![]() ![]() There was often a double line of fortifications, the inner against the town, and the outer against a force that might attempt to raise the siege. Such a circumvallation, besides cutting off all communication between the town and the surrounding country, formed a defence against the sallies of the besieged. In the operations of a siege, when the place could not be taken by storm, and it became necessary to establish a blockade, this was done by drawing defences similar to those of a camp round the town, which was then said to be circumvallatum. Varro's etymology of the word is not worth much ( L. L. ![]() III.63).Ī fortification like the Roman vallum was used by the Greeks at a very early period (Hom. The word vallus is sometimes used as equivalent to vallum (Caesar, Bell. Civ. They were made of any strong wood, but oak was preferred. ![]() The Greek valli were cut on the spot the Romans prepared theirs beforehand, and each soldier carried three or four of them when on a march (Polyb. The Roman vallus, on the contrary, presented no convenient handle, required very great force to pull it down, and even if removed left a very small opening. Hence the Greek vallus could easily be taken hold of by its large branches and pulled from its place, and when it was removed a large opening was left in the vallum. The Greeks placed their valli in the agger at considerable intervals, the spaces between them being filled up by the branches the Romans fixed theirs close together, and made the branches interlace, and sharpened their points carefully. Both used for valli young trees or arms of larger trees, with the side branches on them but the valli of the Greeks were much larger and had more branches than those of the Romans, which had either two or three, or at the most four branches, and these generally on the same side. XXIII.5), who make a comparison between the vallum of the Greeks and that of the Romans, very much to the advantage of the latter. The valli ( χάρακες), of which the vallum, in the former and more limited sense, was composed, are described by Polybius ( XVIII.18.1, º Excerpt. The vallum, in the latter sense, together with the fossa or ditch which surrounded the camp outside of the vallum, formed a complete fortification. It is derived from vallus (a stake), and properly means the palisade which ran along the outer edge of the top of the agger, but it very frequently includes the agger also. Article by Philip Smith, B.A., of the University of LondonĪ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, John Murray, London, 1875.Ī term applied either to the whole or a portion of the fortifications of a Roman camp. ![]()
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