Glasgow Archaeological Society [Hrsg.]

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loose soil from slipping clown. Although Vegetius and Hyginus
-do not mention the matter, it is probable that the earth-sub-
stance of the agger was subjected to pressure as it rose, in fact
that it was " rammed" to make it stronger and firmer.1 They
make no mention of the kind of mud wall described by Pliny2
as prevalent in Africa and Spain. The type of rampart made
from the up-cast of the ditch3 appears to have been adopted, of
course on a reduced scale, by Roman farmers for the divisions
of their fields. The terreus agger thus used was, according to

1 Livy, x. 5, says that when, in the year B.C. 301, the Etrurian camp was
stormed by the Romans, the Etrurian troops fled, as their last resort, to their
own ramparts. But the agger at one part had not been well rammed, and, with
the weight of men standing upon it, it gave way and fell forward into the ditch.

Haerent fugientes in angustiis por- The fugitives stuck in the narrow

tarum : pars magna aggerem vallmnque gateways: a great part of them ascended

conscendunt; si aut ex superiore loco the agger and the vallum so as either

tueri se aut superare aliqua et evadere to defend themselves from the higher

possent. Eorte quodam loco male den- position, or, at least, to get over and

satus agger pondere superadstantium in escape. It happened that at one place

fossam proeubuit. the agger had been ill rammed, and, in

consequence of the weight of men stand-
ing on it, it fell forward into the ditch.

2 Pliny's Natural History, lib. xxxv., Holland's translation of Pliny:—
cap. 14, see. 170 (ed. Detlcfsen, 1868). " What shall we say? See we not in
Quid? non in Africa Hispaniaque ex Africke and Spaine both, eertaine walls
terra parietes, quos appellant form- of earth, which they call Eormacei, of
aceos, quoniam in forma circundatis the forme and frame that is made of
utrinque duabus tabulis inferciuntur planks and boords of each side, between
verius quam instruuntur, aevis durant, which a man may say they are rather
incorrupti imbribus ventis ignibus infarced and stuffed up than otherwise
omnique caemento firmiores ? Spectat laid and reared orderly ; but I assure
etiam nunc speculas Hannibalis you the earth thus infarced continueth
Hispania, terrenasque turres jugis a world of yeres and perisheth not,
montium impositas. Hinc et caespitum checking the violence of raine, winde,
natura castrorum vallis accommodata, and fire, no mortar and cement so stifle
contraque fluminum impetus aggeribus. and strong. There are yet to be scene
Ulini quidem crates parietum Into et in divers parts of Spaine the watch
lateribus crudis extrui quis ignorat ? towers of Anniball, the high turrets

and sconces also reared upon the tops
of hils ; made all of earth ; and hereof
we have our turfes, which naturally
are so proper not only for the rampiers
and fortifications of a camp, but also
for wharfs, banks, and buttresses to
break the violence and inundation of
rivers. As for the manner of making
walls by dawbing windings and hurdles
with mud and clay, also of rearing them
otherwhiles with unbaked brickes, who
is so ignorant that he knoweth it not ?"

3 In modern earthwork the " French term Deblai is given to the mass of earth
in the ditch before being excavated, and that of Remblai after it is built up in
the work."—Philips, Article 135.

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