Page 28 of Agrippa

He took the obvious view that Lucius must be heading our way to relieve the siege and join forces with Furnius. I countered that it was equally likely that his intention was to intercept Salvidienus on his march south.

When Caesar curtly disagreed, I asked if we might talk alone.

Once the others had withdrawn, I told him what I had witnessed after the Battle of Philippi, when Salvidienus and Antony had both believed that he was dead. I described the rueful glances they had exchanged when I informed them he was still alive.

– Why didn’t you tell me about this at the time?

– It was only a glance. I’ve never liked Salvidienus, but I don’t care to tell tales behind a man’s back. I had no evidence of his treachery. I still don’t. But imagine if he and Lucius meet and decide to join forces. Then they will outnumber us more than two to one.

It was not unlikely in an age when commanders changed sides as easily as they changed clothes.

– What do you propose?

– We should leave a token force here to continue the siege and move the bulk of the army back down south to head off Lucius before he can reach Salvidienus.

– So you would take charge of the siege while I deal with Lucius?

– Willingly, if that is what you want.

He stared at the map and thought about it for a long while. He grunted, and looked hard at me. Then came the moment that was to define our relationship for the rest of our lives.

– No, you are a better soldier than I am. Your health is more reliable. You should command the main army. I shall remain here.

He promoted me to the rank of legate, thus granting me imperium and with it the red cloak of a general in the field. Soon after dawn, I assembled our force of some twenty thousand men.

Caesar rose early to see us off. We stood together on the back of a cart. He shook my hand and lifted it above my head, provoking a roar from the centuries. He bent his head to my ear and wished me good fortune.

– You have certainly come a long way from the schoolyard!

It was my first independent command. The responsibility was immense. And yet I felt no anxiety. Why? It was more than just youthful confidence. Some soldiers like receiving orders. I have always preferred issuing them. I had an absolute conviction that I was doing what I was born to do.

The Via Flaminia is a fine road, built two centuries ago for strategic reasons and specifically designed to enable a forced march, six abreast. In two days, we covered more than sixty miles. Each morning I sent scouts ahead to try to locate the whereabouts of the armies of Lucius and Salvidienus. At night I studied the local maps. My plan was to find a base in the hills to the west and lure Lucius into battle amid the gorges and ravines. If he refused to take the bait, we could descend into the valley of the Tiber and attack him from behind. I consulted some officers who knew the terrain. From their descriptions, I settled on the walled town of Sutrium as the most promising fortress.

We reached it on the fourth day with barely an hour to spare. Lucius’s legions were so close we could see the dust raised by their cavalry, approaching along the road from Rome.

The town was all that I had hoped. Its walls of whitish tufa rose like a natural stone formation out of the surrounding rock so that it seemed to have been hewn out of the hill upon which it sat. Surrounded by wooded ravines, it could only be approached by a narrow neck to the west. We invested it without opposition, and the rest of the army encamped around it. I ordered twice as many fires to be lit as usual so that at night the glow could be seen for miles and Lucius would believe our numbers greater than they were.

Our scouts soon reported that his column had halted and he was building a fortified camp in the open country beside the road. As I had calculated, he dared not continue his advance and risk an attack on his rear. At the same time, I received news that Salvidienus’s legions were streaming down the Via Cassia and were now only about two days’ march to the north. I sent a message to him giving our position and suggesting we join forces. I was confident that even if Old Big Nose did go over to Lucius, we could hold out in our fortress for weeks or months.

The next day, the fighting started.

It was a bloody hand-to-hand business conducted in the narrow defiles amid the trees and rocks and streams. But we had the advantage of the higher ground. I went down myself to join in and encourage the men. We poured out of the woods, screaming our war cries, and surprised one of Lucius’s probing assaults, hacking it to pieces and leaving the bodies in the fast-flowing water.

These isolated engagements went on for several days. Each time they tried to attack us, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. If Lucius did send emissaries to Salvidienus offering a pact, they must have returned empty-handed, for as Salvidienus drew nearer, Lucius abruptly broke off these probing assaults, dismantled his camp and resumed his march up the Via Flaminia.

I left a token garrison and set off after him with my four legions.

Lucius’s position had become extremely perilous. Furnius was still bottled up in Sentinum. My legions, together with those of Salvidienus, now close behind me, greatly outnumbered his. And winter was approaching.

As I had anticipated, he drew the inevitable conclusion and headed west to the fortified hilltop town of Perusia. The citizens of that ancient Etruscan stronghold foolishly agreed to open their gates to admit him, and by the time we arrived, he was inside with his army.

The grey stone walls of travertine blocks were massive and impregnable. But if there was no way in, there was also no way out.

He was temporarily safe – and trapped.

Caesar arrived with Lepidus and Maecenas, and soon afterwards Salvidienus appeared. There was no hint of any tension between him and Caesar, who greeted one another as old friends. Both congratulated me on my handling of the campaign. Naturally I had the good sense to give all the credit to Caesar, insisting I had only implemented his strategy. He modestly accepted this was true but conceded it might not have worked without me.

Although we brought up siege engines and ballistae, even the heaviest missiles merely bounced off Perusia’s walls. It was clear the garrison would have to be starved into submission. Accordingly we set the legions to work digging a great ditch thirty feet deep and thirty wide, using the spoil to erect a wall that completely surrounded the town. The labour kept them fit and occupied them for weeks as the weather turned cold. Eventually these siege works extended for some nineteen miles, with fifteen hundred watchtowers spaced sixty feet apart.