Julius Caesar · Gallic War §6.42.1-6.42.3

Caesar's Return and Reflections on Fortune in War

Passage 256 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar returns to the camp and points out the role of fortune in the recent events, while criticizing the decision to let the cohorts leave their posts. He notes the irony of the Germans, who intended to ravage Ambiorix's land, ultimately doing him a great favor.

§6.42.1Reversus ille eventus belli non ignorans unum, quod cohortes ex statione et praesidio essent emissae, questus ne minimo quidem casu locum relinqui debuisse, multum fortunam in repentino hostium adventu potuisse iudicavit, §6.42.2multo etiam amplius, quod paene ab ipso vallo portisque castrorum barbaros avertisset.

Having returned, he, not being ignorant of the vicissitudes of war, complaining of only one thing, namely, that the cohorts had been sent out from their outpost and garrison, and maintaining that not even the least opportunity should have been left to fortune, judged that fortune had possessed great power in the sudden arrival of the enemy, and even much more so in having turned away the barbarians almost from the very rampart and gates of the camp.

quarum omnium rerum maxime admirandum videbatur, §6.42.3quod Germani, qui eo consilio Rhenum transierant, ut Ambiorigis fines depopularentur, ad castra Romanorum delati optatissimum Ambiorigi beneficium obtulerunt.

Of all these things it seemed most to be wondered at, that the Germans, who had crossed the Rhine with this design, to ravage the territories of Ambiorix, having been diverted to the camp of the Romans, rendered to Ambiorix a most welcome benefit.

Notes

6.42.1eventus — The accusative plural of the fourth-declension noun eventus. It is the direct object of the participle ignorans, meaning 'the various outcomes' or 'vicissitudes' of war.
6.42.1questus ne minimo quidem casu locum relinqui debuisse — The perfect participle of the deponent verb queror ('to complain') takes unum (and the appositive quod clause) as its direct object, and also governs the accusative with infinitive (AcI) construction ne ... debuisse. Here, locum ('opportunity, room') is the subject accusative. casu can be construed as either dative ('to chance') or ablative ('by chance').
6.42.2multo etiam amplius — The verbal structure fortunam potuisse [iudicavit] is to be supplied from the preceding clause multum fortunam ... potuisse iudicavit. multo is an ablative of degree of difference modifying the comparative amplius.
6.42.2quarum omnium rerum — A relative connection (qui at the beginning of a sentence) referring to the preceding events. It functions as a partitive genitive dependent on maxime admirandum ('most to be wondered at').

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §6.42.1-6.42.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:6.42.1-6.42.3

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