§1.16.1Interim cotidie Caesar Haeduos frumentum, quod essent publice polliciti, flagitare.
Meanwhile, Caesar was daily demanding of the Haedui the corn which they had publicly promised.
§1.16.2Nam propter frigora [quod Gallia sub septentrionibus, ut ante dictum est, posita est,] non modo frumenta in agris matura non erant, sed ne pabuli quidem satis magna copia suppetebat; §1.16.3eo autem frumento quod flumine Arari navibus subvexerat propterea uti minus poterat quod iter ab Arari Helvetii averterant, a quibus discedere nolebat.
For, on account of the cold (because Gaul is situated toward the north, as has been previously said), not only was the corn in the fields not ripe, but not even was there a sufficiently large quantity of forage at hand; moreover, he was less able to use that corn which he had conveyed up the river Arar in ships, because the Helvetii had diverted their march from the Arar, and from them he did not wish to depart.
§1.16.4Diem ex die ducere Haedui: conferri, comportari, adesse dicere.
The Haedui kept putting him off from day to day, saying that it was being collected, was being brought in, was at hand.
§1.16.5Ubi se diutius duci intellexit et diem instare quo die frumentum militibus metiri oporteret, convocatis eorum principibus, quorum magnam copiam in castris habebat, in his Diviciaco et Lisco, qui summo magistratui praeerat, quem vergobretum appellant Haedui, qui creatur annuus et vitae necisque in suos habet potestatem, graviter eos accusat, §1.16.6quod, cum neque emi neque ex agris sumi possit, tam necessario tempore, tam propinquis hostibus ab iis non sublevetur, praesertim cum magna ex parte eorum precibus adductus bellum susceperit[; multo etiam gravius quod sit destitutus queritur].
When he perceived that he was being put off too long, and that the day was close at hand on which day it would be necessary to measure out the corn to the soldiers, having called together their chiefs, of whom he had a great number in his camp, and among them Diviciacus and Liscus, who was vested with the chief magistracy, whom the Haedui call "Vergobretus," who is elected annually and holds the power of life and death over his countrymen, he severely accuses them, because, since it could neither be bought nor taken from the fields, at so urgent a time, and with the enemy so near, he was not assisted by them, especially since he had undertaken the war largely induced by their entreaties; he complains even more severely that he has been abandoned.