Ch. 69

Description of Alesia

Ipsum1 erat oppidum Alesia in colle summo admodum2 edito loco, ut3 nisi obsidione expugnari non posse videretur; 2 cuius4 collis radices duo duabus ex partibus flumina subluebant. 3 Ante id oppidum planities circiter milia passuum tria in longitudinem patebat5: 4 reliquis ex omnibus partibus colles6 mediocri7 interiecto spatio pari8 altitudinis fastigio oppidum cingebant. 5 Sub muro, quae pars9 collis ad orientem solem spectabat, hunc omnem locum copiae Gallorum compleverant fossamque10 et maceriam sex11 in altitudinem pedum praeduxerant. 6 Eius12 munitionis quae ab Romanis instituebatur circuitus XI milia passuum tenebat. 7 Castra opportunis13 locis erant posita ibique castella14 viginti tria facta, quibus in castellis interdiu stationes15 ponebantur, ne16 qua subito eruptio fieret: haec17 eadem noctu excubitoribus ac firmis praesidiis tenebantur.

  1. Ipsum erat oppidum Alesia: ipsum oppidum would be “the fortified town itself” ↩

  2. admodum edito loco: ablative of location, on a very high spot ↩

  3. ut nisi ….. videretur: think about what kind of ut clause this is! Video in the passive can be “seem.” Recognize expugnari as a passive infinitive. ↩

  4. cuius collis …. subluebant: take in this order - duo flumina subluebant radices cuius collis ex duabus partibus. The phrase radices cuius collis is the bases of which hill ↩

  5. Patebat: pateo, -ere is “to stand open,” used for giving the dimensions of a space or object ↩

  6. colles: these colles are more minor hills that surround Alesia. ↩

  7. mediocri interiecto spatio: with an average space in between, ablative of description ↩

  8. pari altitudinis fastigio: with a peak equal in (of) height, another ablative of description ↩

  9. pars collis: A 3rd declension noun whose nominative ends in -is will have an identical genitive singular (ensis, collis, avis, canis, finis etc). We can tell through context that it’s genitive here, part of the hill ↩

  10. fossamque et maceriam: a fossa is a trench or ditch, and a maceria is a defensive wall ↩

  11. sex in altitudinem pedum: to a height of six feet ↩

  12. Eius munitionis …. tenebat: take it like this – circuitus eius munitionis (quae ab Romanis instituebatur) XI milia passuum tenebat. This contrasts the Gallic fortifications with the fortifications of the Romans ↩

  13. opportunis locis: ablative of location, in…. ↩

  14. castella: castellum, -i (n) – fortresses, stronghold. These are placed along a perimeter to watch the enemy and serve as a base from which to attack ↩

  15. stationes: statio, -onis (f) – watch guards, sentries ↩

  16. ne qua subito eruptio fieret: negative purpose clause, so that…..not…. Qua is short for aliqua, with the ali- dropping out after ne. (After si, nisi, num, and ne, all the ali-’s fly away! Yep, that’s a real rule….) This means that you won’t get aliqui for “anyone”, you’ll just get qui, or whatever case it’s in. ↩

  17. haec eadem: these same things, referring to the castella. These other words for watchmen must have some slight difference from the stationes above ↩

All material is taken, with gratitude, from The Latin Library as well as my own work, available under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license CC BY-SA 4.0