on warfare even in
winter did not try to attack Corduba--it was strongly guarded--but
turned his attention to Ategua, a city in which he had learned that
there was an abundance of grain. Although it was strong, he hoped by the
size of his army and the sudden terror of his appearance to alarm the
inhabitants and capture it. In a short time he had palisaded it off and
dug a ditch round about. Pompey, encouraged by the nature of the country
and thinking that Caesar because of the winter would not besiege the
place to any great extent, paid no heed and did not try at first to
repel the assailants, since he was unwilling to injure his own soldiers
in the cold. Later on, when the town had been walled off and Caesar was
in position before it, he grew afraid and came with assistance. He fell
in with the pickets suddenly one misty night and killed a number of
them. The ungeneraled condition of the inhabitants he ameliorated by
sending to them Munatius Flaccus. The latter [-34-] had contrived the
following scheme to get inside. He went alone by night to some of the
guards as if appointed by Caesar to visit the sentries, asked and learned
the pass-word:--he was not known, of course, and would never have been
suspected by the separate contingents of being anything but a friend
when he acted in this manner:--then he left these men and went around to
the other side of the circumvallation where he met some other guards and
gave them the pass-word: after that he pretended that his mission was to
betray the city, and so went inside through the midst of the soldiers
with their consent and actually under their escort. He could not,
however, save the place. In addition to other setbacks there was one
occasion when the citizens hurled fire upon the engines and palisades of
the Romans, yet did no damage to them worth mentioning; but they
themselves by reason of a violent wind which just then began to blow
toward them from the opposite side fared ill: for their buildings were
set afire and many persons perished from the stones and missiles, not
being able to see any distance ahead of them for the smoke. After this
disaster, as their land was continually ravaged, and every now and then
a portion of their wall would fall, undermined, they began to riot.
Flaccus first conferred with Caesar by herald on the basis of pardon for
himself and followers: later he failed of this owing to his resolution
not to surrender his arms, but the rest of the nativ