A fascine is a rough bundle of brushwood or other material used for strengthening an earthen structure, or making a path across uneven or wet terrain. Typical uses are protecting the banks of streams from erosion, covering marshy ground and so on. In war they have often been used to help armiesin modern times, especially tanks and other vehiclescross trenches, valleys, marshes, muddy or uneven terrain, etc. Early military use Fascine bundles were used defensively for revetting (shoring up) trenches or ramparts, especially around artillery batteries, or offensively to fill in ditches and cross obstacles on a battlefield. Fascine bridges are a regularly attested feature of Roman military engineering and would have been widespread in the ancient world due to their usefulness and ease of construction. During the Siege of Alesia, the Gauls repeatedly attempted to repel the invading Romans by filling their trenches in with fascines and covering their traps, to support their counter-assault. In mountainous terrains such as Syria, they could also be used to cross natural obstacles. In the Battle of Zela, Caesar's legions worked overnight filling in whole valleys with "a great quantity of fascines" to quickly gain an advantageous position over the army of Pharnaces II, removing them afterwards to protect their own camp. Subsequently, the use of fascines by military engineers continued almost wherever armies were deployed and could be an incredibly cheap and effective 'weapon' during a siege, for both attacker and defender. The Battle of Narva in 1700 was a pivotal early battle in the Great Northern War between Charles XII of Sweden and Peter the Great, near what is today the border between Estonia and Russia. Protected by the Narva River to their east, around the town the Russian Army had dug a trench six feet wide in front of an earth wall nine feet high. The defenders had 140 cannon mounted around the walls, they outnumbered the exhausted Swedish army four to one and a blizzard had just broken out. Nonetheless, Charles advanced: "Throwing their fascines into the ditch, the Swedes swarmed across on top of them. Waving swords and bayonets, they climbed over the earthworks and threw themselves on the foe. Within fifteen minutes, a fierce hand-to-hand battle was taking place inside the works." A hundred years later, during the Napoleonic Wars, fascines were still in regular usebillhooks, used for cutting branches and saplings, were standard issue for riflemenbut