- Source
- Julius Caesar. Aulus Hirtius. C. Iuli Commentarii Rerum in Gallia Gestarum VII A. Hirti Commentarius VII. Holmes, T. Rice (Thomas Rice), editor. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1914.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:2.32.1-2.32.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-26
Caesar replies that he will spare the Atuatuci only if they surrender their arms. They pretend to comply by throwing a vast quantity of weapons from the walls while secretly retaining a third, and open their gates to enjoy a temporary peace.
Ad haec Caesar respondit: se magis consuetudine sua quam merito eorum civitatem conservaturum, si prius quam murum aries attigisset se dedidissent;1
To this Caesar replied: that he would preserve their state more out of his own custom than because of their merit, if they should surrender themselves before the battering ram touched the wall;
sed deditionis nullam esse condicionem nisi armis traditis. Se id quod in Nerviis fecisset facturum finitimisque imperaturum ne quam dediticiis populi Romani iniuriam inferrent.2
but that there was no term of surrender except on the condition of delivering up their arms. He would do what he had done in the case of the Nervii, and would command their neighbors not to inflict any injury on the surrendered subjects of the Roman people.
Re renuntiata ad suos illi se quae imperarentur facere3 dixerunt.
The matter being reported back to their people, they said that they were performing what was commanded.
Armorum magna multitudine de muro in fossam, quae erat ante oppidum, iacta, sic ut prope summam muri aggerisque altitudinem acervi armorum adaequarent, et tamen circiter parte tertia, ut postea perspectum est, celata atque in oppido retenta,4 portis patefactis eo die pace sunt usi.
A great quantity of arms having been thrown from the wall into the trench which was in front of the town, so that the heaps of arms almost reached the highest height of the wall and the mound, and yet about a third part, as was afterwards discovered, having been concealed and retained in the town, they opened their gates and enjoyed peace on that day.
- 2.32.1si prius quam murum aries attigisset se dedidissent
The pluperfect subjunctives attigisset and dedidissent are used in the conditional clause under indirect speech. Since the leading verb of saying is in the historical tense (respondit), the future perfect of the direct speech has been changed into the pluperfect subjunctive following the sequence of tenses.
- 2.32.2ne quam dediticiis populi Romani iniuriam inferrent
quam is the feminine accusative singular of the indefinite pronoun quis (used adjectivally) following the negative/prohibitive particle ne, where the prefix aliqu- is dropped. It modifies iniuriam to mean 'lest they should inflict any injury'.
- 2.32.3se quae imperarentur facere
The present infinitive facere is employed instead of the future infinitive (facturos esse) to emphasize their prompt obedience and immediate execution of the commands ('that they were doing [at once]').
- 2.32.4et tamen circiter parte tertia ... celata atque ... retenta
parte tertia ... celata atque ... retenta is an ablative absolute construction (equivalent to pars tertia celata est), introduced by et tamen ('and yet') to present a contrasting fact alongside the preceding ablative absolute (magna multitudine... iacta).