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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §2.32.1-2.32.4

Atuatuci Surrender Weapons in Part and Open the Gates

Passage 86 of 404 · Latin

Summary

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.

§2.32.1Ad haec Caesar respondit: se magis consuetudine sua quam merito eorum civitatem conservaturum, si prius quam murum aries attigisset se dedidissent; §2.32.2sed deditionis nullam esse condicionem nisi armis traditis.
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; but that there was no term of surrender except on the condition of delivering up their arms.
Se id quod in Nerviis fecisset facturum finitimisque imperaturum ne quam dediticiis populi Romani iniuriam inferrent.
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.
§2.32.3Re renuntiata ad suos illi se quae imperarentur facere dixerunt.
The matter being reported back to their people, they said that they were performing what was commanded.
§2.32.4Armorum 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, 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.

Notes

  1. §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. §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'.
  3. §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]').
  4. §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).

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §2.32.1-2.32.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:2.32.1-2.32.4

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