Kitap 3
47
The method of warfare was new and unprecedented, both on account of the large number of redoubts, the wide space covered, the great defensive works, and the whole system of blockade, as well as in other respects. For whenever one army has attempted to blockade another, it is when they have attacked a discomfited and weakened foe, overcome in battle or demoralized by some reverse, and have thus hemmed them in, being themselves superior in number of horse and foot; while the motive of the blockade has usually been to prevent the foe from getting supplies. But on this occasion Caesar with an inferior number of men was hemming in fresh and uninjured forces, the enemy having an abundant supply of all necessaries. For every day a large number of ships was gathering from every quarter to bring up stores, nor could any wind blow without their having a favourable course from some direction. But Caesar himself was in extreme straits, all the corn far and wide having been used up. Nevertheless the men bore these hardships with exemplary patience. For they bore in mind that they had endured these same hardships the year before in Spain and by their toil and patience had concluded a very serious war. They remembered that at Alesia they had endured great privation, still greater at Avaricum, and had come off victors over very important nations. When barley was offered them they did not refuse it, or vegetables; whereas meat, of which there was a very large supply from Epirus, they held in high favour. v
