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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §3.10.1-3.10.3

Reasons for War and Caesar's Decision to Divide His Army

Passage 99 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar lists various reasons pushing him to wage war against the Veneti, and considering the Gauls' inherent love of freedom and their tendency to rebel, decides to divide and distribute his army.

§3.10.1Erant hae difficultates belli gerendi quas supra ostendimus, sed tamen multa Caesarem ad id bellum incitabant: §3.10.2iniuria retentorum equitum Romanorum, rebellio facta post deditionem, defectio datis obsidibus, tot civitatum coniuratio, in primis ne hac parte neglecta reliquae nationes sibi idem licere arbitrarentur.
There were these difficulties of waging war which we have shown above, but nevertheless many things incited Caesar to that war: the injury of the retained Roman knights, the rebellion made after their surrender, the defection after hostages had been given, the conspiracy of so many states, and above all, the fear lest, if this part were neglected, the remaining nations should think that the same was permitted to them.
§3.10.3Itaque cum intellegeret omnes fere Gallos novis rebus studere et ad bellum mobiliter celeriterque excitari, omnes autem homines natura libertati studere et condicionem servitutis odisse, prius quam plures civitates conspirarent, partiendum sibi ac latius distribuendum exercitum putavit.
Therefore, since he understood that almost all the Gauls were eager for revolution and were easily and quickly excited to war, and that all men by nature are eager for liberty and hate the condition of slavery, before more states should conspire, he thought that the army must be divided by him and distributed more widely.

Notes

  1. §3.10.2retentorum equitum Romanorum — The perfect passive participle retentorum modifying the noun equitum. Syntactically, it functions in the "ab urbe condita" construction, where the action or state of "the Roman knights having been detained" itself constitutes the substance of the "injury" (iniuria).
  2. §3.10.2ne hac parte neglecta reliquae nationes sibi idem licere arbitrarentur — A clause introduced by ne placed at the end of the series of noun phrases. It functions substantively as "the apprehension that..." or as a clause of purpose/prevention depending on the preceding verb incitabant ("lest..."). Within the clause, hac parte neglecta is an ablative absolute expressing condition ("if this part were neglected"). sibi idem licere is an accusative with infinitive construction functioning as the object of arbitrarentur, where licere is an impersonal verb with idem as its subject.
  3. §3.10.3partiendum sibi ac latius distribuendum exercitum putavit — An accusative with infinitive clause introduced by putavit, featuring the passive periphrastic conjugation (gerundives in -ndus representing obligation or necessity) with the omission of esse (partiendum [esse]...). The dative sibi functions as the dative of agent, indicating the person by whom the action must be done.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §3.10.1-3.10.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:3.10.1-3.10.3

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