her.

LXXIII.--It was necessary, at one and the same time, to procure timber
[for the rampart], lay in supplies of corn, and raise also extensive
fortifications, and the available troops were in consequence of this
reduced in number, since they used to advance to some distance from the
camp, and sometimes the Gauls endeavoured to attack our works, and to
make a sally from the town by several gates and in great force. On which
Caesar thought that further additions should be made to these works, in
order that the fortifications might be defensible by a small number of
soldiers. Having, therefore, cut down the trunks of trees or very thick
branches, and having stripped their tops of the bark, and sharpened them
into a point, he drew a continued trench everywhere five feet deep.
These stakes being sunk into this trench, and fastened firmly at the
bottom, to prevent the possibility of their being torn up, had their
branches only projecting from the ground. There were five rows in
connection with, and intersecting each other; and whoever entered within
them were likely to impale themselves on very sharp stakes. The soldiers
called these "cippi." Before these, which were arranged in oblique rows
in the form of a quincunx, pits three feet deep were dug, which
gradually diminished in depth to the bottom. In these pits tapering
stakes, of the thickness of a man's thigh, sharpened at the top and
hardened in the fire, were sunk in such a manner as to project from the
ground not more than four inches; at the same time for the purpose of
giving them strength and stability, they were each filled with trampled
clay to the height of one foot from the bottom: the rest of the pit was
covered over with osiers and twigs, to conceal the deceit. Eight rows of
this kind were dug, and were three feet distant from each other. They
called this a lily from its resemblance to that flower. Stakes a foot
long, with iron hooks attached to them, were entirely sunk in the ground
before these, and were planted in every place at small intervals; these
they called spurs.

LXXIV.--After completing these works, having selected as level ground as
he could, considering the nature of the country, and having enclosed an
area of fourteen miles, he constructed, against an external enemy,
fortifications of the same kind in every respect, and separate from
these, so that the guards of the fortifications could not be surrounded
even by immense numbers, if such a cir