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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §6.27.1-6.27.5

Peculiar Habits of the Elk and How They Are Hunted

Passage 241 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar describes the "elks," strange animals with jointless legs that cannot lie down to sleep, and details how hunters exploit this habit to capture them by damaging trees they lean on.

§6.27.1Sunt item, quae appellantur alces.
There are also those animals which are called elks.
Harum est consimilis capris figura et varietas pellium, sed magnitudine paulo antecedunt mutilaeque sunt cornibus et crura sine nodis articulisque habent
Their shape and the varied color of their skins are very similar to goats, but in size they slightly surpass them, and they are devoid of horns and have legs without joints or articulations.
§6.27.2neque quietis causa procumbunt neque, si quo adflictae casu conciderunt, erigere sese aut sublevare possunt.
They do not lie down for the sake of rest, nor, if they have fallen down by being knocked over by any accident, can they raise themselves up or lift themselves.
§6.27.3His sunt arbores pro cubilibus: ad eas se applicant atque ita paulum modo reclinatae quietem capiunt.
To them, trees serve as beds; they lean against them, and, having reclined only a little in this manner, they take their rest.
§6.27.4Quarum ex vestigiis cum est animadversum a venatoribus, quo se recipere consuerint, omnes eo loco aut ab radicibus subruunt aut accidunt arbores, tantum ut summa species earum stantium relinquatur.
When it has been observed by hunters from their tracks where they are accustomed to retreat, they either undermine at the roots or cut into all the trees in that place, only so far that the general appearance of them standing remains.
Huc cum se consuetudine reclinaverunt, §6.27.5infirmas arbores pondere adfligunt atque una ipsae concidunt.
When they have reclined here according to their habit, they break down the weakened trees with their weight and fall down together themselves.

Notes

  1. §6.27.1Harum — Genitive feminine plural pronoun referring to the preceding feminine noun alces. It structures the comparison of their characteristics (partly resembling goats, partly differing) in the subsequent clauses.
  2. §6.27.1mutilaeque sunt cornibus — The noun cornibus is in the ablative case, functioning as an ablative of separation/deprivation required by the adjective mutilus (maimed, lacking), or as an ablative of specification (mutilated with respect to horns).
  3. §6.27.4Quarum ex vestigiis — Quarum is a relative connection (relativum connectionis) referring to the elks (alces, feminine plural), which are the main subject of the paragraph, rather than the immediately preceding arbores (trees).
  4. §6.27.4accidunt — The third-person plural present indicative of the verb accido (to cut into, hack: from ad + caedo), not from accido (to fall, happen: from ad + cado). This is confirmed by the subsequent clause tantum ut... (only so far that...), which describes the calculated depth of the cuts made by the hunters.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §6.27.1-6.27.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:6.27.1-6.27.5

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