- 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-lat2:8.42.1-8.42.5
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-11-04
Suffering from thirst, the townspeople roll burning casks onto the Roman works and fight fiercely to deter them from putting out the fire. Despite the fire and unfavorable conditions, the Roman soldiers fight bravely to demonstrate their valor in full view of their comrades.
Quo malo1 perterriti oppidani cupas sebo, pice, scandulis complent; eas ardentes in opera provolvunt eodemque tempore acerrime proeliantur, ut ab incendio restinguendo2 dimicationis periculo deterreant Romanos.
Terrified by this calamity, the townspeople filled casks with tallow, pitch, and shingles; they rolled them on fire down onto our works, and at the same time fought most fiercely, in order to deter the Romans from extinguishing the fire by the danger of the combat.
Magna repente in ipsis operibus flamma exstitit. Quaecumque enim per locum praecipitem missa erant, ea vineis et aggere suppressa comprehendebant3 id ipsum quod morabatur.
Suddenly a great flame arose in the works themselves. For whatever had been rolled down the steep slope, being stopped by the vineae and the rampart, set fire to that very thing which delayed it.
Milites contra nostri, quamquam periculoso genere proeli locoque iniquo premebantur, tamen omnia fortissimo sustinebant animo.
Our soldiers, on the other hand, although they were hard pressed by a dangerous kind of fighting and an unfavorable position, yet endured everything with the greatest courage.
Res enim gerebatur et excelso loco et in conspectu exercitus nostri, magnusque utrimque clamor oriebatur.
For the action was going on both in an elevated place and in full view of our army, and a great shout arose from both sides.
Ita quam quisque poterat maxime insignis,4 quo notior testatiorque virtus esset eius, telis hostium flammaeque se offerebat.
Thus, each as conspicuous as he possibly could be, so that his valor might be better known and attested, offered himself to the weapons of the enemy and to the flames.
- 8.42.1quo malo
Ablative of cause led by the connecting relative quo (= et eo). It refers back to the situation described in the previous chapter (8.41.6), where the enemy was suffering severely from thirst.
- 8.42.1ab incendio restinguendo
A gerundive construction governed by the preposition ab, serving as a complement to the verb deterreant ("to deter/debar"). It means "to deter [the Romans] from extinguishing the fire."
- 8.42.2comprehendebant
Here used in a transitive sense meaning "to ignite" or "to set fire to." The subject is ea (the burning casks rolled down the slope), and the direct object is id ipsum quod morabatur (the vineae and rampart which arrested their progress).
- 8.42.5quam quisque poterat maxime insignis
A structure where the verbal phrase quisque poterat ("each was able") is embedded between the adverb quam and the superlative modifier maxime (modifying insignis, meaning "as conspicuous as possible"). insignis is a nominative singular agreeing with the subject quisque.