Text File

C. IULI CAESA13IS

DE BELLO GALLICO

CO~IMENTARIUS TERTIUS

ClTM in Italiam proficisceretur Caesar, Ser. Galbam cum legione XII. et parte equitatus in Nantuates, ~eragros Sedunosque misit, qui a finibus Allobrogum et lacu Lemanno et flumine Rhodano ad summas Alpes pertinent. Causa mittendi fuit quod iter per Alpes, quo magno cum periculo magnisque cum portoriis mercatores ire consuerant, patefieri volebat. E~uic permisit, si opus e~se arbitraretur, uti in hi~ locis legionem hiemandi causa conlocaret. Gal1~)a secundis aliquot proeliis factis castellisque compluribus eorum expugnatis, missis ad eurn undique legatis obsidibus- que datis et pace facta, constituit cohortes duas in ~antuatibus conlocare et ipse cum reliquis eius legio- nis cohortibus in vico Veragrorur~l, qui appellatur Octodurus hiemare; qui vicus positus in v~lle non magna adiecta planitie altissimis montibus undique continetur. Cum hic in duas partes f~umine divide- retur, alteram partem eius vici Gallis [ad hiem~ndum] concessit, alteram vacuam ab his relictam cohortibus attribuit. Eum locum vallo fossaque munivit.

1, 2. iter per Al~es,--evidently the route over the Great St. Bernard.

4. caste71is, ' forts '. See the first note on ii, 29, ~ 2.

~ 6. ~umine. The Dranse then flowed in a different channel through the centre of the valley: it is now close to the western hills.

ad hiemandum. German editors are now generally agreed that these words are either spurious or originally followed co- hortibus. Mcusel (J.B., 1910, p. 56) deletes them, on the ground that Caesar, after writing cohortibus . . . hiemare in 4, would not have superfluously inserted ad hiemand~m.

alteram . . . attribuit. Galba certainly encamped on the left or western bank of the river, while the Gauls occupied the right; for if he had allowed them to hold the left bank, they would have cut his communications with the two cohorts which he had left among the Nantuates (C. G., pp. 677-8). Cum dies hibernorum complures transissent fru- 2 mentumque eo comportari iussisset, subito per e~plo_ r~tores certior factus eSt ex ea parte vici, quam Gallis eonceSserat, omnes noctu discessisse montesque qui

5 impenderent ~ n~axima multitudine Sedunorum et Veragrorum teneri. Id aliquot de cauSis acciderat,~ ut subito Galli belli renovandi legionisque oppri- mendae eonsilium caperent: primum, quod legionem 3 neque eal~ plenissimam detractis cohortibus du~bus et compluribus singillatim, qui comme~tus petendi eausa missi erant, absentibus propter paucitatem de- spiciebant; tum etiam, quod propter iniquitatem loci, 4 cum ipsi ex montibus in vallem decurrerent et tela coieerent, ne primum quidem impetum suum posse

5 sustineri existimabant. Aeeedebat quod suos ab Se 5 liberos abstraetos obsidum nomine dolebant, et Ro- manos noll sollml itinerum eausa sed etiam perpetuae possessionis eulmina Alpium oceupare conari et ea loca finitimae provineiae adiungere sibi persuasum

20 habebant. nuntii~ acceptis Galba, cum neque opus hiber- 3

2, 1. e~plor~ctores. See the note on ii, 11 ''.

eoncesserat. As it is impossible in transiating to separate quam . . . coneesserat from ex . . . viei (we should say ' he was informed that during the night the Gauls had all quitted the part of the village which he had allotted to them'), it may seem at first ~ight surprising to a beginner that Caesar did not write eoncessisset- but he used the indicative because the patrols had simply said that the Gauls bad quitted their part of the village: he independently reminded the reader that he had allotted it

2. Id . . . capere~lt. Id relers to 1, and ut . . . caperent is added in order to make it quite clear what is meant by Id. In English one would say ' Various reasons had led the Gauls to form tbe sudden resolution of renewing hostilities', &c. Cf. i,

~ 3. After legionem Meusel, following Jurinius, supplies Ynam, in my opinion unnecessarily.

- 4. Notice that decu1rerent does not mean 'were charging down- but 'would charge down': the charge had not yet ~egun. See the note on ad~ictarentur in 12, 1. _;~3, ~ l. opus hic~ernorum munitionesqcce. Opus or its plural i~ ~n used as an equivalent of munitiones, and therefore at first _It munitionesque may appear superfluous. But opus may ~mean the work of constructing munitiorces (cf. ii, 20, ~ 1), norum munitionesque plene es~ent perfectae nequ~ to de frurnento reliquoque commeatu satis esset pro~isum quod deditione facta obsidibu~que acceptis nihil d~ l~ello timendum existimaverat, con~ilio celeriter con-

2 vocato sententias exquirere coepit Quo in consilio. cum tantum repentini periculi praeter opinionem ac- cidisset ac iam omnia fere superiora loca multitudine a~natorum completa conspicerentur neque subsidio veniri neque commeatus supportari interclusis itineri-

3 bus po~sent, prope i~m desperata salute non nullae eius modi sententiae dicebantur, ut impedimentiS relicti~ eruptione facta isdem itineribus quibus eo

4 pervenissent ad salutem contenderent. Maiori tamen parti placuit, hoc reservato ad extremum <casum> consilio interim rei eventum experiri et castra de- fendere.

4 Brevi spatio interiecto, vix ut iis rebus quas con-

ù stitui~sent conlocandis atque administrandis tempus daretur, hostes ex omnibus partibus signo dato de- currere, lapides gaesaque in vallum coicere. Nostri

and munitioi1esque is added here to complete and define opus hibe1'1/01'um. Similarly in i, 8, 4 Caesar speaks of openis mu~

tion.e even though operis plainly means 'entrenchment' ~md opere might have been used alone in the sense of munitione. The entrenchment was an entrenchment even before the pali- sade and castella which completed it were made.

plene. H. J. Muller (W, kl. Ph., 1894, col. 566) prefers plane (cf. 26, ~ 3), which is found in one inferior MS.; for he can find no satisfactory analogy to ple~le. Will not these examples do, --s~ hoc plene 1~itare non potes (Cicero, Q. fi:, i, 1, ~ 38) and quae utl~le1le esset . . . perfecta (DeDiv., ii, 1, $ 3) ?

2. omnia fere . . . conspicerentui: Probably the natives were posted on both the parallel ranges of mountains which domi- nate Martigny, in order to cut off the Romans from all possi bility of escape (C. G., pp. 677-8).

4. ad extremum. W. Paul (Z.G., 1878, p. 194) supplies casum, referring to 5, ~1 (resque esset iam ad e~ctrem~m perducta casum) and rem~rking thatCaesar, like Cicero, only uses ectre- mum l~y itself in the sens~ of ' end ' or ' conclusion ', ne~er in that of ' e~treme peril '.

4, 1. constit~issent. See the note on ii, 35, 1.

conlocandis. If the MS. reading is right, the meaning of iis l ebus . . . conlocandis is ' for making the dispositions which had been resol~ed upon '. W. Nitsche suggests that Caesar wrote compar~lndis. primO integris viribus fortiter propugnare neque ullum flustra telum ex loco superiore mittere, et quaecunlqUe pars castrorum nudata defensoribus premi ~-idebatur, eo occurrere et auxilium ~erre, sed 3 hoc superari quod diuturnit~te pugnae hostes defessi proelio excedebant, alii integris viribu~ succedebant; qu~rum reruln a nostris propter paucit~tem fieri nihil 4 poter~t, ac non modo defesso ex pugna excedendi, sed ne saucio quidem eius loci ubi constiterat relinquendi

D ~c sui recipiendi facult~s dabatur.

Cul~l iam amplius horis sex continenter pugnaretur, 5 ac non solum vires sed etiam tela nostros deficerent, atque hostes acrius instarent languidioribusque nostris vallum scindere et fossas complere coepissent, resque

5 esset iam ad extremum perduct~ casum, P. Sextius 2 Baculus, primi pili centurio, quem N ervico proelio compluribus confectum vulneribus diximus, et item C. Volusenus, tribunus militum, vir et consilii magni et virtutis, ad Galbam accurrunt atque un~m esse

o spem salutis docent, si eruptione facta extremum au~i]ium experirentur. Itaque convocatis centurio- 3 nibus celeriter milites certiores facit, paulisper in-

2. quaecumque . . . videbati~: The e~planation is suggested by 2, 3.

4. non modo . . . excedendi. The reader has doubtless noticed that non is omitted before excedendi, though in a similar clause (ii, 17, 4) it is expressed. ~aesar began the sentence as if he