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Two days after, Caesar arrived in the camp with nine hundred horse, which he had kept for a body guard. He began by re-establishing in the night the bridge which had been broken down, and was not yet quite repaired. Next day he took a view of the country, and leaving six cohorts to guard the bridge, the camp, and the baggage, marched with all his forces in three lines to Lerida, and stopped near Afranius's camp, where he remained some time under arms, and offered him battle on an even ground. Afranius drew out his troops, and formed them before his camp, half way down the hill. Caesar, finding that he declined an engagement, resolved to encamp within four hundred paces of the foot of the mountain; and to hinder his troops from being alarmed or interrupted in their works, by sudden incursions from the enemy, ordered them not to throw up a rampart, which must have appeared and betrayed them at a distance, but to cut a ditch in front, fifteen feet broad. The first and second lines continued in order of battle, as had been resolved from the beginning, and the third carried on the work behind them unperceived. Thus the whole was completed, before Afranius had the least suspicion of his design to encamp there. In the evening, Caesar retreated with his legions behind the ditch, and passed the whole night under arms.

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Lerida (Spain) (1)

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