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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §5.17.1-5.17.5

Repulse of the Attack on the Foragers and Enemy Route

Passage 173 of 404 · Latin

Summary

The enemy launches a sudden attack on Caesar's foraging party, but a strong Roman counter-attack and relentless pursuit routing them, leading to the dispersal of their auxiliary forces.

§5.17.1Postero die procul a castris hostes in collibus constiterunt rarique se ostendere et lenius quam pridie nostros equites proelio lacessere coeperunt.
On the following day, the enemy took up a position on the hills far from the camp, and showing themselves only in scattered groups, began to provoke our cavalry to battle less vigorously than the day before. On the following day, the enemy took up a position on the hills far from the camp, and showing themselves only in scattered groups, began to provoke our cavalry to battle less vigorously than the day before.
§5.17.2Sed meridie, cum Caesar pabulandi causa tres legiones atque omnem equitatum cum Gaio Trebonio legato misisset, repente ex omnibus partibus ad pabulatores advolaverunt, sic uti ab signis legionibusque non absisterent.
But at noon, when Caesar had sent three legions and all the cavalry with the lieutenant Gaius Trebonius for the purpose of foraging, they suddenly rushed upon the foragers from all sides, so that they did not hold back even from the standards and the legions. But at noon, when Caesar had sent three legions and all the cavalry with the lieutenant Gaius Trebonius for the purpose of foraging, they suddenly rushed upon the foragers from all sides, so that they did not hold back even from the standards and the legions.
§5.17.3Nostri acriter in eos impetu facto reppulerunt neque finem sequendi fecerunt, quoad subsidio confisi equites, cum post se legiones viderent, §5.17.4praecipites hostes egerunt magnoque eorum numero interfecto neque sui colligendi neque consistendi aut ex essedis desiliendi facultatem dederunt.
Our men, making a vigorous charge upon them, drove them back and did not cease from pursuit, until the cavalry, relying on the support, when they saw the legions behind them, drove the enemy headlong, and having slain a great number of them, gave them no opportunity either of rallying themselves, or of making a stand, or of leaping down from their chariots.
§5.17.5Ex hac fuga protinus, quae undique convenerant, auxilia discesserunt, neque post id tempus umquam summis nobiscum copiis hostes contenderunt.
Immediately after this flight, the auxiliary forces which had assembled from all quarters departed, and after that time the enemy never contended with us with their full forces. Immediately after this flight, the auxiliary forces which had assembled from all quarters departed, and after that time the enemy never contended with us with their full forces.

Notes

  1. §5.17.2sic uti ab signis legionibusque non absisterent — Consecutive clause introduced by sic uti, meaning 'they rushed upon the foragers so fiercely that they did not hold back even from the standards and the legions' (i.e., they pressed extremely close to the main body).
  2. §5.17.3quoad ... facultatem dederunt — The structure of the temporal clause introduced by the conjunction quoad (until). The subject is equites, which leads, after intervening participles and the cum-clause, to the perfect indicative verbs egerunt and dederunt.
  3. §5.17.4sui colligendi — The usage of the pronoun sui in the gerundive construction. While sui is formally a singular neuter genitive (and thus the gerundive is the singular genitive colligendi), it represents a plural meaning: 'of rallying themselves (the enemy)'.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §5.17.1-5.17.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:5.17.1-5.17.5

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