Chapter 18 Africa War 1-20

1.Caesar marched continuously for many days, without stopping all day, and completed the journey every day, and finally arrived at Lylubaium on December 17.He expressed his wish to disembark immediately, but at that time there were not many troops around him, only a regiment of recruits, and barely six hundred cavalry.He pitched his tent right on the shore, and the waves washed almost to its feet.He does this so that no one expects him to stop there, and to get everyone ready every day and every hour.Only in this season there is no navigable wind.But he left oarsman and men on board, lest he should miss any chance of setting off.Especially since the inhabitants of this province report that the enemy has numerous cavalry, four legions belonging to the king and a large number of light cavalry, and ten legions under Scipio, with a hundred and twenty war elephants, There are also several fleets.However, he was not intimidated, and still held great determination and hope.At this time, his number of warships was increasing every day, and many transport ships were also arriving one after another. At the same time, there were also four legions of recruits, and the fifth legion composed of veterans, with 2,000 cavalry.

2.Now there are six legions and two thousand cavalry assembled.Each legion, as soon as it arrives, is placed on the battleship, and the cavalry is also placed on the transport ship.He therefore ordered the greater part of the fleet to set out first, and sail to the island of Apognana, which is ten miles from Lilybaium.He himself stayed behind for a few days and sold several people's property in the name of the state.Then.He gave instructions in all respects to Alinus, the magistrate in charge of Sicily, to have the rest of the army swiftly on board.Having given these instructions, he himself embarked on the 25th of December, and immediately overtook the rest of his fleet.Advancing swiftly with fair sail, and in four days sailed with a few ships to a place where Africa could be seen.But the rest of the transports, with a few exceptions, were scattered by the wind, and drifted about, heading for many other places.He sailed with his fleet through Clupea, and through Mampolis, leaving behind him many forts and towns not far from the sea.

3.He then arrived at Hadrumetum, where there was an opposing garrison under Gaius Considius.There also appeared Gnaeus Piso, who was walking along the coast from Clupea to Hadrumetum with a Maori cavalry of about three thousand men.Caesar stopped a little while outside the yonder port, and when the rest of his fleet had arrived, he sent his troops ashore.At this time its numbers were: three thousand infantry and one hundred and fifty cavalry.They camped before the city gate, lest they hurt anyone, and forbade all plunder.At this time, the people in the city were armed and arranged on the city wall, and many people gathered in front of the city gate to defend themselves. Their number was close to two legions.Caesar rode round the city, surveyed its terrain, and returned to his camp.Some blamed Caesar for being negligent in not telling the helmsman and captain in advance where the ship was to sail, or giving them a signed and sealed order to be unpacked at a certain time, as was always customary in the old days, so that everyone can gather in one place.But it's by no means that Caesar didn't think of this.For he reckoned that there might be no harbor in African soil without an enemy garrison where his fleet could safely land, and he could only wait for the chance of landing which luck chanced to bring him.

4.Meanwhile, one of his lieutenants, Lucius Plancus, asked Caesar to give him an opportunity to contact Considius to see if there was any way to bring him to his senses.After Caesar had consented, he wrote a letter and gave it to a prisoner to be sent to the city to be delivered to Considius.When the prisoner arrived there and handed the letter to Considius as instructed, Considius asked before he received it, "Where is this from?" where he came from." Considius added: "The Roman people now have but one commander, and that is Scipio." Having said this, he immediately ordered the captive to be killed in front of his subordinates.Not only had the letter not been read, it had not even been opened, and it was delivered to Scipio in its original form by someone he trusted.

5.After spending night and day outside the city, Considius gave no answer.Besides, the rest of Caesar's army had not yet arrived to reinforce him, nor did he have enough cavalry and men to attack the town, all he had were recruits, and he was most reluctant to let himself The troops suffered serious setbacks.Furthermore, the city was very well fortified, and its high ground made it difficult to attack it, and word came that reinforcements of cavalry were coming to the aid of the townspeople.From this point of view, it seems that it is not the best policy to delay here for the sake of attacking the city. It is very likely that when you are focusing on attacking the city, you will be surrounded by the enemy's cavalry behind you, making you very embarrassed.

6.Just as Caesar was thinking of moving his camp there, suddenly a large number of people rushed out from the city, and a group of cavalry sent by King Yuba to receive silver gifts came just at this elbow and gave them support.They took the camp from which Caesar had just left and set out, and began to pursue his rear.Seeing this, the legionnaires stopped abruptly, and the cavalry, though few in number, charged with the utmost gallantry upon the hostile body.Then the unbelievable thing happened. Less than thirty Gallic cavalry drove back two thousand Maori cavalry and made them flee into the city.After driving them back and driving them back to the fortifications, Caesar resumed his original plan and hurried on his way.But when the opponent did this repeatedly, catching up for a while, and being chased back to the city by the cavalry again, he placed the few battalions and some cavalry of the veteran army around him in the rear army, and then led the rest The troops began to advance slowly.Thus, the further from the city the more slackened the Numidian persecution.Meanwhile envoys came from towns and fortresses while he was on his march, promising him provisions and saying they were ready to carry out his orders.So on this day they pitched camp at the city of Ruspina.

7.On the 1st of January he moved his camp from there and set out to reach the city of Leptis, a free city exempt from tribute, from which messengers came to him, promising that they would gladly carry out what he wanted. Everything they do.Therefore, he placed some centurions and sentinels at the gate of the city to guard, lest any soldiers should break into the city or invade any of the inhabitants.The camp is located not far from the coast.It so happened that some transports and ships of war also sailed there, and he received reports that the rest were already on their way to Utica, as they were not familiar with the place.At this time, it was because of these lost ships.So Caesar was unwilling to leave the coast, nor to enter the interior.He kept all his cavalry in the ship, and did not let them go ashore, and I think, probably in order to avoid their ravages in the country, he ordered that even water should be carried on board for them. The oarsmen were suddenly attacked by the Maori, who were surprised by Caesar's troops and suddenly wounded many with their javelins and killed some.These Maori rode in ambush in the valley and rushed out to attack, avoiding close combat on the plains.

8.At the same time, Caesar sent messengers to Sardinia and other neighboring provinces, telling them to try to send him reinforcements, provisions, and food as soon as they received the letter.He also vacated a part of the warships, sent Bilius Postumus to Sicily, and shipped the second batch of troops.He ordered Vathinius to go out with ten warships to search for the rest of the lost transports, and at the same time to maintain the tranquility of the sea from the enemy.Likewise, he ordered Gaius Salustius Crispus, the magistrate, to take part of his ships to the island of Kerkina, which was now occupied by the enemy, where, it was said, there was plenty of provisions.He gave these instructions to each of them in a tone that did not allow them to procrastinate by using the uncertainty of the matter as an excuse.At the same time, he learned from the fugitives and the inhabitants of the agreement that Scipio had made with a party of his men who were fighting against him, that Scipio was using almost all the cavalry in the province of Africa to supply the king's cavalry.Such men are so mad that they would rather be servants of kings than enjoy their inheritance in peace among their own country and among their fellow citizens.

9.On January 2, Caesar moved camp.After leaving six battalions under the leadership of Sassena to guard Leptis, he himself took the rest of the army and returned to Ruspina, which had left there the day before yesterday.The army's baggage was left there, and he himself went out with a lightly armed force, and went round the farms to collect provisions.He ordered the townspeople to let all their carts and cattle follow.Thus he returned to Ruspina after finding a large quantity of grain.His purpose in coming back to this town, I think, was to not leave the coastal town empty behind him, but to secure it with a garrison and fortify it for admission. own fleet.

10.Caesar, therefore, left a legion under the command of Publius Sassena, the brother of the man whom he had left at the nearby town of Leptis, and charged him to transport as much timber as he could Come to town.He himself left the town of Ruspina and hurried to its port.He took with him seven battalions, all drawn from the legions of veterans, all having fought in the fleet with Sulpicius and Vathinius.As soon as he reached the port, two miles from the city, he boarded the ship with this army in the evening hours.No one in the army knew the commander's plan, so they could only ask each other, and couldn't help being agitated because of anxiety and worry.They saw that the army he had brought to land in Africa was so small, all recruits, and not yet all landed, against a multitude and treacherous people, innumerable cavalry alone, in the in the current predicament.They see no consolation for themselves, no hope of salvation in their own calculations.If anything, it was the look on the commander's countenance, the energy and the uncommon joy, for there was a look of radiance and determination in him.It was in him that people found comfort, and they all hoped that by his knowledge, skill, and resourcefulness, they could save everything from danger.

11.After spending the night in his ship, as he was trying to set sail at twilight, he suddenly saw that part of the fleet which he had so much in mind, groping its way here and there, drifting here and there.On learning of this, Caesar hastily ordered all to leave the ship, and stand armed on the shore, waiting for the rest of the army to arrive.so.When these ships entered the port without delay with their soldiers and cavalry, Caesar returned again to the town of Ruspina, where he pitched his camp.He himself went out to collect provisions with a battalion of thirty lightly armed.In this way, people finally understood Caesar's plan. It turned out that his intention was to take his fleet to the aid of those lost transport ships, but in order to prevent his ships from accidentally encountering the enemy's fleet , so he wants to keep it from the enemy, and he is not willing to stay behind as guards to know this plan, so that they will not be able to perform their duties because they are too few in number and the enemy is too large to be intimidated. . 12.Meanwhile, when Caesar was three leagues from the camp, the scouts and the vanguard of cavalry reported to him that they had seen the enemy's army not far off.Really, this report has only just arrived, and already you can start to see a big plume of smoke.Upon hearing this, Caesar quickly ordered all the cavalry and a few archers who were there at that time to be summoned out of the battalion, and the legion also marched slowly along with him in an orderly manner.He himself went ahead with a handful of armed men.Soon the enemy can be seen from afar.He ordered the soldiers to put on their helmets and prepare for battle on the level ground. Their total number consisted of thirty battalions, with four hundred cavalry and one hundred and fifty archers. 13.At the same time the enemy, led by the brothers Labienus and Pagidius, spread out in a formation of strange length, closely packed, but not infantry but cavalry, interspersed with Numides. Asia's light soldiers and archers on foot were so densely packed that Caesar's men at first thought they were infantry from a distance.On the left and right flanks there are many cavalry units reinforcing them.At the same time, Caesar tried to arrange his thin army in a single file as far as possible.And put the archers in front of the team, and the cavalry on the left and right wings.He specially instructed them to be careful not to be surrounded by the enemy's cavalry in such a large number that he believed that although the formation was arranged, the battle would be fought only by infantry. 14.At this time, both sides are leading and waiting.Caesar stood still. He thought that with a small number of people like himself, fighting against a huge enemy force should mainly be a battle of wits rather than strength.Suddenly the enemy's cavalry began to spread out, spread out to both sides, and surrounded the hills, so that Caesar's cavalry had to stretch out more sparsely, and began to prepare to form a circle.Caesar's cavalry found it difficult to cope with the number of opponents.When the central parts of the formations of the two sides came into contact, the Numidian light infantry who were advancing together in the middle of the enemy's dense cavalry suddenly rushed out with rapid steps and threw weapons at the infantry of our legion.At this time, Caesar's troops attacked them, and the opponent's cavalry fled, but the infantry remained in their position until the cavalry came back on horseback to support their own infantry. 15.In this novel mode of warfare, Caesar saw that whenever his ranks pursued, it caused confusion, because the infantry, in pursuit of the cavalry, ran far away from the ranks, and the flanks were inevitably exposed. , Numidians approaching can kill people with spears, but the enemy's cavalry can easily avoid our army's light spears by galloping on galloping horses.Then he sent out the order line by line, forbidding any soldier to run more than four paces from the company's mark. At the same time, Labienus' cavalry, relying on their numbers, tried to surround Caesar's weak troops.Caesar's little cavalry, exhausted by the mass of the enemy, and wounded on their horses, retreated a little, while the enemy pressed ever closer.In this way, for a while, all the legionnaires were surrounded by the enemy's cavalry, so that Caesar's subordinates were compressed into a circle, and everyone seemed to be fighting in a fence. 16.Labienus was bald, and rode back and forth at the forefront of the battle line. While encouraging his subordinates, he occasionally spoke to Caesar's legionnaires: "Hey, recruits, how are you? Look at you! That kind of force! You are all fascinated by his words, God knows how dangerous he has pushed you into, I am so sorry for you!" A soldier replied: "Labinus , I'm not a recruit, I'm a veteran of the Tenth Legion." Labienus went on to say, "I don't recognize the banner of the Tenth Legion." The soldier added, "I'll make you recognize me in a moment. Who is here?" he said, taking off his helmet from his head, so that he might be recognized, and aimed his lance at Labienus with all his might, hitting him hard in the belly of his horse. .He said: "Let you know, Labinus, this is what the soldiers of the Tenth Legion have given you." Even so, all the soldiers were panicked, especially the recruits, who could only stare at Caesar , in addition to dodging the weapons thrown by the enemy, I don't care about anything. 17.As soon as Caesar saw through the enemy's plot, he ordered the ranks to be stretched out as long as possible, and that every other battalion should be turned so that one had its back to the standard and the next faced it, so that Once, together with his left and right wings, he divided the circle of enemy troops into two halves.Having separated one half from the other with his cavalry, he attacked it from the inside with his infantry, driving them away with a shower of spears.Our army chased it for a short distance, because we were afraid of an ambush, we returned to our own side again.The other half of Caesar's cavalry and infantry did the same.After the mission was accomplished, the enemy was driven far away with heavy casualties.Caesar's men, still in line for battle, began to retreat to their quarters. 18.At the same time Urcus Petreius and Gnaeus Piso arrived with sixteen hundred chosen Numidian cavalry and a rather large infantry of the same race.As soon as they arrived, they came to support their own people.At the same time, having recovered from their confusion, the enemy, having regained their spirits, turned their cavalry upon the rear of our retreating legion, and began to prevent them from retreating into the camp.Seeing this, Caesar ordered to turn back and resume the fight in the middle of the plain.Repeatedly employing the same tactic, the enemy simply stopped fighting at close quarters, while Caesar's cavalry, whose horses had just been seasick, thirsty, fatigued, and wounded in outnumbered struggles, were exhausted. Persevering in pursuit of the enemy, and with the time of day running out, Caesar encouraged the besieged infantry and cavalry to strike hard enough to drive the enemy beyond the furthest hills, The mountains are occupied, don't stop.Thus, when he saw that the enemy was listless and absent-minded in throwing his weapon, he suddenly gave an order, and even if his infantry and cavalry charged forward, he would drive the enemy from the plain without much effort, Go behind the mountains.Caesar's subordinates occupied that place, stayed there for a while, and then slowly returned to their fortifications in line with the battle queue.Their enemies also returned to their garrison after receiving this beating. 19.At the same time, after this contest, after the fighting stopped, many people from the enemy's camp fled to Caesar, there were all kinds of people, and many infantry and cavalry were captured by me. the enemy's plan.Their original intention was to frighten and dismay the few legions newly recruited by Caesar by new and unfamiliar tactics, and then surround and destroy them with cavalry, as at Curio's time.Labinus once said at the meeting: He will provide thousands of allies to Caesar’s opponents. Even if Caesar’s subordinates win, they will be exhausted just by killing these people. Will turn them from victory to defeat, crushed by his own men.In fact, without the help of these allied forces, Labinus was also very confident. First, he heard that in Rome, the Veteran Legion refused to carry out the order and refused to come to Africa; Over the years, these people have become accustomed to being loyal to him.In addition, he had a large number of Numidian cavalry and light soldiers as allies.He also had those Germanic and Gallic cavalry which he had brought across from Butrotum with him after Pompey's army had been defeated and dispersed; Some of the conscripts have been armed and trained by him to be cavalry with pommel horses.He also had one hundred and twenty war elephants and countless cavalry sent by King Yuba as reinforcements.Finally, he had twelve thousand legionnaires, drawn from all sorts of people.It was this hope and this energy which inspired Labienus to come with this army of sixteen hundred Gallic and German cavalry, eight thousand unsaddled Numidian cavalry, and The reinforcement of Petraeus's sixteen hundred cavalry, and four times as many infantry and light soldiers, plus a large number of archers, stone archers and horse archers, on January 4, after Caesar arrived in Africa On the fifth day of the year, on an extremely flat plain stretching as far as the eye can see, a battle was fought from the fifth hour of the day until sunset.In this battle, Petreius was badly wounded and retired from the field. 20.Meanwhile Caesar fortified his camp more carefully, and reinforced its defenses with greater numbers, beginning again with the city of Ruspina.Build a rampart all the way to the sea, and another similar rampart from your camp to the sea, so that supplies and reinforcements may pass to each other without danger.He brought the spears and war machines from the ships to the camp, and called a part of the Gallic and Rhodes rowers and sailors from the ships to the camp, and armed them, so that, if possible, they would also like the other party. Insert light soldiers into your own cavalry.He also summoned to the camp all the archers on board, the Itireans, the Syrians, and many others, and filled his army for a time with these, It was heard the next day that Scipio was bringing his force, said to have eight legions and three thousand cavalry, to join Labienus and Petreius.At the same time he managed to open many iron workshops, producing arrows and spears in large quantities, besides casting lead balls, preparing stakes, and sending messengers to Sicily to collect for him wooden fences and rams. —for Africa is short of wood—especially iron and lead.Also, considering that in Africa he had no food to eat unless it was brought in from outside, since the peasants here were all vassals paying tribute to Rome, and had been conscripted by his enemies for military service, So there was no harvest last year.and, besides, that his enemies had sent all the grain of Africa to the few well-fortified towns, there was no grain in all parts of Africa, and all but the few towns which they could hold with garrisons were Destroyed or abandoned, their inhabitants were forced to move into fortified strongholds, and the fields were abandoned and barren.