History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2. Napoleon III

335

De Bello Gallico, V. 12.

336

De Bello Gallico, VI. 13.

337

Agricola, 11.

338

Strabo, IV., p. 199.

339

De Bello Gallico, V. 12.

340

Diodorus Siculus, V. 22.

341

Pliny, Hist. Nat., IV. 30, § 16.

342

Tacitus, Agricola, 36.

343

De Bello Gallico, V. 16.

344

Tacitus, Agricola, 12.

345

Frontinus, Stratagm., II. 3, 18. – Diodorus Siculus, V. 21. – Strabo, IV., p. 200.

346

The account on page 213 confirms this interpretation, which is conformable to that of General Gœler.

347

De Bello Gallico, IV. 32 and 33.

348

Strabo, IV., p. 200.

349

Strabo, IV., p. 201.

350

From what will be seen further on, each transport ship, on its return, contained 150 men. Eighty ships could thus transport 12,000 men, but since, reduced to sixty-eight, they were enough to carry back the whole army to the continent, they can only have carried 10,200 men, which was probably the effective force of the two legions. The eighteen ships appropriated to the cavalry might transport 450 horses, at the rate of twenty-five horses each ship.

351

The port of Dover extended formerly from the site of the present town, between the cliffs which border the valley of the Dour or of Charlton. (See Plate 17.) Indeed, from the facts furnished by ancient authors, and a geological examination of the ground, it appears certain that once the sea penetrated into the land, and formed a creek which occupied nearly the whole of the valley of Charlton. The words of Cæsar are just justified: “Cujus loci hæc erat natura, atque ita montibus angustis mare continebatur, uti ex locis superioribus in littus telum adjici posset.” (IV. 23.)

The proofs of the above assertion result from several facts related in different notices on the town of Dover. It is there said that in 1784 Sir Thomas Hyde Page caused a shaft to be sunk at a hundred yards from the shore, to ascertain the depth of the basin at a remote period; it proved that the ancient bed of the sea had been formerly thirty English feet below the present level of the high tide. In 1826, in sinking a well at a place called Dolphin Lane, they found, at a depth of twenty-one feet, a bed of mud resembling that of the present port, mixed with the bones of animals and fragments of leaves and roots. Similar detritus have been discovered in several parts of the valley. An ancient chronicler, named Darell, relates that “Wilbred, King of Kent, built in 700 the church of St. Martin, the ruins of which are still visible near the market-place, on the spot where formerly ships cast anchor.”

The town built under the Emperors Adrian and Septimus Severus occupied a part of the port, which had already been covered with sand; yet the sea still entered a considerable distance inland. (See Plate 17.)

It would appear to have been about the year 950 that the old port was entirely blocked up with the maritime and fluvial alluvium which have been increasing till our day, and which at different periods have rendered it necessary to construct the dykes and quays which have given the port its present form.

352

“Constat enim aditus insulæ esse munitos mirificis molibus.” (Cicero, Epist. ad Atticum, IV. 16.)

353

Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.

354

The Emperor Julian (p. 70, edit. Lasius) makes Cæsar say that he had been the first to leap down from the ship.

355

It is in the text, in scopulum vicinum insulæ, which must be translated by “a rock near the isle of Britain,” and not, as certain authors have interpreted it, “a rock isolated from the continent.” (Valerius Maximus, III. ii. 23.) – In fact, these rocks, called Malms, are distinctly seen at low water opposite the arsenal and marine barracks at Deal.

356

Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 51.

357

Cæsar himself had only carried three servants with him, as Cotta relates. (Athenæus, Deipnosophist., VI. 105.)

358

Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 53.

359

At the battle of Arcola, in 1796, twenty-five horsemen had a great influence on the issue of the day. (Mémoires de Montholon, dictées de Sainte-Hélène, II. 9.)

360

De Bello Gallico, IV. 36 and 37.

361

De Bello Gallico, IV. 38.

362

Dio Cassius, XL. 1. – See Strabo, IV., p. 162, edit. Didot.

363

De Bello Gallico, V. I.

364

Dio Cassius, XXXIX. 56. XL. 1.

365

This opinion has been already supported by learned archæologists. I will cite especially M. Mariette; Mr. Thomas Lewin, who has written a very interesting account of Cæsar’s invasions of England; and lastly, M. l’Abbé Haigneré, archivist of Boulogne, who has collected the best documents on this question.

366

Strabo, IV. 6, p. 173.

367

According to the Itinerary of Antoninus, the road started from Bagacum (Bavay), and passed by Pons-Scaldis (Escaut-Pont), Turnacum (Tournay), Viroviacum (Werwick), Castellum (Montcassel, Cassel), Tarvenna (Thérouanne), and thence to Gesoriacum (Boulogne). According to Mariette, medals found on the road demonstrate that it had been made in the time of Agrippa; moreover, according to the same Itinerary of Antoninus, a Roman road started from Bavay, and, by Tongres, ended at the Rhine at Bonn. (See Jahrbücher des Vereins von Alterthums Freunden, Heft 37, Bonn, 1864. Now, admitting that there had been already under Augustus a road which united Boulogne with Bonn, we understand the expression of Florus, who explains that Drusus amended this road by constructing bridges on the numerous water-courses which it crossed, Bonnam et Gesoriacum pontibus junxit. (Florus, IV. 12.)

368

Suetonius, Caligula, 46. – The remains of the pharos of Caligula were still visible a century ago.

369

Suetonius, Claudius, 17.

370

Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 1.

371

Ammianus Marcellinus, XX. 7, 8.

372

Eumenius, Panegyric of Constantinus Cæsar, 14.

373

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, cited by Mr. Lewin.

374

“Qui tertia vigilia Morino solvisset a portu.” (Florus, III. 10.)

375

Strabo, IV. 5, p. 166.

376

“Ultimos Gallicarum gentium Morinos, nec portu quam Gesoriacum vocant quicquam notius habet.” (Pomponius Mela, III. 2.) – “Μορινὡν Γησοριακον ἑπἱνειον.” (Ptolemy, II. ix. 3.)

377

“Hæc [Britannia] abest a Gesoriaco Morinorum gentis litore proximo trajectu quinquaginta M.” (Pliny, Hist. Nat., IV. 30.)

378

The