de bello gallico, 5.40

Letters are immediately sent to Caesar by Cicero, with a great rewards offered if they would have carried them through. With all the roads having been beset, those sent are intercepted. During the night out of the material which they had collected for the sake of fortification a full 120 towers are raised with incredible speed: the things which seemed necessary for the work are completed. The following day the enemy, with greater forces by far having been collected, attack the camp; they fill up the ditch. It is resisted by our men in the same manner by which the day before; this same thing happens thereafter/successively during the remaining days. No part of the night time is omitted for the work: not even to the sick or wounded is chance given for rest: whatever things are necessary for the assault of the next day are provided during the night: many stakes burned at the end and a large number of mural pikes are prepared: towers are covered with boards, battlements and parapets are formed with wickerwork. Cicero himself, although he was of very weak health, did not leave himself the night time for repose, so that he was forced to spare himself by the spontaneous running and voices of the soldiers.