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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §7.13.1-7.13.3

Capture of Noviodunum and March to Avaricum

Passage 271 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar routs the Gallic cavalry by deploying his German horse, leading to the surrender of the terrified townsmen of Noviodunum, after which he marches towards Avaricum, the most fortified town of the Bituriges.

§7.13.1Caesar ex castris equitatum educi iubet, proelium equestre committit: laborantibus iam suis Germanos equites circiter CCCC summittit, quos ab initio habere secum instituerat.
Caesar ordered the cavalry to be led out of the camp, and joined battle with the cavalry; when his men were already giving way, he sent to their aid about four hundred German horse, whom he had made it a custom from the beginning to keep with him.
§7.13.2Eorum impetum Galli sustinere non potuerunt atque in fugam coniecti multis amissis se ad agmen receperunt.
The Gauls could not withstand their onset, and, being put to flight with great loss, retreated to their main army.
Quibus profligatis rursus oppidani perterriti comprehensos eos, quorum opera plebem concitatam existimabant, ad Caesarem perduxerunt seseque ei dediderunt.
These being routed, the townsmen, again thoroughly terrified, seized those by whose means they thought the common people had been stirred up, brought them to Caesar, and surrendered themselves to him.
§7.13.3Quibus rebus confectis, Caesar ad oppidum Avaricum, quod erat maximum munitissimumque in finibus Biturigum atque agri fertilissima regione, profectus est, quod eo oppido recepto civitatem Biturigum se in potestatem redacturum confidebat.
When these affairs were settled, Caesar set out for the town of Avaricum, which was the largest and best fortified in the territory of the Bituriges, and situated in a most fertile part of the country; because he was confident that, by recovering that town, he would bring the state of the Bituriges under his power.

Notes

  1. §7.13.1laborantibus iam suis — An ablative absolute construction consisting of the present participle laborantibus and the substantivized pronoun suis (his own men, i.e., the Roman soldiers).
  2. §7.13.2quorum opera plebem concitatam — opera is the ablative singular of the feminine noun opera ("exertion, agency") indicating means. esse is omitted after concitatam, forming an accusative-with-infinitive construction dependent on existimabant ("by whose agency they thought the common people had been stirred up").
  3. §7.13.3eo oppido recepto — The ablative absolute eo oppido recepto functions here conditionally ("if that town were recovered/captured") with respect to the future infinitive redacturum [esse]. redacturum (with esse omitted) is a future active infinitive in an accusative-with-infinitive construction after confidebat, with the reflexive pronoun se (referring to Caesar, the subject of the main clause) as its subject.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §7.13.1-7.13.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:7.13.1-7.13.3

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