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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §5.2.1-5.2.4

Assembly at Portus Itius and March Against the Treveri

Passage 158 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar inspects the winter quarters, finding many ships built and repaired, and orders the forces to assemble at Portus Itius. He then sets out with light legions and cavalry for the territory of the Treveri to suppress their disobedience.

§5.2.1His confectis rebus conventibusque peractis, in citeriorem Galliam revertitur atque inde ad exercitum proficiscitur.
These affairs being dispatched and the assizes completed, he returns into Hither Gaul, and thence sets out for the army.
§5.2.2Eo cum venisset, circumitis omnibus hibernis, singulari militum studio in summa omnium rerum inopia circiter sescentas eius generis cuius supra demonstravimus naves et longas XXVIII invenit instructas neque multum abesse ab eo quin paucis diebus deduci possint.
When he had arrived there, having gone round all the winter quarters, he finds that by the singular zeal of the soldiers, in spite of an extreme scarcity of all materials, about six hundred ships of that class which we have described above, and twenty-eight long ships, had been built, and were not far from that state that they could be launched in a few days.
§5.2.3Collaudatis militibus atque eis qui negotio praefuerant, quid fieri velit ostendit atque omnes ad portum Itium convenire iubet, quo ex portu commodissimum in Britanniam traiectum esse cognoverat, circiter milium passuum XXX transmissum a continenti: huic rei quod satis esse visum est militum reliquit; §5.2.4ipse cum legionibus expeditis IIII et equitibus DCCC in fines Treverorum proficiscitur, quod hi neque ad concilia veniebant neque imperio parebant Germanosque Transrhenanos sollicitare dicebantur.
Having highly commended the soldiers and those who had presided over the work, he points out what he wishes to be done, and commands all to assemble at Portus Itius, from which port he had learned that the passage into Britain was most convenient, being a crossing of about thirty miles from the continent: he left for this purpose what seemed to be a sufficient number of soldiers; he himself sets out for the territories of the Treveri with four legions without baggage, and eight hundred horse, because they neither attended the councils, nor obeyed his command, and were said to be tampering with the Transrhenane Germans.

Notes

  1. 5.2.2neque multum abesse ab eo quin — Part of the Accusative with Infinitive construction (AcI) governed by invenit, where the subject of abesse is the previously mentioned naves. The phrase neque multum abesse ab eo quin... literally means "and that it was not far from this, namely, that [the ships]...", meaning they were only a few days away from being launched (deduci possint). The conjunction quin is used after negative expressions of distance or difference.
  2. 5.2.3circiter milium passuum XXX transmissum — transmissum is the accusative of the fourth-declension noun transmissus (passage, crossing), functioning in apposition to traiectum (passage). milium passuum XXX (thirty miles) is a genitive of measure or quality modifying transmissum.
  3. 5.2.3quod satis esse visum est militum — militum is a partitive genitive dependent on the relative pronoun quod (with the antecedent id omitted in the main clause). Literally "what of soldiers seemed to be sufficient," meaning "such a number of soldiers as seemed sufficient."

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §5.2.1-5.2.4. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:5.2.1-5.2.4

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