Siege of Massilia 49BC

On his way to Spain, Caesar came upon the city of Massilia, whose people had sided with Pompey. The city's defenses were commanded by Pompey's legate, Domitius Ahenobarbus. Caesar couldn't simply leave Massilia behind. It would have put his supply lines at risk, so he ordered a full-scale siege, carried out according to the standard tactics of Roman warfare. His troops began digging trenches and building fortifications around the city. Covered walkways and siege towers were slowly brought up to the walls. But Massilia's defenses were strong. The city's walls were high and it was well-stocked with food, enough to hold out for several months. The defenders were highly motivated too. They made frequent sorries, attacking the legionaries as they worked on the siege works. From the walls, they kept up a steady barrage of missiles slowing the Roman engineers. Especially dangerous were the ballistae mounted on the ramparts. They had long-range, deadly accuracy and fired both regular and incendiary projectiles. On Caesar's orders, warships were being built at a rapid pace. Within a month, twelve were ready for action. This allowed him to surround Massilia not just by land, but also by sea. He stationed his fleet on the islands opposite the city, where a makeshift naval base was quickly set up. After spending about a month with his troops, Caesar received word from his legate Fabius that mountain passes in the Pyrenees were now under Roman control. Seeing the opportunity, Caesar decided to head to Spain himself to take command of the campaign and prevent Pompey's legates from organizing a proper defense. He sent a large supply convoy under heavy escort, 5,000 Gallic cavalry, to follow him, while he pushed ahead with just his personal guard and a thousand horsemen. At Massilia, Caesar left three legions behind and put his legate Gaius Trebonius in charge of the siege. Trebonius directed the construction of siege engines and advanced covered galleries up to the city walls. Another legate, Decimus Brutus, was placed in command of the fleet and blockaded Massilia's harbor with twelve warships. Meanwhile, Domitius Ahenobarbus, who commanded the city's defenses, wasn't sitting idle. Under his leadership, seventeen warships were built right in Massilia's harbor. Once his fleet was ready, Domitius made a move to break the naval blockade. He led his ships out of the harbor and lined them up for battle. Brutus did the same. The Massiliats had more ships, but they were smaller. The biggest difference, though, was in the crews. Brutus's ships were manned by elite, battle-hardened Roman infantry, heavily armed and trained for combat. Domitius, on the other hand, had brave but inexperienced Gallic mercenaries unfamiliar with naval warfare, along with local sailors who knew the sea well but had little military training. Domitius was counting on speed, maneuverability, and a large number of archers to give him the edge. Brutus was betting on close combat, where his veterans' discipline and experience would turn the tide once they got in close. Once both fleets were in position, Domitius launched the attack. His archers rained arrows and javelins onto Brutus's ships. The smaller, more agile Massiliat vessels weaved through the fighting, trying to inflict as much damage as they could from a distance. But as the gap closed, Caesar's men threw grappling hooks, pulled enemy ships in, and dropped boarding bridges onto their decks. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting broke out. Arrows and pila gave way to spears and swords. In close quarters, the Roman legionaries had the clear advantage. Better trained, better armed, and better prepared. Even though the defenders fought hard, once a ship was boarded, its fate was sealed. After several hours of intense fighting, Caesar's forces had captured nine of Domitius's ships and sunk six more, without losing a single vessel of their own. Domitius managed to retreat to the harbor, but the blockade held. Both sides settled back into a stalemate. Trebonius kept Massilia under tight blockade by land and sea, but held off on ordering a full assault, focusing instead on engineering works and building more siege equipment. Ahenobarbus, still reeling from the failed attempt to break the blockade, avoided further action and concentrated on rebuilding his fleet. Meanwhile, when Pompey heard about the siege, he sent his legate Lucius Nasidius with a squadron of sixteen warships. These ships were different from the ones built by Caesar's men or used by the Massilia defenders. They were reinforced with thick bronze plating along the sides and fitted with bronze rams at the front. As he neared Massilia, Nasidius sent a messenger in a small, discreet boat to inform Ahenobarbus of his arrival and urged him to launch another naval battle to try to break Brutus' blockade. By that time, the Massilians had repaired the ship's damage in the previous fight and converted several fishing and merchant vessels into makeshift warships, bringing their fleet back up to seventeen. They joined forces with Nasidius' squadron. Brutus' fleet had also grown thanks to the ships he had acquired and captured in the last battle. He had them repaired and crewed with Roman infantry. Even so, the combined Pompeian fleet still outnumbered Brutus' nearly two to one. Worried about being surrounded, Brutus was forced to ease the blockade, giving Nasidius and Domitius the chance to join their fleets. They formed up for battle near the island of Toroentum, just off the coast of Massilia. The Massiliate fleet took the left flank, with Nasidius' ships on the right. As before, the Massiliates were counting on the speed and agility of their light ships, hoping to wear down the enemy with missile fire. Nasidius planned to use well-timed maneuvers to ram several of Brutus' ships with the bronze prows of his heavier vessels. Caesar's men once again relied on the discipline and close combat skill of their legionaries to turn the battle during the boarding actions. The fight broke out quickly. Brutus knew that, despite their numbers, the Massiliate ships weren't strong in direct combat, so he aimed his attack squarely at them. The battle unfolded much like the last one. At first, the Massiliates managed to keep their distance, pelting Brutus' ships with volleys of arrows and javelins. But once the gap closed, the Caesarian ships repeated their tried and true tactic, grappling the enemy vessels, pulling them in, and launching boarding assaults. No matter how fiercely the Massiliates resisted, they stood no chance. In brutal hand-to-hand combat, they were completely outmatched by Caesar's hardened veterans. Nasidius' fleet never joined the fight. He gave no orders to engage, and left the Massiliates to face the battle alone. When it became clear that their ships were taking heavy losses, Nasidius finally ordered a retreat. The effect was immediate. Seeing their allies abandon the field, the Massiliates' morale collapsed. Some surrendered, others fled. A portion of their fleet withdrew alongside Nasidius, while a small group led by Ahenobarbus managed to reach the safety of Massilia's harbor. It was a clear and total victory for Caesar's fleet. Five enemy ships were sunk, and four more were captured. With the sea secured, Caesar's forces shifted their attention back to the land siege. The first step was to build a dam to completely cut the city off from the sea, which would also allow sailors from the fleet to be reassigned to ground operations. At the same time, Trebonius needed to protect his troops from the constant missile fire coming from the city, especially the incendiary arrows and bolts fired by archers and ballistae that kept setting fire to the wooden siege galleries. To counter this, he ordered the construction of a massive siege tower unlike anything seen before. The tower stood nine meters tall, with six levels and walls nearly two meters thick, built from rammed earth bricks. The exterior was covered with five centimeter thick sheets of lead. Each level was equipped with platforms for archers and ballistae, allowing Caesar's troops to match the range of the city's defenders. Under cover from the tower's missile fire, the Caesarians began building a reinforced gallery leading toward the city walls. Like the tower, it was made of rammed earth bricks and strengthened with lead plating. Once the gallery stretched to about 20 meters, both it and the tower were slowly rolled towards the city using teams of oxen, horses, and legionaries. The entire engineering effort took nearly three months to complete. Stones, arrows, spears, ballista bolts, and boiling pitch poured down from the city walls, but the structure built by Caesar's engineers held strong. Under its cover, Trebonius's men advanced to the base of the wall, began tunneling beneath it, and started dismantling the stone blocks. Eventually, the wall gave way and collapsed. With the breach open, nothing stood between the legionaries and the city. The Massiliads immediately sent envoys to Trebonius. They acknowledged his victory and asked for a truce, but insisted they would only surrender directly to Caesar so they could negotiate terms with him in person. Trebonius agreed, seeing an opportunity to spare his soldiers the bloodshed of a full assault and brutal street fighting, he called off the attack and ordered his men to hold their positions and wait for Caesar's return. But the offer of surrender was just a ploy. That night, the Massiliads launched a surprise raid. They destroyed the Roman siege galleries and battering rams and managed to set fire to the interior of the siege tower, which eventually collapsed under its own weight. At the same time, they rebuilt the section of the wall that had fallen. In one night, Trebonius lost months of siege work. Still, the overall situation hadn't changed. Massilia was surrounded, no supplies or reinforcements could get through, and soon the city was facing hunger and disease. Trebonius resumed the siege, ordering the construction of a new tower and gallery. Around that time, Caesar returned with two legions. When word spread of his arrival and of his victories in Spain, the city surrendered unconditionally. Just days before the surrender, however, Domitius Ahenobarbus managed to escape. Taking advantage of the stormy weather, he slipped past Caesar's patrols in the dead of night aboard a small boat that had been dragged across the Roman dam and made his way to join Pompey. Caesar left two legions behind to hold Massilia and headed for Italy with three others to join up with his main forces. Once again, if you've made it to the end of this video, we'd really appreciate it if you liked and subscribed. We have a whole team behind this and we really love seeing you follow along on our journey through ancient civilizations. We put out new content every single week. If you'd like to support the channel and help us make more videos like this, consider joining us on Patreon. You'll get early access to new episodes, work in progress updates, and more. Every bit of support goes a really long way. 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