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50Pompey after taking refuge in this town of Dyrrachium built a camp outside the city and surrounded it with deep moats and a stout palisade. Caesar encamped over against him and made assaults, in the hope of quickly capturing the palisades by the superior number of his troops; and when he was repulsed, he attempted to wall it in. 2While he was engaged in this task, Pompey was constructing palisades, cross-walls and ditches, and placing towers on the elevations and guards in them, so as to make the circuit of the encompassing wall complete and to make an attack impracticable for the foe, even if they conquered. 3There were meanwhile many, though slight, encounters between them, in which now one party, now the other, was victorious or beaten, so that a few were killed on both sides alike. Upon Dyrrachium itself Caesar made an attempt by night, between the marshes and the sea, in the expectation that it would be betrayed by its defenders. He got inside the narrows, 4but at that point was attacked both in front and in the rear by large forces which had been conveyed along the shore in boats and suddenly fell upon him; thus he lost many men and very nearly perished himself. After this occurrence Pompey took courage and planned a night assault upon the enclosing wall; and attacking it unexpectedly, he captured a portion of it by storm and caused great slaughter among the men encamped near it.
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