C. Julius Caesar, Commentaries on the Civil War
William Duncan, Ed.

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Having dismissed him with these instructions, he arrived before Brundusium with six legions, three of which were composed of veteran soldiers, and the rest of new levies drawn together upon his march; for as to Domitius's troops, he had sent them directly from Corfinium to Sicily. He found the consuls were gone to Dyrrhachium with great part of the army, and that Pompey remained in Brundusium with twenty cohorts. Nor was it certainly known whether he continued there with design to keep possession of Brundusium, that he might be master of the whole Adriatic Sea, the extreme parts of Italy, and the country of Greece, in order to make war on both sides the gulf; or for want of shipping to transport his men. Fearing, therefore, that it was his intention to keep footing in Italy he resolved to deprive him of the advantages he might receive from the port of Brundusium. The works he contrived for this purpose were as follows: He carried on a mole on either side the mouth of the haven where the entrance was narrowest, and the water shallow. But as this work could not be carried quite across the port, by reason of the great depth of the sea, he prepared double floats of timber, thirty feet square, which were each secured by four anchors from the four corners, to enable them to resist the fury of the waves. These, extending all the way between the two moles, were covered over with earth and fascines, that the soldiers might pass and repass with ease, and have firm footing to defend them. The front and sides were armed with a parapet of hurdies, and every fourth float had a tower of two stories, the better to guard the work from fire and the shocks of the vessels.