On the outside of each wall was a ditch (τάφρος). There was a passage for the besiegers through the middle of each tower. The walls had battlements (ἐπάλξεις), and at every ten battlements was a tower, filling up by its depth the whole space between the walls. Between the walls were the huts of the besiegers. Their lines consisted of two walls (apparently of turf) at the distance of 16 feet, which surrounded the city in the form of a circle. This kind of circumvallation, which the Greeks called ἀποτειχισμός and περιτειχισμός, was employed by the Peloponnesians in the siege of Plataea ( Thucyd. In this case the army was encamped between the two lines of works. There was often a double line of fortifications, the inner against the town, and the outer against a force that might attempt to raise the siege. Such a circumvallation, besides cutting off all communication between the town and the surrounding country, formed a defence against the sallies of the besieged. In the operations of a siege, when the place could not be taken by storm, and it became necessary to establish a blockade, this was done by drawing defences similar to those of a camp around the town, which was then said to be circumvallatum. It is likely that these would be augmented with whatever was to hand, such as tree branches or thorn bushes.Ĭoin depicting Numonius Vala attacking a vallum. One suggestion is that the 'waist' facilitated them being tied together loosely in threes to form a kind of caltrop or Czech hedgehog that could be placed on the rampart (agger) of the vallum. It is clear that these could not have been used on their own to form the palisade of the vallum constructed around a temporary marching camp they would have had gaps between wide enough for an attacker to pass through with ease. A number of these have been found in excavations, sufficiently well-preserved to show that they were 'waisted', that is narrowed at the centre. While on the march, each soldier carried three or four strong wooden stakes each at least 1.5 m (5 ft) long and pointed at both ends. They were made of any strong wood, but oak was preferred. The Greek valli were cut on the spot the Romans prepared theirs beforehand.(Polyb. The Roman vallus, on the contrary, presented no convenient handle, required very great force to pull it down, and even if removed left a very small opening. Hence the Greek vallus could easily be taken hold of by its large branches and pulled from its place, and when it was removed a large opening was left in the vallum. The Greeks placed their valli in the agger at considerable intervals, the spaces between them being filled up by the branches the Romans fixed theirs close together, and made the branches interlace, and sharpened their points carefully. Both used for valli young trees or arms of larger trees, with the side branches on them but the valli of the Greeks were much larger and had more branches than those of the Romans, which had either two or three, or at the most four branches, and these generally on the same side. xxxiii.5), who make a comparison between the vallum of the Greeks and that of the Romans, very much to the advantage of the latter. The stake-like valli (χάρακες) of which the vallum palisade was composed are described by Polybius (xviii.18.1, Excerpt.

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Vallum cards