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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §3.1.1-3.1.6

Galba's Alpine Campaign and Winter Quarters at Octodurus

Passage 90 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Before setting out for Italy, Caesar sends Galba with the Twelfth Legion to secure the Alpine trade route. After defeating the local tribes, Galba establishes winter quarters in the village of Octodurus.

§3.1.1Cum in Italiam proficisceretur Caesar, Ser. Galbam cum legione XII. et parte equitatus in Nantuates, Veragros Sedunosque misit, qui a finibus Allobrogum et lacu Lemanno et flumine Rhodano ad summas Alpes pertinent.
When Caesar was setting out for Italy, he sent Servius Galba with the Twelfth Legion and a part of the cavalry into the territories of the Nantuates, Veragri, and Seduni, who extend from the borders of the Allobroges, Lake Lemannus, and the river Rhone to the highest Alps.
§3.1.2Causa mittendi fuit quod iter per Alpes, quo magno cum periculo magnisque cum portoriis mercatores ire consuerant, patefieri volebat.
The reason for sending him was that he wished to open up the route through the Alps, by which merchants had been accustomed to travel with great danger and at great expense of tolls.
§3.1.3Huic permisit, si opus esse arbitraretur, uti in his locis legionem hiemandi causa conlocaret.
He permitted him, if he should think it necessary, to station the legion in these places for the purpose of wintering.
§3.1.4Galba secundis aliquot proeliis factis castellisque compluribus eorum expugnatis, missis ad eum undique legatis obsidibusque datis et pace facta, constituit cohortes duas in Nantuatibus conlocare et ipse cum reliquis eius legionis cohortibus in vico Veragrorum, qui appellatur Octodurus hiemare; §3.1.5qui vicus positus in valle non magna adiecta planitie altissimis montibus undique continetur.
Galba, having fought several successful battles and stormed many of their strongholds, when embassies had been sent to him from all sides, hostages given, and peace made, decided to station two cohorts among the Nantuates and to winter himself with the remaining cohorts of that legion in a village of the Veragri, which is called Octodurus; this village, situated in a valley of no great size with a plain adjoining, is surrounded on all sides by very high mountains.
§3.1.6Cum hic in duas partes flumine divideretur, alteram partem eius vici Gallis [ad hiemandum] concessit, alteram vacuam ab his relictam cohortibus attribuit.
Since this was divided into two parts by a river, he granted one part of the village to the Gauls [to winter in], and assigned the other, left vacant by them, to the cohorts.
Eum locum vallo fossaque munivit.
He fortified this place with a rampart and a trench.

Notes

  1. 3.1.1qui a finibus Allobrogum ... pertinent — The antecedent of the relative pronoun qui is the masculine plural nouns indicating the tribes (Nantuates, Veragros Sedunosque), but in this geographical context, it refers to 'their territories'.
  2. 3.1.2Causa mittendi — mittendi is the genitive of the gerund of mitto (to send), modifying the noun causa.
  3. 3.1.3si opus esse arbitraretur — The imperfect subjunctive arbitraretur is due to the sequence of tenses (consecutio temporum) following the past-tense main verb (permisit).
  4. 3.1.4secundis aliquot proeliis factis castellisque compluribus eorum expugnatis, missis ad eum undique legatis obsidibusque datis et pace facta — A series of ablative absolutes is used here to describe the successive events and circumstances that occurred before the subject, Galba, made his decision (constituit...).
  5. 3.1.5qui vicus — The relative pronoun qui, accompanying the noun vicus, functions as a relative connection linking back to Octodurus in the preceding sentence.
  6. 3.1.6alteram vacuam ab his relictam — The adjective vacuam and the participle relictam both modify the omitted accusative noun partem. ab his (by them, i.e., the Gauls) depends on relictam, which has a passive sense.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §3.1.1-3.1.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:3.1.1-3.1.6

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