Humanitext Reader

Julius Caesar · Gallic War §6.28.1-6.28.6

Characteristics of the Urus and Use of Its Horns

Passage 242 of 404 · Latin

Summary

The passage describes the characteristics of the fierce wild ox called the urus in the Hercynian forest, how young men hunt them for honor, and how their large horns are decorated with silver to be used as drinking cups.

§6.28.1Tertium est genus eorum, qui uri appellantur.
The third is the class of those animals which are called uruses.
Hi sunt magnitudine paulo infra elephantos, specie et colore et figura tauri.
These are in size a little below the elephants, but in their appearance, color, and shape they are like bulls.
§6.28.2Magna vis eorum est et magna velocitas, neque homini neque ferae quam conspexerunt parcunt.
Great is their strength and great their speed, and they spare neither man nor wild beast which they have espied.
Hos studiose foveis captos interficiunt.
These they industriously kill, having caught them in pits.
§6.28.3Hoc se labore durant adulescentes atque hoc genere venationis exercent, et qui plurimos ex his interfecerunt, relatis in publicum cornibus, quae sint testimonio, magnam ferunt laudem.
The young men harden themselves by this labor and train themselves in this kind of hunting, and those who have killed the greatest number of them, having brought their horns into public to serve as evidence, receive great praise.
§6.28.4Sed adsuescere ad homines et mansuefieri ne parvuli quidem excepti possunt.
But they cannot be accustomed to men and tamed, not even if they are caught when very small.
§6.28.5Amplitudo cornuum et figura et species multum a nostrorum boum cornibus differt.
The size of their horns, their shape, and their appearance differ much from the horns of our oxen.
§6.28.6Haec studiose conquisita ab labris argento circumcludunt atque in amplissimis epulis pro poculis utuntur.
These, having been eagerly sought after, they bind with silver around the rims, and use them as drinking cups at their most splendid feasts.

Notes

  1. §6.28.1magnitudine — Ablative of specification (or description), like the subsequent specie et colore et figura, specifying the respect in which they are "a little below" (paulo infra) elephants.
  2. §6.28.3quae sint testimonio — testimonio is a dative of purpose (part of a double dative construction). The verb sint is in the subjunctive mood, introducing a relative clause of purpose ("which may serve as testimony") or characteristic.
  3. §6.28.4ne parvuli quidem excepti — excepti is a perfect participle modifying the nominalized adjective parvuli. It carries a concessive force: "not even if they are caught (taken out) when very small."
  4. §6.28.6ab labris — The preposition ab, literally meaning "from," is used here to indicate location or boundary, translated as "at the rims" or "around the edges."

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §6.28.1-6.28.6. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:6.28.1-6.28.6

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

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