Dio's Rome, Volume 2: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English FormCassius Dio Cocceianus
History
Dio's Rome, Volume 2: An Historical Narrative Originally Composed in Greek During the Reigns of Septimius Severus, Geta and Caracalla, Macrinus, Elagabalus and Alexander Severus: and Now Presented in English Form
Cassius Dio Cocceianus
Rome -- History
[-3-] He was still in this situation when one Publius Sittius (if we
ought to call it him, and not the Divine Power) brought at one stroke
salvation and victory. This man had been exiled from Italy, and had
taken along some fellow-exiles: after crossing over into Mauritania he
collected a band and was general under Bocchus. Though he had no benefit
from Caesar to start with, and although in general he was not known to
him, he undertook to share in the war and to help him to overcome the
existing difficulty. Accordingly he bore no direct aid to Caesar himself,
for he heard that the latter was at a distance and thought that his own
assistance (for he had no large body of troops) would prove of small
value to him. It was Juba whom he watched start out on his expedition,
and then he invaded Numidia, which along with Gaetulia (likewise a part
of Juba's dominion) he harried so completely that the king gave up the
project before him and turned back in the midst of his journey with most
of his army; some of it he had sent off to Scipio. This fact made it as
evident as one could wish that if Juba had also come up, Caesar would
never have withstood the two. He did not so much as venture to join
issue with Scipio alone at once, because he stood in terrible dread of
the elephants (among other things), partly on account of their fighting
abilities, but still more because they were forever throwing his cavalry
into confusion. [-4-] Therefore, while keeping as strict a watch over
the camp as he could, Caesar sent to Italy for soldiers and elephants. He
did not count on the latter for any considerable military achievement
(since there were not many of them) but intended that the horses, by
becoming accustomed to the sight and sound of them, should learn for the
future not to fear at all those belonging to the enemy.
Meanwhile, also, the Gaetulians came over to his side, with some others
of the neighboring tribes. The latter's reasons for this step were,
first,--the persuasion of the Gaetuli, who, they heard, had been greatly
honored, and second, the fact that they remembered Marius, who was a
relative of Caesar. When this had occurred, and his auxiliaries from
Italy in spite of delay and danger caused by bad weather and hostile
agents had nevertheless accomplished the passage, he did not rest a
moment. On the contrary he was eager for the conflict, looking to
annihilate Scipio in advance of Juba's arrival, and moved forward
against him in the direction of a city called Uzitta, where he took up
his quarters on a certain crest overlooking both the city and the
enemy's camp, having first dislodged those who were holding it. Soon
after this he chased Scipio, who had attacked him, away from this higher
ground, and by charging down behind him with his cavalry did some
damage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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