Kitap 2
15
Trebonius began to apply himself to the task of repairing his losses, with a great increase of zeal on the part of his troops. For they saw that all their labours and appliances had turned out ill, and were highly indignant that owing to the wicked violation of the truce their valour would be a mark for derision; and so, since there was no place left from which material for a rampart could possibly be collected, because all the trees far and wide in the Massilian district had been cut down and brought in, they set about making an earthwork of a novel kind that no one had heard of before out of two brick walls each six feet thick, and roofing these walls over, so that the width was about the same as that of the former earthwork piled up with timber. Wherever either the space between the walls or the weakness of the timber seemed to require it, piles are placed between them, cross-beams are put in to serve as a strengthening, and all the part roofed is spread over with hurdles, and the hurdles are covered with clay. Under this cover the soldiers, sheltered to right and left by the wall, in front by the defence of a screen, bring up without danger whatever is of use for the work. The business is conducted with speed; the wastage of their long-continued labour is soon made up by the skill and energy of the soldiers. Gates are left in the wall wherever seems suitable to allow of a sortie.
