P.

Sextius Baculus
Author(s): Theodore Horn
Source: Greece & Rome, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1961), pp. 180-183
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/641651
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 P. SEXTIUS BACULUS

By THEODORE HORN

IN the Gallic War Caesar mentions rather less than fifty Roman
soldiers by name. Naturally the names of his legati occur most
frequently, though he does not always give the rank. Eight, possibly
nine, are centurions, and one is the standard-bearer of the Fourteenth
Legion.' None is a legionary soldier, though we know the name of one,
Lucanius, because his father, a senior centurion, Q. Lucanius, was killed
trying to rescue him in the disaster at Atuatuca.2 There are certain sur-
prising omissions. For example, we are not told the name of the stan-
dard-bearer of the Tenth Legion, whose gallantry rallied the faltering
troops at the first landing in Britain.3 Surely Caesar knew the name of
this distinguished man in his crack legion. One officer, P. Considius,
receives an unenviable mention.4 He made a mistake. Perhaps in ex-
tenuation, or in regret, Caesar remarks that he had won a good repu-
tation under Sulla and Crassus.
But there is one who is mentioned three times in circumstances of

great gallantry--P. Sextius Baculus, the senior centurion of the Twelfth

Legion. This legion was one of two enrolled in the spring of 58 B.C.
to help to meet the critical situation caused by the invasion of Gaul by
the Heluetii. In the events of 58 it bore no special part. Indeed Caesar
suggests that along with the Eleventh Legion, also a new formation, it
was deliberately not committed in the battle with the Heluetii as not
being sufficiently experienced. It formed the reserve and baggage
guard under Labienus.s But by the summer of 57 it could rank with the
veteran legions. Clearly the winter had been spent to good purpose by
Baculus and his fellow officers. That training in the Roman army was
arduous there is abundant evidence, though not all centurions need have
been of the type of old 'cedo alteram'.6
In the following year Caesar was engaged in operations in northern
France and Flanders, and the climax of the campaign was the great
battle with the Neruii, near Haut-Mesnil on the Sambre. One summer
evening, when the head of his long column had halted for the night and
the leading troops were already engaged in their routine task of con-
structing a camp, the Neruii suddenly attacked from across the river,
1 v. 37. 5. 2 v. 35. 7. 3 iv. 25. 3 ff.
4 i. 21 f. 5 i. 24. 3. 6 Tac. Ann. i. 23. 4-

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 P. SEXTIUS BACULUS 181

drove in the cavalry outposts, and assaulted the legions before they had
time to deploy. On the Roman left they were soon thrown back, but on
the right the fighting was exceptionally severe, and the situation was
critical. Fortunately Caesar had taken certain precautions, and his
personal intervention helped to save the day. The Twelfth Legion, with
the Seventh, was on this right flank, and the great difficulty was for
the troops to find room for manoeuvre. But training, discipline, and the
timely arrival of the two legions who had formed the rearguard (the
Thirteenth and Fourteenth) and the prompt succour sent by Labienus
from the left caused the complete defeat of the enemy. The battle
cannot have lasted very long, but the casualties had been heavy. The
Twelfth Legion in particular suffered severe losses; nearly all the cen-
turions were either killed or wounded. Among the casualties was
Sextius Baculus ('fortissimus uir', says Caesar), who was so disabled by
many serious wounds that he was unable to carry on.'
He must have been out of action for some weeks or even months, but
he recovered, and in the autumn he was back serving as primi pili
centurio with his legion in Switzerland, under Ser. Sulpicius Galba.
The task of this detachment was to keep open communications through
the Alps, and it encamped at Octodurus, the modern Martigny, in the
upper valley of the Rhane. Before the camp defences and winter
quarters were completed, the tribesmen rose and threatened the small
force. Faced with the alternatives of fighting their way out or standing
an assault where they were, the members of a council of war decided on
the latter. The expected attack came, and after six hours' desperate
resistance the situation was critical. It was at this moment that Sextius
Baculus (Caesar reminds us that he had been severely wounded in the
summer) and Caius Volusenus, who is described as a brave and sensible
military tribune, went to Galba, and urged that their only hope lay in a
well-delivered sortie.2 This was well organized and carried out, the
astonished enemy were thrown back with heavy losses, and next day the
force marched safely back to Savoy for the rest of the winter.
Volusenus is mentioned again as the officer selected to reconnoitre
the coast of Britain,3 but for the moment nothing more is heard of
Baculus. Indeed the Twelfth Legion is not mentioned specifically for
several years. It did not take part in the first invasion of Britain, nor, so
far as we know, in the second, but no doubt it bore its full part in the
various operations and duties required of it.
But in the summer of 53 Baculus is mentioned again. Caesar was

I ii. 25. I. 2 iii. 5. 2. 3 iv. 21. I.

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 182 P. SEXTIUS BACULUS

hunting the fugitive chieftain Ambiorix, and had left the heavy baggage
of his legions behind at Atuatuca, under Quintus Cicero, who had with
him the Fourteenth Legion. The site of this famous camp, first built
by Sabinus and Cotta, has not certainly been identified, but it was
probably between Liege and Namur. It seems also to have been a sort of
field hospital, for there were a. number of sick and convalescent soldiers
left behind there from the legions.' Among the sick was Sextius Baculus.
To help in the hunt for Ambiorix Caesar had invited the neighbour-
ing tribes to harry the Eburones, and among those who seized the oppor-
tunity were two thousand cavalry of the Sugambri, who welcomed the
chance to cross the Rhine in search of plunder. Stimulated by rumours
that Caesar was far away and that Cicero's camp was an easy prey, they
swooped down upon it. Cicero, against Caesar's express orders, had
allowed half his legion and a body of convalescents to leave the camp in
search of provisions. Not only was the camp surprised with only half its
garrison present, but the Fourteenth Legion did not consist of seasoned
troops. It had been cut to pieces in the disaster of the previous autumn,
and reconstituted with raw and inexperienced recruits. The rest of the
story is best told as Caesar told it.Z
There had been left behind with the garrison, sick, P. Sextius Baculus, who
had been a senior centurion under Caesar and has been mentioned in previous
engagements; he had been unable to eat for five days. Alarmed for his own
and the general safety, he came out of his tent; he saw the enemy upon them
and the situation extremely critical; he seized arms from the nearest men and
took his stand at the gate. He was followed by the centurions of the cohort on
duty; for a time they maintained the struggle together. Sextius was seriously
wounded and fainted; he was dragged clear and saved with difficulty. But
this relief made the rest so steady themselves that they plucked up courage to
take their stand on the defence works and put up some show of resistance.
The situation was saved.
Sextius Baculus is not mentioned again. It is clear that he was a man
of exceptional personal gallantry, of resource and initiative, and Caesar's
references and cross-references seem to reveal a deep and genuine ad-
miration behind the cold and brisk language. What more do we know of
him, this 'Hector Macdonald of the Roman army', as Rice Holmes calls
him, though the allusion may not be clear today? In the first place he
was an experienced soldier, trained also in the art of command. Other-
wise he would never have reached the high rank of senior centurion by
57 in a legion recruited only a year before. A new formation requires
experienced officers, especially if it is to go immediately on active
I vi. 36. 3. 2 vi. 38.

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 P. SEXTIUS BACULUS 183
service. Promotion in the various grades of centurion is a vexed question,
but while it seems normally to have been by seniority within the legion,
there were also transfers from one legion to another. Possibly, there-
fore, Sextius Baculus may have been a promising centurion, well on to
the highest rank, and a very suitable candidate for a responsible position
in a new legion. Certainly, if this was so, Caesar had no reason to regret
the choice.
But in the second place, he was not a young man. If the above sug-
gestion is the correct one, he must have seen many years of service and
would perhaps be in his late thirties. But he may have been an euocatus,
a time-expired soldier who volunteered for further service. This would
be in character, for he clearly was a born soldier. But there is another
possibility. Caesar uses the phrase of him, 'qui primum pilum ad
[v.1. apud] Caesarem duxerat.'" The tense may mean that he had re-
tired from the senior post in his legion. Compare the words used of
another, T. Balventius, 'qui superiore anno primum pilum duxerat',
who had obviously not been degraded, but probably held some other
command, retaining his rank. But why ad Caesarem? Caesar does not
use the expression elsewhere. Can it mean that Sextius Baculus had
been a senior centurion under Caesar when the latter was a young
officer? Or during his praetorship in Spain? This is pure conjecture,
but it would give an additional reason for Caesar's obvious interest in
him. But if he was an euocatus he would be an older man, perhaps in
his late forties. The strenuous campaigning and his wounds would
combine to put him on the sick list. Flanders is not the healthiest of
places.
What happened to him? Did he die in Flanders, as so many brave
men of other armies have done ? Did he recover and see more service ?
Was he invalided out of the army, or did he retire in the normal way?
And did he live to a ripe old age in some little town, honoured and
respected by his neighbours, and full of stories of Caesar and the Great
War in Gaul? Perhaps only the chance discovery of a forgotten tomb-
stone may some day supply an answer.
i vi. 38. i.

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