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Octogesa: Anquillaria: The Bagradas: Aggar
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2009
Extract
Octogesa.—Those who have read the First Commentary of Caesar's Civil War will remember that the theatre of the campaign which he conducted against Afranius and Petreius extended from a point on the Segre twenty-two Roman miles above Ilerda (Lerida) to the mountains which close on the north the valley of the Ebro. The earlier operations took place in the neighbourhood of Ilerda and on either side of the upper reaches of the Segre; the later in the country between Ilerda and the mountains. Thanks to Stoffel, the topography of the earlier operations is determined fairly well: that of the later, especially the position of Octogesa, is still uncertain. Caesar's camp was about five furlongs west of Ilerda; the Pompeian camp was on a ridge half a mile south of his.
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References
1 The MS. reading is XX. With Stoffel and Meusel I accept von Goler's emendation, XXX; for the nearest point on the Ebro is twenty-five Roman miles in a straight line from the site of the camp.
1 B.C. i. 61, 2–4.
2 Ib. 61.
3 Ib. 64, 2. Stoffel (Hist, de Jules César, i. 274), differing from von Göler, believes that universarum cohortium means the cohorts ‘du gros de l'armée,’ not merely those of the rearguard. I agree with von Goler. Such a charge as Stoffel imagines would have been not only unnecessary but in that country impossible, and, even if it could have been made, would have involved prodigious waste of time.
4 Caesar says (B.C. i. 64, 8) that the detour which he was obliged to make added six miles to his march. If he means that he marched six miles more than he would have done if he had been able to cross the Segre by the perma nent bridge, and if he crossed at the point which Stoffel indicates—two kilometres above the permanent bridge—his statement is an exaggeraagreetion: the additional march was not much more than two Roman miles. Indeed, the distance which he marched (according to Stoffel's map) before he reached the point where the march of Afranius had begun, was barely four miles and a half.
5 B.C. i. 63–4.
1 B.C., i, 65–6.
2 Ib. 65, 2, compared with 68, 2 and 79, 1–3.
3 Ib. 68, 1.
4 Ib. i. 68.70.
5 Guerre civile, i. 272–3.
6 Ib.
7 B.C. i. 70, 4.
1 B.C., i. 70, 4.
2 Jahresberichte d. philol. Vereins zu Berlin (Zeitschr. f. d. Gymnasialwisen), 1888, p. 332. Cf. R., Schneider'sIlerda, 1886, pp. 36–8.Google Scholar
3 The car was placed at my disposal by Mr. Abbot, F. W., General Manager of the Ebro Irrigation and Power Company, Limited. I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude not only to him, but also to his secretary, Mr.F. M. Dorrington; to Mr.Gatwood.who accom- panied me and interpreted my directions to the Spanish chauffeur; to Mr. Herbert Lycett; and to Mr. J. A. Sargent, the chief engineer.Google Scholar
4 I stopped the car, on account of the state of the road, about a mile from Granadella, and walked the rest of the way.
5 Stoffel's map (PI. 6) shows a much longer road, or track, which follows the north bank of the Ebro from a point opposite Ribarroja to the mouth of the Segre.
6 Hist, de Jules Cisar, i. 273.
1 Stoffel merely says (i. 63) that ‘après avoir ete harcelés sans relache par la cavalerie, poursuivis maintenant par toute l'armée ennemie et encore éloignés d'Octogesa de plus de dix-huit kilometres, ils ne pouvaient plus s'y porter par la route directe qui contourne le mont Maneu.’ Why would it have been harder to follow this route than to push on towards the defile of Ribarroja?
2 B.C. i. 63, 2.
3 Ib. 68, 1.
4 Ib. 69, 4.
5 Rudolf Schneider (Ilerda, p. 38) was in formed by H. Kiepert that Stoffel originally hesitated between Flix and Ribarroja.
1 Perhaps his knowledge of the country was vague, for he was obliged to reconnoitre on the march (B.C. i. 66, 3); but when he chose Octo- gesa as the site for his bridge, he may have informed himself about routes.
2 See p. 170, n. 5.
3 B.C. i. 70, 2.
4 If anyone hereafter identifies Octogesa with Mequinenza, he will, I think, be inclined to admit that the bridge was not opposite Octogesa, but just below the confluence of the Segre with the Ebro. Otherwise Afranius would evidently have been obliged to ford the Segre before he could reach Octogesa and the bridge.
5 B.C. i. 70, 3.
6 Ib. 71, 1.
1 B.C. i. 66, 4.
2 Ib. 68, 2.
3 Ib. 70, 3.
4 Ib. 79, 2.
5 Ib. § 3.
6 Ib. § 1.
7 Ib. 79, 4.
8 Ib. 80, 2.
9 According to Lucan (iv. 583), from Lilybaeum.
10 B.C. ii. 23, 1–2.
11 Atlas archéol. de la Tunisie, ed. E. Babelon, R. Cagnat, and S. Reinach, Feuille xvi and accompanying letterpress.
12 B.C. ii. 24, 1.
13 Tissot, C. J.Le bassin du Bagrada etc., 1881, pp. 104–110; Bull, archéol. du ComiU des travaux hist. 1887, P. 443.Google Scholar
14 See P., Menge1st Caesar der Verfasser des Abschnittes uber Curios Feldzug in Afrika ? 1910–1911, and H. Meusel's review in Jahresberichte d. philol. Vereins zu Berlin, 1913, pp. 20–21. My view is supported by A. Klotz, Rhein. Mus., 1911, pp. 81 ff.Google Scholar
15 One of them was Caesar's able legatus, Rebilus (B.C. ii. 24, 2; 34, 4; Bell. Afr. 86, 5).
16 Hist, de Jules Char, i. 310.
17 Voyage archeol. dans la regence de Tunis, ii. 1862, p. 224.
18 See pp. 319–20 of his edition.
19 The distance measured along the shortest road is really just over nineteen Roman miles.
1 Tissot, C. J.Géogr. comparée de la province rom. d'Afrique, i. 1884, pp. 164–9. The identity of Aquae Calidae with Korbeus is certain. Whether Aquae Calidae was identical with Carpis (or Carpi), or, as Tissot convincingly argues, distinct from it, is irrelevant to the present discussion.Google Scholar
2 Carte de la Tunisie, 1/50000, Feuille 94, or Atlas archéol. de la Tunisie, Feuille xiv.
3 The fleet which Caesar assembled for his first expedition to Britain, and which had to convey an army of about the same size as Curio's, numbered, besides ships of war, about 100 Gallic transports, which were probably larger than Curio's vessels ( B.G. iv. 22, 3–4; 24, 2).
4 Atlas archéol. de la Tunisie, Feuille xxi.
1 Tissot, Géogr, comparée, i. 165; C.I.L. viii. p. 129.
2 Atlas archéol. de la Tunisie, Feuille viii.
3 Géogr. comparée, i. 174–5.
4 Travels … relating to … Barbary and the Levant, second edition, 1757, vol. i. p. 88.
5 Diodorus Siculus, xx. 6, 3. Cl. The Mediterranean Pilot, i. 1904, p. 377.
1 Lettorpress accompanying Feuille viii.
2 Stoffel coolly asserts (i. 310) that ‘Après la chute de Carthage, les Romains … créerent en face de Missua, sur la pointe opposée du croissant qui formait la rade, une ville nouvelle qu'ils appelèrent du nom latin Anquillaria.’
3 See G., VeithAntike Schlachtfelder, etc., 3. 1912, p. 734, and Karte 16.Google Scholar
4 Le bassin du Bagrada, 1881, p. 106.
5 B.C. ii. 42, 1.
6 Hist, de Jules César, i. 313–4.
7 B.C. ii. 41, 2.
8 Ib. 39, 2.
1 B.G. vii. 40–1.
2 Rice Holmes, Hist, of the Indian Mutiny, fifth edition (reprint of 1913), p. 548.
3 63, 1; 67; 79, 2.
4 Bell. Afr. 79, 2.
5 Ib.68, I.
6 Ib. 68, 2; 69–70.
1 Bell. Afr. 79, 2–80, 3.
2 Hist, de Jules César, ii. 280.
3 Ib. p. 297.
4 Géogr. cotnparée, etc. ii. 744.
5 Bell. Afr. 80, 3.
6 Antike Schlachtfelder, etc., iii.811–19. According to Veith's map (Karte 20), Aggar is little more than two kilometres north of Ksour es Saf; and the site which he selects for Caesar's second camp is about the same distance west of it. He gives various reasons, besides those which occurred to me, for rejecting Stoffel's theory.