§5.19.1Cassivellaunus, ut supra demonstravimus, omni deposita spe contentionis dimissis amplioribus copiis milibus circiter quattuor essedariorum relictis itinera nostra servabat paulumque ex via excedebat locisque impeditis ac silvestribus sese occultabat, atque eis regionibus quibus nos iter facturos cognoverat pecora atque homines ex agris in silvas compellebat et, §5.19.2cum equitatus noster liberius praedandi vastandique causa se in agros eiecerat, omnibus viis semitisque essedarios ex silvis emittebat et magno cum periculo nostrorum equitum cum eis confligebat atque hoc metu latius vagari prohibebat.
Cassivellaunus, as we have shown above, having abandoned all hope of active conflict, disbanded the greater part of his forces, and keeping about four thousand charioteers, watched our marches, and retired a little from the road, concealing himself in inaccessible and woody places; and in those districts through which he had learned we were about to march, he drove the cattle and the inhabitants from the fields into the woods; and whenever our cavalry sallied out too freely into the fields for the sake of plundering and devastating, he sent his charioteers out from the woods by all the roads and paths, and engaged with them to the great danger of our cavalry, and by this fear prevented them from foraging too widely.
§5.19.3Relinquebatur ut neque longius ab agmine legionum discedi Caesar pateretur, et tantum in agris vastandis incendiisque faciendis hostibus noceretur, quantum labore atque itinere legionarii milites efficere poterant.
The only alternative left was that Caesar would not allow them to depart too far from the main body of the legions, and that harm could only be done to the enemy in devastating their fields and setting fire to their property, so far as the legionary soldiers were able to accomplish it by their labor and marching.