could only pass that river where there was a bridge (at Saumur). Before he had joined Rebilus, before he had even obtained a sight of the enemy, Fabius, who came from the north, and had lost no time, doubted not, from what he heard from the people of the country, that Dumnacus, in his fear, had taken the road which led to that bridge. He therefore marched thither with his legions, preceded, at a short distance, by his cavalry. The latter surprised the column of Dumnacus on its march, dispersed it, and returned to the camp laden with booty.
During the night of the following day, Fabius again sends his cavalry forward, with orders to delay the march of the enemy, so as to give time for the arrival of the infantry. The two cavalries are soon engaged; but the enemy, thinking that he had to contend only with the same troops as the day before, draws up his infantry in line, so as to support the squadrons, when, suddenly, the legions appear in order of battle. At this sight, the barbarians are struck with terror, the long train of baggage is thrown into confusion, and they disperse. More than 12,000 men were killed, and all the baggage fell into the hands of the Romans.
Only 5,000 fugitives escaped from this rout; they were received by the Senonan Drappes, the same who, in the first revolt of the Gauls, had collected a crowd of vagabonds, slaves, exiles, and robbers, to intercept the convoys of the Romans. They took the direction of the Narbonnese with the Cadurcan Lucterius, who, as has been seen in the preceding chapter (p. 275), had before attempted a similar invasion. Rebilus pursued them with two legions, in order to avoid the shame of seeing the province suffering any injury from such a contemptible rabble.
As for Fabius, he led the twenty-five cohorts against the Carnutes and the other peoples, whose forces had already been reduced by the defeat they had just experienced with Dumnacus. The Carnutes, though often beaten, had never been completely subdued; they gave hostages; the Armorican peoples followed their example. Dumnacus, driven out of his own territory, went to seek a refuge in the remotest part of Gaul.550
Capture of Uxellodunum.
VI. Drappes and Lucterius, when they learnt that they were pursued by Rebilus and his two legions, gave up the design of penetrating into the province; they halted in the country of the Cadurci, and threw themselves into the oppidum of Uxellodunum (Puy-d’Issolu, near Vayrac), an exceedingly strong place, formerly under the dependence of Lucterius, who soon excited the inhabitants into revolt.
Rebilus appeared immediately before the town, which, surrounded on all sides by steep rocks, was, even without being defended, difficult of access to armed men. Knowing that there was in the oppidum so great a quantity of baggage that the besieged could not send them secretly away without being overtaken by the cavalry, and even by the infantry, he divided his cohorts into three bodies, and established three camps on the highest points. (See Plate 31.) Next, he ordered a countervallation to be made. On seeing these preparations, the besieged remembered the ill fortune of Alesia, and feared a similar fate. Lucterius, who had witnessed the horrors of famine during the investment of that town, took especial care for the provisions, and, with the consent of all, having 2,000 men in Uxellodunum, he left by night, with Drappes and the rest of the troops, to procure them.
After a few days they collected, by good-will or by force, a great quantity of provisions. During this time the garrison of the oppidum attacked the redoubts of Rebilus several times, which obliged him to interrupt the work of the countervallation, which, indeed, he would not have had sufficient forces to defend.
Drappes and Lucterius established themselves at a distance of ten miles from the oppidum, with the intention of introducing the provisions gradually. They shared the duties between them. Drappes remained with part of the troops to protect the camp. Lucterius, during the night-time, endeavoured to introduce beasts of burden into the town, by a narrow and woody path. The noise of their march gave warning to the sentries. Rebilus, informed of what was going on, ordered the cohorts to sally from the neighbouring redoubts, and at daybreak fell upon the convoy, the escort of which was slaughtered. Lucterius, having escaped with a small number of his followers, was unable to rejoin Drappes.
Rebilus soon learnt from prisoners that the rest of the troops which had left the oppidum were with Drappes at a distance of twelve miles, and that, by a fortunate chance, not one fugitive had taken that direction to carry him news of the last combat. The Roman general sent in advance all the cavalry and the light German infantry; he followed them with one legion without baggage, leaving the other as a guard to the three camps. When he came near the enemy, he learnt by his scouts that the barbarians, according to their custom, neglecting the heights, had placed their camp on the banks of a river (probably the Dordogne); that the Germans and the cavalry had surprised them, and that they were already fighting. Rebilus then advanced rapidly at the head of the legion, drawn up in order of battle, and took possession of the heights. As soon as the ensigns appeared, the cavalry redoubled their ardour, the cohorts rush forward from all sides, the Gauls were taken or killed, the booty was immense, and Drappes fell into the hands of the Romans.
Rebilus, after this successful exploit, which cost him but a few wounded, returned under the walls of Uxellodunum. Fearing no longer any attack from without, he set resolutely to work to continue his circumvallation. The day after, C. Fabius arrived, followed by his troops, and shared with him the labours of the siege.
While the south of Gaul was the scene of serious troubles, Cæsar left the quæstor Mark Antony, with fifteen cohorts, in the country of the Bellovaci. To deprive the Belgæ of all idea of revolt, he had proceeded to the neighbouring countries with two legions, had exacted hostages, and restored confidence by his conciliating speeches. When he arrived among the Carnutes, who, the year before, had been the first to revolt, he saw that the remembrance of their conduct kept them in great alarm, and he resolved to put an end to it by causing his vengeance to fall only upon Gutruatus, the instigator of the war. This man was brought and delivered up; and although Cæsar was naturally inclined to indulgence, he could not resist the tumultuous entreaties of his soldiers, who made that chief responsible for all the dangers they had run, and for all the misery they had suffered. Gutruatus died under the stripes, and was afterwards beheaded.
It was in the land of the Carnutes that Cæsar received news, by the letters of Rebilus, of the events which had taken place at Uxellodunum, and of the resistance of the besieged. Although a handful of men shut up in a fortress was not very formidable, he judged it necessary to punish their obstinacy, for fear that the Gauls should acquire the conviction that it was not strength, but constancy, which had failed them in resisting the Romans; and lest this example might encourage the other states, which possessed fortresses advantageously situated, to recover their independence.
Moreover, it was known everywhere amongst the Gauls that Cæsar had only one summer more to hold his command, and that after that they would have nothing more to fear. He left, therefore, the lieutenant Quintus Calenus551 at the head of his two legions, with orders to follow him by ordinary marches, and with his cavalry he hastened by long marches towards Uxellodunum.
Cæsar, arriving unexpectedly before that town, found it completely invested on all accessible points. He judged that it could not be taken by assault (neque ab oppugnatione recedi videret ulla conditione posse), and, as it was abundantly provided with provisions, he conceived the project of depriving the inhabitants of water. The mountain was surrounded nearly on every side by very low ground; but on one side there existed a valley through which a river (the Tourmente) ran. As it flowed at the foot of two precipitous mountains, the disposition of the localities did not admit of turning it aside and conducting it into lower channels. It was difficult for the besieged to come down to it, and the Romans rendered the approaches to it still more dangerous. They placed posts of archers and slingers, and brought engines which commanded all the slopes which gave access to the river. The besieged had thenceforth no other means of procuring water but by fetching it from an abundant spring which arose at the foot of the wall, 300 feet from the channel of the Tourmente. (See Plate 31.) Cæsar resolved to drain this spring, and for this purpose he did not hesitate to attempt a laborious undertaking: opposite the point where it rose, he ordered covered galleries to be pushed forwards against the mountain, and, under protection of these, a terrace to be raised, labours which were carried on in the middle of continual fights and incessant fatigues. Although the besieged, from their elevated position, fought without danger, and wounded many Romans, yet the latter did not yield to discouragement, but continued their task. At the same time they made a subterranean gallery, which, running from the covered galleries, was intended to lead up to the spring. This work, carried on free from all danger, was executed without being perceived by the enemy; the terrace attained a height of sixty feet, and was surmounted by a tower of ten stories, which, without equalling the elevation of the wall, a result it was impossible to obtain, still commanded the fountain. (See Plate 32.) Its approaches, battered by engines from the top of this tower, became inaccessible; in consequence of this, many men and animals in the place died of thirst. The besieged, terrified at this mortality, filled barrels with pitch, grease, and shavings, and rolled them in flames upon the Roman works, making at the same time a sally, so as to prevent them from extinguishing the fire; soon it spread to the covered galleries and the terrace, which stopped the progress of the inflammable materials. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the ground and the increasing danger, the Romans still persevered in their struggle. The battle took place on a height, within sight of the army; loud cries were raised on both sides; each individual sought to rival his fellows in zeal, and the more he was exposed to view, the more courageously he faced the missiles and the fire.
Cæsar, as he was sustaining great loss, determined to feign an assault, in order to create a diversion: he ordered some cohorts to climb the hill on all sides, uttering loud cries. This movement terrified the besieged, who, fearing to be attacked on other points, called back to the defence of the wall those who were setting fire to the works. Then the Romans were able to extinguish the fire. Nevertheless, the siege span out in length; the Gauls, although exhausted by thirst and reduced to a small number, did not cease to defend themselves vigorously. At length, the subterranean gallery having reached the veins of the spring, they were taken and turned aside. The besieged, seeing the fountain all at once dried up, believed, in their despair, that it was an intervention of the gods, submitted to necessity, and surrendered.
Cæsar considered that the pacification of Gaul would never be completed if the same resistance was encountered in many other towns. He thought it indispensable to spread terror by a severe example, so much the more as “the well-known mildness of his temper,” says Hirtius, “would not allow this necessary rigour to be ascribed to cruelty.” He ordered all those who had carried arms to have their hands cut off, and sent them away, as living witnesses of the chastisement reserved for rebels. Drappes, who had been taken prisoner, starved himself to death; Lucterius, who had been arrested by the Arvernan Epasnactus, a friend of the Romans, was delivered up to Cæsar.552
Excavations made at Puy-d’Issolu.
VII. The excavations made at Puy-d’Issolu in 1865 leave no further doubt as to the site of Uxellodunum. (See Plates 31 and 32.)
The Puy d’Issolu is a lofty mountain, situated not far from the right bank of the Dordogne, between Vayrac and Martel; it is isolated on all sides except towards the north, where it is joined by a defile of 400 mètres wide (the Col de Roujon) to heights named the Pech-Demont. Its plateau, crowned by a circle of perpendicular rocks, commands, almost in every direction, the low ground which surrounds it. This is what the author of the VIIIth book De Bello Gallico expresses by these words: Infima vallis totum pæne montem cingebat in quo positum erat præruptum undique oppidum Uxellodunum. This plateau, with a surface of eighty hectares in extent, presents strongly-marked undulations: its general incline lies from the north to the south, in the direction of the length of the mountain mass; its highest point is 317 mètres above the level of the sea, and it rises 200 mètres above the valleys which surround it.
The whole eastern slope of the mountain, that which looks towards Vayrac and the Dordogne, is surmounted with rocks, which have a height of as much as forty mètres; consequently, no operation took place on this side during the time of the siege. The western slope alone was the theatre of the different combats. Its declivities are not inaccessible, especially between the village of Loulié and the hamlet of Leguillat, but they are sufficiently abrupt to make the Latin author say: Quo, defendente nullo, tamen armatis ascendere esset difficile. At the very foot of this declivity, and at 200 mètres beneath the culminating point of the plateau, the Tourmente flows, a little river ten mètres broad, embanked between this declivity and that of the opposite heights: Flumen infimam vallem dividebat, &c. Such a disposition of the localities, as well as the slight descent of the Tourmente (one mètre in 1,000), rendered it impossible to turn off that river. (Hoc flumem averti loci natura prohibebat, &c.)
There is no spring on the plateau of Puy-d’Issolu; but several issue from the sides of the mountain, one of which, that of Loulié, is sufficiently abundant to provide for the necessities of a numerous population. This was the spring which the Romans succeeded in turning off. At the time of the siege, it issued from the side of the mountain at S (see Plate 31), at twenty-five mètres from the wall of the oppidum, and at a distance of about 300 mètres from the Tourmente. These 300 mètres make about 200 Roman paces. We see, therefore, that in the Latin text the word pedum must be replaced by passuum. We also see that the word circuitus (VIII. 4) must be taken in the sense of the course of the river.
The “Commentaries” say (VIII. 33) that Rebilus established three camps in very elevated positions. Their sites are indicated by the nature of the localities: the first, A, was on the heights of Montbuisson; the second, B, on those of the Château de Termes; the third, C, opposite the defile of Roujon, on the Pech-Demont. It appears from the excavations that the Romans had not retrenched the two first, which is easily explained, for the heights to the west of the Puy-d’Issolu are impregnable. Moreover, the Romans at Uxellodunum were not in the same situation as at Alesia. There they had before them 80,000 men, and in their rear a very numerous army of succour; here, on the contrary, it was only a question of reducing a few thousand men. The camp C required to be protected, because it was possible for troops to descend from the tableau of the Puy-d’Issolu towards the defile of Roujon, which, being situated fifty mètres lower down, gives an easy access to the heights of Pech-Demont. The excavations have, in fact, brought to light a double line of parallel fosses, which barred the defile behind, and formed at the same time a countervallation.
The Gauls could only quit the town by this defile, and by the western slope of the mountain. It became, consequently, interesting to ascertain if the Romans made a countervallation along the Tourmente, on the slopes of the heights of the castle of Termes and of Montbuisson. Unfortunately, the railway from Perigueux to Capdenac, which passes over the very site where the countervallation might have been made, has destroyed all traces of the Roman works: the excavations made above this line have produced no result.
The most interesting discovery was that of the subterranean gallery.553 Until the moment when the excavations were commenced, a part of the rain-water absorbed by the plateau of the Puy-d’Issolu issued near the village of Loulié by two springs, A and A´. (See Plate 32.) The spring A´ flows from a ravine, and corresponds to the thalweg of the slope; as to the source A, it is easily seen by the appearance of the ground that it has been turned from its natural course. The excavations, in fact, have proved that it is produced by the waters which run in the Roman gallery. This gallery has been opened over an extent of forty mètres. It was dug in a solid mass of tufa nearly ten mètres thick, which had been formed in the centuries anterior to Cæsar. Its form is that of a semicircular vault, supported by two perpendicular sides; its average dimensions are 1·80m. in height, by a width of 1·50 mètres. The mud carried along by the waters, and accumulated since the time of the siege of Uxellodunum, had almost filled the gallery, leaving only at the top of the intrados an empty space in the form of a segment of a circle, with 0·50m. chord by 0·15m. for the absciss of its curve. Through this empty space the water ran at the time of the excavations.
Before reaching the tufa, the first subterranean works of the Romans had been made in the pure soil, which had to be propped: fragments of blindage have been found, some of them fixed in silicious mud, corroded or reduced to the state of ligneous paste, others petrified by their long contact with the waters charged with calcareous sediments. A considerable number of these petrified blocks, and remains of wood, collected in the interior of the gallery, are deposited in the museum of Saint-Germain.
The gallery does not lead directly to the spring which existed in the time of the Gauls. The Roman miners, after having made their way straightforward for a length of six mètres, came upon a thick bed of blue marl of the lias: they turned to their left to avoid digging through it, and advanced four mètres farther, following the marl, which they left to the right. When they reached the end of the marls, a horizontal layer of hard rock, one mètre thick, obliged them to bring the gallery back to its former direction, and to raise it, in order to avoid this new obstacle without going out of the tufas, which, formed by the waters, would necessarily lead towards the spring. (See Plate 32.) From this second turning, the gallery continued close to the line of separation of the marls and the tufas. It rose rapidly, until it reached the limit of the deposits of tufa. At this point blindage had again been necessary. It was there chiefly that the blocks of petrification presented a peculiar character: some lay thrown down in the gallery, pierced by sockets with a rectangular section, which show the dimensions and the way in which it had been worked; others, with a rounded base, are veritable uprights, still standing on the rock.
Independently of the excavations made to find the Roman fosses and the subterranean gallery, others have been made on the slope of Loulié, in the soil which is near the spring. They have brought to light numerous fragments of Gaulish pottery and of amphoræ, and, which is a further confirmation of the identity of the Puy d’Issolu with Uxellodunum, remains of arms similar in all respects to those found in the fosses of Alesia.554 Under the earthfalls which during nineteen centuries have taken place on the slope of Loulié, all the traces of the fire described in the “Commentaries” have been also found. The site of the terrace and the covered galleries which were fired were also traced on the ground. Plate 32 represents the slope which was the scene of the struggle: the terrace, the tower, and the covered galleries are represented on it, as well as the subterranean gallery, according to a very exact survey made on the spot.
Complete Submission of Gaul.
VIII. Whilst these events were taking place on the banks of the Dordogne, Labienus, in a cavalry engagement, had gained a decisive advantage over a part of the Treviri and Germans, had taken prisoner their chief, and thus subjected that people, who were always ready to support any insurrection against the Romans. The Æduan Surus fell also into his hands: he was a chief distinguished for his courage and his birth, and the only one of that nation who had not yet laid down his arms.
From that moment Cæsar considered Gaul to be completely pacified; he resolved, however, to go himself to Aquitaine, which he had not yet visited, and which Publius Crassus had partly conquered. Arriving there at the head of two legions, he obtained the complete submission of that country without difficulty: all the tribes sent him hostages. He proceeded next to Narbonne with a detachment of cavalry, and charged his lieutenants to put the army into winter quarters. Four legions, under the orders of Mark Antony, Caius Trebonius, Publius Vatinius, and Q. Tullius, were quartered in Belgium; two among the Ædui, and two among the Turones, on the frontier of the Carnutes, to hold in check all the countries bordering on the ocean. These two last legions took up their winter quarters on the territory of the Lemovices, not far from the Arverni, so that no part of Gaul should be without troops. Cæsar remained but a short time in the province, presiding hastily over the assemblies, determining cases of public contestation, and rewarding those who had served him well. He had had occasion, more than any one, to know their sentiments individually, because, during the general revolt of Gaul, the fidelity and succour of the province had aided him in triumphing over it. When these affairs were settled, he returned to his legions in Belgium, and took up his winter quarters at Nemetocenna (Arras).
There he was informed of the last attempts of Commius, who, continuing a partisan war at the head of a small number of cavalry, intercepted the Roman convoys. Mark Antony had charged C. Volusenus Quadratus, prefect of the cavalry, to pursue him; he had accepted the task eagerly, in the hope of succeeding this time better than the first; but Commius, taking advantage of the rash ardour with which his enemy had rushed upon him, had wounded him seriously, and escaped; he was discouraged, however, and had promised Mark Antony to retire to any spot which should be appointed him, on condition that he should never be compelled to appear before a Roman.555 This condition having been accepted, he had given hostages.556
Gaul was henceforth subjugated; death or slavery had carried off its principal citizens. Of all the chiefs who had fought for its independence, only two survived, Commius and Ambiorix. Banished far from their country, they died unknown.