Read Last Seen in Massilia for Free Online

with fire-proof clay. Boulders roll off like hailstones. Giant javelins bounce back as if they’d struck solid iron. Still, the racket inside those lean-tos, with missiles and stones crashing down, can certainly set your teeth on edge! I know; I spent my share of time down there overseeing the work.
    “Once the embankment was almost done, we set about building a siege tower mounted on rollers, with a battering-ram built into the lower platform. It’s down there now, at this end of the embankment.Tomorrow it will sally forth across the causeway, and there’s no way the Massilians will be able to stop it. The men on the upper platforms of the siege tower are protected by screens of hempen mats too thick for any missile to penetrate. Once the tower is flush against the wall, the men on the upper platforms can fire down on any Massilians who venture out of the city to try to stop the operation, while the men on the lower platform can swing the battering-ram at will. Do you know what sort of panic that causes in a besieged city—the boom, boom, boom of a battering-ram striking the walls? You’ll be able to hear it for miles.”
    I peered down into the valley. Amid shades of gray and black I could make out the straight line of the embankment traversing the valley from a point just below us to the base of the city walls. I could also make out the hulking mass of the siege tower at the nearer end. “But I thought you said that catapults and battering-rams would never bring down the walls of Massilia.”
    “So I did.” Vitruvius grinned. “I really should say no more.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “The battering-ram is only a diversion?”
    He was too proud of the scheme to deny it. “As I said, the sappers will have all the glory. They’ve been furiously tunneling since the first day we made camp. They’ve created a whole network of tunnels, running all up and down the walls. The longest is over that way.” He pointed to the left, in the general direction of the main city gate and the harbor beyond. “By all our calculations, the diggers will break through tomorrow. In the blink of an eye, we shall have an opening inside the city walls. Just behind the diggers, troops will be packed inside the tunnel, waiting to pour out of that hole in the ground like ants from a stirred anthill. From inside Massilia, they’ll rush the main gate. The Massilians will have concentrated all the men they can muster elsewhere, at the point where the siege tower and the battering-ram are assaulting the wall. An attack on the gate, from inside the city, will take them completely by surprise. The gate will be ours; and once our men have opened it, Trebonius himself will lead the charge into the city. The siege will be over. The Massilians will have no choice but to surrender and plead for mercy.”
    “And will Trebonius give them mercy?”
    “Caesar’s orders were to take the city and hold it for him until he returns. He intends to dictate terms to the Massilians himself.”
    “So there’ll be no massacre?”
    “No. Unless the Massilians are mad enough to fight to the death. Unlikely—they’re merchants at heart—but you never know. Or unless….”
    “Yes?”
    “Unless our men get out of control.” From the way his voice dropped, I knew he had seen such occurrences before. Meto had told me of Gaulish cities sacked and pillaged by Roman soldiers run amok. It seemed unthinkable that such a thing could be done to the people of Massilia, Rome’s ally for centuries. But this was war.
    Vitruvius smiled. “So now you see why I can’t sleep, waiting for tomorrow.”
    I nodded glumly. “I thought a walk and some fresh air might help, but now—I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep either.”
    Tomorrow, if Vitruvius was right, Massilia would be opened. Why, then, did Trebonius insist on sending me away? What did he know about Meto that I did not? Was he sparing me the sight of my son’s execution? Or sparing me from discovering some