mmunication between the other two, was not yet completed. This
circumstance was known to Pompey, being told to him by the Allobrogian
deserters, and proved of great disadvantage to us. For when our cohorts
of the ninth legion were on guard by the sea-side, Pompey's army arrived
suddenly by break of day, and their approach was a surprise to our men,
and at the same time, the soldiers that came by sea cast their darts on
the front rampart; and the ditches were filled with fascines: and the
legionary soldiers terrified those that defended the inner rampart, by
applying the scaling ladders, and by engines and weapons of all sorts,
and a vast multitude of archers poured round upon them from every side.
Besides, the coverings of oziers, which they had laid over their
helmets, were a great security to them against the blows of stones which
were the only weapons that our soldiers had. And therefore, when our men
were oppressed in every manner, and were scarcely able to make
resistance, the defect in our works was observed, and Pompey's soldiers,
landing between the two ramparts, where the work was unfinished,
attacked our men in the rear, and having beat them from both sides of
the fortification, obliged them to flee.

LXIV.--Marcellinus, being informed of this disorder, detached some
cohorts to the relief of our men, who seeing them flee from the camp,
were neither able to persuade them to rally at their approach, nor
themselves to sustain the enemy's charge. And in like manner, whatever
additional assistance was sent, was infected by the fears of the
defeated, and increased the terror and danger. For retreat was prevented
by the multitude of the fugitives. In that battle, when the eagle-bearer
was dangerously wounded, and began to grow weak, having got sight of our
horse, he said to them, "This eagle have I defended with the greatest
care for many years, at the hazard of my life, and now in my last
moments restore it to Caesar with the same fidelity. Do not, I conjure
you, suffer a dishonour to be sustained in the field, which never before
happened to Caesar's army, but deliver it safe into his hands." By this
accident the eagle was preserved, but all the centurions of the first
cohorts were killed, except the principal.

LXV.--And now the Pompeians, after great havoc of our troops, were
approaching Marcellinus's camp, and had struck no small terror into the
rest of the cohorts, when Marcus Antonius, who commanded the nearest