Ch. 83

Outside Gauls’ Plan

Bis magno1 cum detrimento repulsi Galli2 quid agant consulunt; locorum3 peritos adhibent: ex his superiorum4 castrorum situs munitionesque cognoscunt. 2 Erat a septentrionibus5 collis6, quem propter7 magnitudinem circuitus opere circumplecti8 non potuerant nostri: necessario paene iniquo9 loco et leniter declivi castra fecerunt. 3 Haec10 Gaius Antistius Reginus11 et Gaius Caninius Rebilus11 legati cum duabus legionibus obtinebant. 4 Cognitis per exploratores regionibus duces hostium LX milia ex omni numero deligunt earum civitatum quae maximam virtutis opinionem habebant; 5 quid12 quoque13 pacto agi placeat occulte inter se constituunt; adeundi14 tempus definiunt, cum meridies esse videatur. 6 His copiis Vercassivellaunum15 Arvernum, unum ex quattuor ducibus, propinquum Vercingetorigis, praeficiunt16. 7 Ille ex castris prima vigilia egressus prope17 confecto sub lucem itinere post montem se occultavit militesque ex nocturno labore sese reficere18 iussit. 8 Cum iam meridies appropinquare videretur, ad ea castra quae19 supra demonstravimus contendit; eodemque tempore equitatus ad campestres20 munitiones accedere et reliquae copiae pro castris sese ostendere coeperunt.

  1. magno cum detrimento: with great loss ↩

  2. Galli quid agant consulunt: start with the consulunt, since it’s indicative, then move to the quid agant. This phrase is an indirect question, which starts with an interrogative (question word) and a subjunctive verb. They consulted on what they should do ↩

  3. locorum peritos: take peritos as a substantive adjective (your adjective standing for a noun). the ones skilled in the places, meaning “the ones who knew the places well” ↩

  4. superiorum castrorum situs munitionesque: this refers to the Roman camps ↩

  5. a septentrionibus: on the north side. “Septentrio” is the Big Dipper (Ursa Major) constellation, which appears in the north. Alternatively, it is also a name for the north wind. ↩

  6. collis: take collis as nominative here ↩

  7. propter magnitudinem circuitus: on account of the size of its circumference. Circuitus is genitive singular, 4th declension ↩

  8. circumplecti: deponent infinitive, to enclose ↩

  9. iniquo loco et leniter declivi: ablative of location ↩

  10. Haec: refers to the castra. Take it as your direct object of the obtinebant later on ↩

  11. Gaius Antistius Reginus et Gaius Caninius Rebilus legati: a legatus is a high-ranking military officer. Not too much is known about these individuals, or at least nothing of consequence for us ↩ ↩2

  12. quid quoque …. constituunt: another indirect question. Start with the constituunt ↩

  13. quoque pacto: and by what manner ↩

  14. adeundi tempus: gerund, the time of approaching ↩

  15. Vercassivellaunum Arvernum: Vercassivellaunus was a Gallic commander, cousin to Vercingetorix, from the same Averni tribe ↩

  16. praeficiunt: praeficio is “to put an ACCUSATIVE in charge of a DATIVE” ↩

  17. prope confecto sub lucem itinere: prope here is an adverb, nearly. Iter, itinieris (n) is journey, or march. Sub lucem is just before dawn ↩

  18. reficere: to rest ↩

  19. quae supra demonstravimus: as we’ve seen before, this is an editorial note from Caesar the author ↩

  20. ad campestres munitiones: to the fortifications on the field ↩

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