No More Learning

" The ambassadors at the same time
pointed to their strongholds founded upon precipices; and boasted that
they had thither conveyed their wives and parents; and threatened a war
intricate, hazardous and bloody.

Sabinus amused them with gentle answers till he could draw together his
army; while Pomponius Labeo was advancing with a legion from Moesia, and
King Rhoemetalces with a body of Thracians who had not renounced their
allegiance. With these, and what forces he had of his own, he marched
towards the foe, now settled in the passes of the forest: some more bold
presented themselves upon the hills: against the last, the Roman general
first bent his forces in battle, and without difficulty drove them
thence, but with small slaughter of the Barbarians, because of their
immediate refuge. Here he straight raised an encampment, and with a
stout band took possession of a hill, which extended with an even narrow
ridge to the next fortress, which was garrisoned by a great host of
armed men and rabble: and as the most resolute were, in the way of
the nation, rioting without the fortification in dances and songs, he
forthwith despatched against them his select archers. These, while they
only poured in volleys of arrows at a distance did thick and extensive
execution; but, approaching too near, were by a sudden sally put in
disorder. They were however supported by a cohort of the Sigambrians,
purposely posted by Sabinus in readiness against an exigency; a people
these, equally terrible in the boisterous and mixed uproar of their
voices and arms.

He afterwards pitched his camp nearer to the enemy; having in his former
entrenchments left the Thracians, whom I have mentioned to have joined
us. To them too was permitted "to lay waste, burn, and plunder; on
condition that their ravages were confined to the day; and that, at
nights, they kept within the camp, secure under guard. " This restriction
was at first observed; but, anon lapsing into luxury, and grown opulent
in plunder, they neglected their guards, and resigned themselves to
gaiety and banquetting, to the intoxication and sloth of wine and sleep.
The enemy therefore apprised of their negligence, formed themselves
into two bands; one to set upon the plunderers; the other to assault
the Roman camp, with no hopes of taking it; but only that the soldiers
alarmed with shouts and darts, and all intent upon their own defence,
might not hear the din of the other battle: moreover to heighten the
terror, it was to be done by night. Those who assailed the lines of
the legions were easily repulsed: but, the auxiliary Thracians were
terrified with the sudden encounter, as they were utterly unprepared.
Part of them lay along the entrenchments; many were roaming abroad; and
both were slain with the keener vengeance, as they were upbraided "for
fugitives and traitors, who bore arms to establish servitude over their
country and themselves. "

Next day Sabinus drew up his army in view of the enemy, on ground equal
to both; to try, if elated with their success by night, they would
venture a battle: and, when they still kept within the fortress, or
on the cluster of hills, he began to begird them with a siege; and
strengthening his old lines and adding new, enclosed a circuit of four
miles. Then to deprive them of water and forage, he straitened his
entrenchment by degrees, and hemmed them in still closer. A bulwark
was also raised, whence the enemy now within throw, were annoyed with
discharges of stones, darts, and fire.
But nothing aggrieved them so
vehemently as thirst, whilst only a single fountain remained amongst a
huge multitude of armed men and families: their horses too and cattle,
penned up with the people, after the barbarous manner of the country,
perished for want of provender: amongst the carcasses of beasts lay
those of men; some dead of thirst, some of their wounds; a noisome
mixture of misery and death; all was foul and tainted with putrefaction,
stench, and filthy contamination. To these distresses also accrued
another, and of all calamities the most consummate, the calamity of
discord: some were disposed to surrender; others proposed present death,
and to fall upon one another. There were some too who advised a sally,
and to die avenging their deaths. Nor were these last mean men, though
dissenting from the rest.

But there was one of their leaders, his name Dinis, a man stricken in
years, who, by long experience, acquainted with the power and clemency
of the Romans, argued, "that they must lay down their arms, the same
being the sole cure for their pressing calamities;" and was the first
who submitted, with his wife and children to the conqueror. There
followed him all that were weak through sex or age, and such as had a
greater passion for life than glory. The young men were parted between
Tarsa and Turesis; both determined to fall with liberty: but Tarsa
declared earnestly "for instant death; and that by it all hopes and
fears were at once to be extinguished;" and setting an example, buried
his sword in his breast. Nor were there wanting some who despatched
themselves the same way. Turesis and his band stayed for night: of
which our General was aware. The guards were therefore strengthened
with extraordinary reinforcements: and now with the night, darkness
prevailed, its horror heightened by outrageous rain; and the enemy with
tumultuous shouts, and by turns with vast silence, alarmed and puzzled
the besiegers. Sabinus therefore going round the camp, warned the
soldiers, "that they should not be misguided by the deceitful voice of
uproar, nor trust to a feigned calm, and thence open an advantage to the
enemy, who by these wiles sought it; but keep immovably to their several
posts; nor throw their darts at random. "

Just then came the Barbarians, pouring in distinct droves: here, with
stones, with wooden javelins hardened in the fire, and with the broken
limbs of trees, they battered the palisade: there with hurdles, faggots
and dead bodies, they filled the trench: by others, bridges and ladders,
both before framed, were planted against the battlements; these they
violently grappled and tore, and struggled hand to hand with those who
opposed them. The Romans, on the other side, beat them back with their
bucklers, drove them down with darts, and hurled upon them great mural
stakes and heaps of stones. On both sides were powerful stimulations: on
ours the hopes of victory almost gained, if we persisted; and thence the
more glaring infamy, if we recoiled: on theirs, the last struggle for
their life; most of them, too, inspired with the affecting presence of
their mothers and wives, and made desperate by their dolorous wailings.
The night was an advantage to the cowardly and the brave; by it, the
former became more resolute; by it, the latter hid their fear: blows
were dealt, the striker knew not upon whom; and wounds received, the
wounded knew not whence: such was the utter indistinction of friend and
foe. To heighten the general jumble and blind confusion, the echo from
the cavities of the mountain represented to the Romans the shouts of the
enemy as behind them: hence in some places they deserted their lines, as
believing them already broken and entered: and yet such of the enemy,
as broke through, were very few.