21.
The battle was long and vigorously contested, since the Sotiates,
relying on their former victories, imagined that the safety of the whole of
Aquitania rested
on their valor; [and] our men, on the other hand, desired it might be seen what
they could accomplish without their general and without the other legions, under
a very young commander; at length the enemy, worn out with wounds, began to turn
their backs, and a great number of them being slain, Crassus began to besiege the [principal] town of the
Sotiates on his march. Upon their valiantly resisting, he
raised vineae and turrets. They at one time attempting a sally, at another
forming mines, to our rampart and vineae (at which the Aquitani are
eminently skilled, because in many places among them there are copper mines);
when they perceived that nothing could be gained by these operations through the
perseverance of our men, they send embassadors to Crassus, and entreat him to admit them to a surrender. Having
obtained it, they, being ordered to deliver up their arms, comply.
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