Some siege of Massilia trivia pt. 1

The siege of Massilia is described in Caesar 'Civil Wars' (bk. 1 34-36; 56-58; bk. 2 1-22) and Lucan 'Pharsalia' (book 3). The episode is described also in modern fiction novels by authors like Colleen McCullough or Steven Saylor.

There are some aspects of the siege that make it interesting and some that can serve as an illustration of tried-and-true siege tactics of Ancient Romans (constructing circumvallation to enclose the besieged).

First, the land siege operations have been accompanied by two naval battles, both of which were lost by the besieged, even though the besieger's side fleet consisted of crew unused to sailing (but used to hand-to-hand combat).

Second, the land operations required besiegers to employ unusual siege engines. Massilia had the advantage of being well-fortified and surrounded on three sides by water - the only land access led across the valley to the city walls. Massilians had a significant number of artillery pieces that were able to shoot across/ through the usual siege engines.

Cue the 'Mousie' or, as it is called in Latin 'musculus' ("a little mouse"). Romans used galleries or siege sheds to protect their soldiers approaching the fortifications. 'Mousie' was a oversized and reinforced version of that design: 18m long (Caesar bk 2, 10). If we're to believe everything that Caesar has written in his description, no projectile was able to penetrate the 'little mouse'.

Romans were also able to erect a tower in the vicinity of city walls - six stories high and, in practice, looming over the fortifications. What was unusual about this tower, is described by Caesar in bk 2, 9). The passage provides translators with some difficulty, but it describes increasing the elevation of the tower in the vicinity of the wall - where a roof of the constructed story becomes a floor of the story above. More conventional approach would be to use a mobile siege tower, constructed safely in the rear and brought closer to the fortifications.

All those constructions and Roman soldiers, however, had to approach the city walls first - Roman usual answer to this challenge was to construct a ramp (to allow the access to the walls). Once ramp was in place, siege towers, battering rams or even ladders could be brought to bear. The traditional Roman ramps were constructed with wood reinforcing earth.

During the siege of Massilia, the besieged were able during their sallies to damage and burn ramps and described above siege constructions. The ingenuity of the besiegers allowed to construct an unusual, new, type of ramp - where mud bricks (dried in the sun variety) have been used instead of wood. This protected the ramp from the later sallies and enabled Caesarian force to access the city walls again.

The details provided in 'Civil War' can be disputed (Massilians using deception and treachery to gain advantage over the steadfast besiegers) but they also paint the image of besieging camp that was almost ready to give up because of the lack of success in breaking through the enemy's fortifications. This is one of the reasons for the Morale mechanic in the game itself - both sides can give up prematurely, if they think that stand no chance. Certain events will affect the morale (negatively) and the players have an advantage over their historical counterparts - they can read the turn track and see what can happen when.

No reason to be surprised like the historical Massilians, who have gathered supplies and grain before the actual siege... only to notice four months into the siege that their grain supply, probably because of improper storage, started to rot.

To be continued