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Caesar having spent nine days about his works, had now half finished the staccado, when the ships employed in the first embarkation, being sent back by the consuls from Dyrrhachium, returned to Brundusium. Pompey, either alarmed at Caesar's works, or because from the first he had determined to relinquish Italy, no sooner saw the transports arrive, than he prepared to carry over the rest of his forces. And the better to secure himself against Caesar, and prevent his troops from breaking into the town during the embarkation, he walled up the gates, barricaded the streets, or cut ditches across them, filled with pointed stakes, and covered with hurdles and earth. The two streets which led to the port and which he left open for the passage of his men, were fortified with a double palisado of very strong well sharpened stakes. These preparations being made, he ordered the soldiers to embark with great silence, having placed on the walls and towers some select archers and slingers, who were to wait till all the troops had got aboard, and then retire, upon a signal given, to some small ships that waited them at a convenient distance.
C. Julius Caesar. The Commentaries of Caesar. William Duncan. St. Louis. Edwards and Bushnell. 1856.
The chapter breaks in this translation have been changed to align with those in the 1901 Latin edition of the De Bello Civili, ed. Renatus du Pontet.
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