The Illyrian Wars

​He marched against another city, Metulum, which is the capital of the Iapodes, and lies in a very woody mountain upon two hills which a narrow ravine divides. And the young men were about three thousand, both warlike and very well-armed; who easily repulsed the Romans as they surrounded their walls. And the Romans raised a mound; and the Metulians, sallying out night and day, harassed them on the mound, and harassed the men from the wall with engines which they had kept from the war that Decimus Brutus fought there against Antony and Augustus. And when their wall also was now failing, they built an inner wall, and abandoning the exhausted part, they leaped over into the newly-built one; and the Romans, taking the abandoned wall, set it on fire, and raised two mounds against the other wall, and from them extended four bridges to the wall. When this was done, Caesar sent some around to the rear of the city to distract the Metulians, and ordered the others to cross over to the walls by the bridges; and he himself went up into a high tower and watched.

​But the barbarians met those who were crossing head-on along the wall, and others lying in wait underneath pierced the bridges with long spears, and they grew bolder when one bridge fell and a second one after it. And when the third also collapsed, a total fear now seized the Romans, and no one would step upon the fourth, until Caesar, leaping down from the tower, reproached them. But even so, as they were not roused, he himself took a shield and rushed onto the bridge at a run. And there ran with him of the commanders Agrippa and Hiero, and the bodyguard Lutius and Volas, these four alone, and a few of the shield-bearers. But when he was already crossing the bridge, the army, moved by shame, rushed forward in a body. And again the bridge, being overloaded, fell down, and the men under it were buried together; some of them died, and others were carried away crushed. And Caesar was wounded in the right leg and both arms, but nevertheless he immediately ran back up to the tower with the standards, and showed himself to be well, lest any tumult should arise as if he were dead. And so that the enemy also might not think he would give up and retreat, he immediately ordered other bridges to be constructed. This indeed especially struck the Metulians with terror, as they felt they were fighting against an invincible determination.

​And on the following day they sent ambassadors to him and gave fifty hostages whom Caesar selected; and promising to receive a garrison, they left the higher hill to the guards and themselves withdrew to the other. But when the garrison entered and ordered them to lay down their arms, they were indignant, and shutting up their women and children in the council-chamber and stationing guards who were ordered, if any misfortune should happen to themselves, to set fire to the council-chamber, they themselves made a desperate attempt upon the Romans. But since they were attacking from a lower position against those who were higher, they were cut down in a body; and the guards set fire to the council-chamber, and many of the women killed themselves and their children, while others, carrying those who were still alive, leaped into the fire, so that all the young men of the Metulians perished in the battle, and the greater part of the non-combatants in the fire. And the city was burned down together with them, and no trace remained of what had been a very great city there. And when Metulum was captured, the rest of the Iapodes, struck with terror, surrendered themselves to Caesar. Thus the Iapodes beyond the Alps then for the first time submitted to the Romans. And when the Poseni among them revolted after Caesar’s departure, Marcus Helvius, being sent against them, captured them, and executed the guilty ones and sold the rest.