Mil. Also 7 contre-, COUNTER-. [ad. F. contrevallation, It. contravvallazione, f. L. contra- + vallatiōn-em entrenchment (f. vallāre to surround with a rampart, to entrench): cf. CIRCUMVALLATION.]
1. A chain of redoubts and breastworks, either unconnected or united by a parapet, constructed by besiegers between their camp and the town, as a defence against sorties of the garrison.
1678. trans. L. de Gaya’s Art of War, II. 113. Circumvallation and Contravallation, is a Composition of Redoubts, little Forts, and Angles with Trenches, and Lines of Communication from one to another round a place that is beseiged.
1692. Dryden, St. Evremont’s Ess., 144. And to Cæsar is owing our Fortifications, our Lines, our Contravallations.
1774. Goldsm., Gr. Hist., I. 272. The following night the victors carried on their wall beyond the contravallation of the Athenians.
b. Usually, Line of contravallation.
1678. trans. L. de Gaya’s Art of War, I. 54. The line of Contrevallation … which secures the Besiegers from Sallies.
1811. Wellington, in Gurw., VII. 556. Unless they can be deprived … of their lines of contravallation before Cadiz, nothing can shake them in that part of the Peninsula.
1853. Stocqueler, Mil. Encycl., 69. An army, forming a siege, lies between the lines of circumvallation and contravallation.
2. The construction of such lines.
1725. Watts, Logic, IV. ii. The rules of circumvallation and contravallation.
