Ch. 85

Fighting on the Slope

Caesar idoneum locum nactus1 quid2 quaque ex parte geratur cognoscit; laborantibus summittit3. 2 Utrisque4 ad animum occurrit5 unum esse illud tempus, quo6 maxime contendi7 conveniat: 3 Galli, nisi perfregerint munitiones, de omni salute desperant; Romani, si8 rem obtinuerint, finem laborum omnium exspectant. 4 Maxime ad superiores9 munitiones laboratur10, quo Vercassivellaunum11 missum demonstravimus. Iniquum12 loci ad declivitatem fastigium magnum habet momentum. 5 Alii13 tela coniciunt, alii13 testudine14 facta subeunt; defatigatis15 in vicem integri succedunt. 6 Agger16 ab universis in munitionem coniectus et ascensum dat Gallis et ea quae in terra occultaverant Romani contegit; nec iam arma nostris nec vires suppetunt17.

  1. Nactus: recall that a deponent PPP is still active! ↩

  2. quid quaque ex parte geratur cognoscit: another indirect question. Start with cognoscit ↩

  3. summittit: summitto, -ere can mean “to send help to” ↩

  4. Utrisque: (for) each side. The -que here is not “and;” it just gets attached to a small set of adjectives sometimes ↩

  5. Utrisque ad animum occurrit: sensed (literally “ran to their mind/soul”). Starts off indirect statement ↩

  6. quo: when, ablative of time ↩

  7. maxime contendi conveniat: it is appropriate to strive/exert themselves most greatly. The subjunctive verb conveniat is due to this being a relative clause in indirect statement ↩

  8. si rem obtinuerint: as often happens, the rem is the entire general circumstances of their fighting ↩

  9. ad superiores munitiones: these are the camps on the hill that was mentioned in Chapter 84 ↩

  10. laboratur: another impersonal passive. See the notes on pugnatur and concurritur in Chapter 84 ↩

  11. Vercassivellaunum: Vercassivellaunus, the Gallic leader sent to go attack these camps ↩

  12. Iniquum loci ad declivitatem fastigium magnum habet momentum: the unfavorable downward slope (Iniquum ad declivitatem fastigium) of the place has (habet) a great impact (magnum momentum) ↩

  13. alii….alii…. : any combination of different forms of alius usually mean “some of them…..and others of them…..” ↩ ↩2

  14. testudine facta: the testudo is a famous formation, first employed by the Romans, though here done by the Gauls, where the soldiers interlock their shields over their heads to protect the group from projectiles ↩

  15. defatigatis in vicem integri succedunt: fresh men (integri) replace (succedunt) the tired ones (defatigatis) in turn (in vicem) ↩

  16. Agger: here again, we see the Gauls using Roman siege tactics against them, piling up earth to form an agger in order to breach the defensive walls. ↩

  17. Suppetunt: suppeto, -ere = to be sufficient ↩

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