26

THE DECLINE AND FALL

CHAP.

I.

March.

strong and intricate palisades, and defended bya ditch of twelve feet in depth as well as inbreadth. This important labour was performedby the hands of the legionaries themselves ; towhom the use of the spade and the pick-axe wasno less familiar than that of the sword or pilum.Active valour may often be the present of na-ture ; but such patient diligence can be the fruitonly of habit and discipline. 11

Whenever the trumpet gave the signal of de-parture, the camp was almost instantly broke up,and the troops fell into their ranks without delayor confusion. Besides their arms, which the le-gionaries scarcely considered as an incumbrance,they were laden with their kitchen furniture, theinstruments of fortification, and the provision ofmany days. 1 * Under this weight, which wouldoppress the delicacy of a modern soldier, theywere trained by a regular step to advance, inabout six hours, near twenty miles/ On theappearance of an enemy, they threw aside theirbaggage, and by easy and rapid evolutions con-verted the column of march into an order of bat-tle.* The slingers and archers skirmished in thefront; the auxiliaries formed the first line, andwere seconded or sustained by the strength of the

f For the Roman Castremetation, see Polybius, 1. vi. with Lipsius deMilitii Romani, Joseph, de Beil. Jnd. 1. iii, c. 5. Vegetius , i. 21-25; iii,9 . and Memoires de Gnichard, tom. i, c. 1.

11 Cicero in Tuscnlan. ii, 37. Joseph, de Bell. Jnd. 1. iii, 5. Fronti-nus, iv, 1.

r Vegetius , i, 9. See Memoires de l’Acadcmie des Inscriptions,tom. xxv, p. 187.

* See those evolutions admirably well explained by M. Guiclmrd,Nouvcaux Memoires, tom. i, p. 141-234.