Circumvallation
Circumvallation ( Latin : circum = around ... and vallum = wall ) or circumvallation line describes a fortification or a connected chain of entrenchments that are led around a city or fortress . The circumvallation created by the attacker is intended to prevent losses from the besieged city and protect the besiegers from attacks by the besieged.
The contravallation ( French contrevallation ) or contravallation line , which includes circumvallation as an additional fastening ring, protects the besiegers from attacks from outside, especially by relief armies .
This type of barricade played a role above all in the Greek and Roman siege technique of antiquity , for example in Caesar's victory over Alesia , in the battle for Agrigento in the First Punic War , in Numantia (133 BC), Masada (73 AD) .) and numerous other city sieges. The term and technology were still used in modern times, as they were described by Lossau in 1836 in the work Ideale der Kriegsführung . In the meantime, both have fallen out of use.
Circumvallation is not to be confused with the more general term of enclosure (also encircling or denuding ) without the construction of a classic wall, such as the Stalingrad Cauldron in World War II .
