Julius Caesar · Gallic War §3.22.1-3.22.4

Adiatunnus's Sally and the Devotion of the Soldurii

Passage 111 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Adiatunnus attempts a sally with his loyal retainers called "soldurii" but is repulsed, and ultimately obtains permission to surrender under the same conditions as the others.

§3.22.1Atque in eam rem omnium nostrorum intentis animis alia ex parte oppidi Adiatunnus, qui summam imperii tenebat, cum DC devotis, quos illi soldurios appellant, §3.22.2quorum haec est condicio, ut omnibus in vita commodis una cum iis fruantur quorum se amicitiae dediderint, si quid his per vim accidat, aut eundem casum una ferant aut sibi mortem consciscant; §3.22.3neque adhuc hominum memoria repertus est quisquam qui, eo interfecto cuius se amicitiae devovisset, mortem recusaret— §3.22.4cum his Adiatunnus eruptionem facere conatus clamore ab ea parte munitionis sublato cum ad arma milites concurrissent vehementerque ibi pugnatum esset, repulsus in oppidum tamen uti eadem deditionis condicione uteretur a Crasso impetravit.

And while the minds of all our men were intent upon this matter, from another part of the town Adiatunnus, who held the chief command, with six hundred devoted followers, whom they call soldurii, —whose condition is this: that they enjoy all the benefits of life together with those to whose friendship they have committed themselves, and if any disaster by violence should befall them, they either endure the same fate together or commit suicide; nor in the memory of man has anyone yet been found who refused death when he was slain to whose friendship he had devoted himself— with these, Adiatunnus having attempted to make a sally, when a shout was raised on that part of the fortification, and our soldiers had rushed to arms, and a fierce battle had been fought there, having been repulsed into the town, he nevertheless obtained from Crassus that he might use the same condition of surrender.

Notes

3.22.1Adiatunnus — The subject Adiatunnus in §3.22.1, after a long parenthetical explanation of the soldurii (§3.22.2–3), is repeated in §3.22.4 as cum his Adiatunnus, and finally connects to the main verb impetravit through the participles conatus and repulsus. This repetition of the subject resumes the sentence structure after the long interruption.
3.22.2ut omnibus in vita commodis una cum iis fruantur — The conjunction ut introduces a noun clause explaining the specific content of the demonstrative pronoun haec in the main clause (haec est condicio). The predicates within this clause are the three present subjunctives in coordination: fruantur, ferant, and consciscant.
3.22.3qui... mortem recusaret — The qui clause takes the imperfect subjunctive (recusaret) and forms a relative clause of characteristic, modifying the negative pronoun quisquam as its antecedent, expressing a strong negation or generalization: "no one who was of such a character as to refuse death."

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §3.22.1-3.22.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:3.22.1-3.22.4

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