Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/275

 MANDUBII. tlie inside. The Galli failed to force the lines both on the inside and the outside. But the attack on the camp of Reginus and Eebilus was desperate, and Labienus was sent to support them. Neither ram- parts nor ditches could stop the fierce assault of the enemy. Labienus summoned to his aid the soldiers from the nearest posts, and sent to tell Caesar what he thought ought to be done. His design was to sally out upon the enemy, as Caesar had ordered him to do, if he could not drive them off from the lines. The place where the decisive struggle took place is easily seen from the Arx Alesiae ; and it is accu- rately described by Caesar (B.G. 83, 85). This is the hill (E.) which slopes down to the plain of the Loze. The upper part of the slope opposite to the Arx Alesiae is gentle, or " leniter declivis " (c. 83) ; but the descent from the gentle slope to the plain of the Loze, in which the railway runs, is in some parts very steep. Caesar could draw his hues in such a way as to bring them along the gentle slope, and comprise the steep and lower slope within them. But there would still be a small slope downwards from the upper part of the hill to the Roman lines; and this is this gentle slope downward which he de- scribes in c. 85, as giving a great advantage to the Gallic assailants under Vergasillaunus (" Exiguum loci ad declivitatem fastigium magnum habet mo- mentum "). The mountain behind which Vergasillaunus hid himself after the night's march is the part of the mountain west of Cressigny. The camp of Reginus and Rebilus being on the south face turned to Alesia, they could see nothing of Vergasillaunus and his men till they came over the hill top to attack the lines. Vercingetorix, from the Arx Alesiae (c. 84), could see the attack on Reginus' camp, and all that was going on in the plain. He could see every- thing. Caesar's position during the attack of Verga- sillaunus was one (idoneus locus) which gave him a view of the fight. He saw the plain, the " superiores munitiones," or the lines on the mountain north-west of Alesia, the Arx Alesiae, and the ground beneath. He stood therefore on the hill south of AJesia, and at the western end of it. Caesar, hearing from Labienus how desperate was the attack on the upper lines, sent part of his cavalry round the exterior lines to attack Verga- sillaunus in the rear. The cavalry went round by the east end of Alesia. They could not go round the west end, for they would have crossed the plain outside of the lines, and the plain was occupied by the Galli. Nor could they have got up the hill on that side without some trouble ; and they would not have come on the rear of the enemy. It is cer- tain that they went by the east end, and upon the lieights round Alesia, which would take a much longer time than Caesar's rapid narrative would lead us to suppose, if we did not know the ground. When Caesar sent the cavalry round Alesia, he went to the aid of Labienus with four cohorts and some cavalry. The men from the higher ground could see him as he came along the lower ground (cc. 87, 88). He came from the hill on the south of Alesia, between his lines along the jjlain, with the Arx Alesia on his right, from which the men in the town were looking down on the furious battle. The scarlet cloak of the proconsul told his men and the enemies who was coming. He was received with a .shout from both sides, and the shout was answered froili the circumvallation and all the lines. The MANDURTA. 2.-9 Roman soldier throws his pila aside ; and the sword begins its work. All at once Caesar's cavalry ap- pears in the rear of Vergasillaunus : " other cohorts approach; the enemy turn their backs; the cavalry meet the fugitives ; there is a great slaughter ; " and the victory is won. The Galli who were on the outside of the fortifications desert their camp, and the next day Vercingetorix surrenders Alesia. The fight of Alesia was the last great efibrt of the united Galli against Caesar. They never recovered from this defeat ; and from this time the subjugation of GalUa, though not yet quite completed, was near and certain. Alesia was a town during the Roman occupation of Gallia ; but the plateau has long since been de- serted, and there is not a trace of building upon it. Many medals and other antiquities have been found by grubbing on the plateau. A vigneron oi Alke possesses many of these rare things, which he has found ; a fine gold medal of Nero, some excellent bronze medals of Trajan and Faustina, and the well- known medal of Nemausus (Ames), called the "pied de biche." He has also a steelyard, keys, and a variety of other things. The plan of Cassini is tolerably correct ; con-ect enough to make the text of Caesar intelligible. [G.L.] MANDUESSEDUM, a Roman station in Britain (Jt.Ant. p. 470), the site of which is supposed to be occupied hy Mancesierm Warwickshire. [C. R. S.] MANDU'RIA {UavUpiov, Steph. B. : Eth. Mai/- ^vpivos: Manduria), an ancient city of Calabria, in the territory of the Salentines, situated at the dis- tance of 24 miles E. of Tarentum. Its name has obtained some celebrity from its being the scene of the death of Archidamus, king of Sjjarta, the son of Agesilaus, who had been invited to Italy by the Tarentmes, to assist them against their neighbours the Messapians and Lucanians ; but was defeated and slain in a battle under the walls of Manduria, which was fought on the same day with the more celebrated battle of Chaeronea, 3rd Aug., b. c. 338. (Plut. Ages. 3, who writes the name lAavZoviov ; Theopomp. ap. A then. xii. p. 536 ; Diod. xvi. 63, 88 ; Fans. iii. 10. § 5.) This is the first notice we find of the name of Manduria : it would appear to have been a Messapian (or rather perhaps a Salentine) city, and apparently a place of considerable import- ance; but the only other mention of it that occurs in history is in the Second Punic War, when it revolted to the Carthaginians, but was taken by assault by Fabius JIaximus, just before he recovered Tarentum, b. c. 209. (Liv. xxvii. 15.) We have no account of its fate on this occasion, but it would seem certain that it was severely punished, and either destroyed or at least reduced to a degraded condition ; for we find no mention of it as a muni- cipal town under the Romans; and Pliny omits its name in his list of towns in this part of Italy, though he elsewhere (ii. 103. s. 106) incidentally notices it as "oppidum in Salentino." The name is again found in the Tabula, which places it at the distance of 20 IL P. from Tarentum, an interval less than the trath, the actual distance being 20 geog. miles, or at least 24 Roman miles. {Tab. Pent.) The existing ruins are considerable, especially those of the ancient walls, great part of the circuit of which is still preserved : they are built of large rectangular blocks, 'but composed of the soft and porous stone of which the whole neighbouring countiy consists; and in their original state appear to have formed a double circuit of walls, with ^