Cum acerrime comminus pugnaretur, hostes loco et numero, nostri virtute confiderent, subito sunt Aedui visi ab latere nostris aperto, quos Caesar ab dextra parte alio ascensu manus distinendae causa miserat. Hi similitudine armorum vehementer {5} nostros perterruerunt. Eodem tempore L. Fabius centurio quique una murum ascenderant circumventi atque interfecti de muro praecipitabantur. M. Petronius, eiusdem legionis centurio, cum portas excidere conatus esset, a multitudine oppressus ac sibi desperans, {10} multis iam volneribus acceptis, manipularibus suis qui illum secuti erant, ‘Quoniam,’ inquit, ‘me una vobiscum servare non possum, vestrae quidem certe vitae prospiciam, quos cupiditate gloriae adductus in periculum deduxi. Vos data facultate vobis consulite.’ {15} Simul in niedios hostes irrupit, duobusque interfectis reliquos a porta paulum submovit. Conantibus auxiliari suis, ‘Frustra,’ inquit, ‘meae vitae subvenire conamini, quem iam sanguis viresque deficiunt. Proinde abite dum est facultas vosque ad {20} legionem recipite.’ Ita pugnans post paulum concidit ac suis saluti fuit. CAESAR, _de B. G._ vii. 50. +Context.+ With a half-starved army Caesar stormed Avaricum after a most obstinate defence, and then laid siege to the Arvernian capital of Gergovia, in hope of destroying Vercingetorix and ending the war. As the town was too strong to be taken by storm, he resolved to try a blockade, but he failed, as at Dyrrachium in 49 B.C., from want of sufficient troops. +A last desperate attack on the town was repulsed+, and Caesar, defeated for the first time, was forced to raise the siege. [Linenotes: 3. +ab latere nostris aperto:+ as a soldier carries his shield on the left arm, leaving the sword hand free, this (right) side is called +latus apertum+.--Compton. 4. +manus distinendae causa+ = _for the purpose of diverting_ (+distinendae+, lit. _hold off_) _the enemy’s force_. 6. +perterruerunt+: this was all the more natural, as the Aeduan contingent was only awaiting the result of the blockade, to openly join the insurgents. 9. +excidere+ = _to cut away_, _hew down_, i.e. from within.] +Gergovia+, 4 miles S. of Clermont. This famous stronghold consists of a rectangular plateau nearly a mile in length, and some 1300 feet above the plain through which the Allier flows, and descending steeply on all sides but one to the ground. +Caesar’s failure.+ ‘The fact was that chiefly owing to the nature of the ground and their own ardour, Caesar’s men were not well in hand.’ --W. F. B43 THE GALLIC WAR, 58-50 B.C. (7) _Siege of Alesia. The Last Fight of Vercingetorix, 52 B.C._