[*] 103.21. rationem, plan. The brief description which Caesar gives of his rough and ready but very serviceable engineering may be made clearer by giving its different points as follows （see Fig. 59）: 1. A pair of unhewn logs, a foot and a half thick （tigna bina sesquipedalia）, braced two feet apart and sharpened at the end, are set up by derricks and driven with pile drivers （fistucis） into the bottom, sloping a little with the stream. 2. A similar pair is driven in opposite, 40 feet below, sloping a little in the other direction against the stream ; the upper ends of the two pairs would thus be some 25 or 30 feet apart, the width of the roadway. It is possible, as Rustow thinks, that the 40 feet refer to the top and not to the bottom of the piles. 3. A beam of square timber, two feet thick （trabs bipedalis）, and about 30 feet long, is made fast at the ends by ties （fibulis） between the logs of each pair, — which are thus kept at a proper distance apart, while they are strongly braced against the current. 4. A suitable number （probably about 60） of these trestles, or timber-arches, having been built and connected by cross-ties,—this part of the structure must be taken for granted,—planks are then laid lengthwise of the bridge （directa materia）, resting on the heavy floor-timbers ; and upon these, again, saplings and twigs （longurii, crates） are spread, to prevent the jar and wear of the carts and hoofs of the pack-animals on the flooring. 5. Piles （sublicae） are then driven in below, resting obliquely against the logs, to which they serve as shores or buttresses （pro ariete）, and other heavier piles a little way above, to break the force of floating logs or boats sent down to destroy the bridge.
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FIRST INVASION of BRITAIN.
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BOOK FIRST. — B.C. 58.
book 2
BOOK THIRD. — B.C. 56.
BOOK FOURTH. — B.C. 55.
BOOK FIFTH.—B.C. 54.
BOOK VI. BOOK SIXTH.—B.C. 53.
BOOK SEVENTH.—B.C. 52.
Caesar's Gallic War. J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge and M. Grant Daniell. Boston. Ginn and Company. 1898.
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