§7.32.1Caesar Avarici complures dies commoratus summamque ibi copiam frumenti et reliqui commeatus nactus exercitum ex labore atque inopia refecit.
Caesar, having delayed at Avaricum for several days and having obtained there a very great abundance of grain and other provisions, refreshed his army from their labor and want.
§7.32.2Iam prope hieme confecta cum ipso anni tempore ad gerendum bellum vocaretur et ad hostem proficisci constituisset, sive eum ex paludibus silvisque elicere sive obsidione premere posset, legati ad eum principes Aeduorum veniunt oratum ut maxime necessario tempore civitati subveniat: §7.32.3summo esse in periculo rem, quod, cum singuli magistratus antiquitus creari atque regiam potestatem annum obtinere consuessent, duo magistratum gerant et se uterque eorum legibus creatum esse dicat.
When, winter being now almost ended, he was called to the prosecution of the war by the season of the year itself and had resolved to march against the enemy, to see whether he could entice them out of the marshes and woods or press them by a siege, the leading men of the Aedui came to him as ambassadors to entreat that he would succor their state at a most necessary time: stating that the commonwealth was in the utmost danger, because, whereas single magistrates had by ancient custom been elected and held regal power for a year, two now exercised the magistracy and each of them said that he was elected according to the laws.
§7.32.4Horum esse alterum Convictolitavem, florentem et illustrem adulescentem, alterum Cotum, antiquissima familia natum atque ipsum hominem summae potentiae et magnae cognationis, cuius frater Valetiacus proximo anno eundem magistratum gesserit.
Of these, one was Convictolitavis, an influential and illustrious youth; the other was Cotus, born of a very ancient family and himself a man of the greatest influence and of powerful connections, whose brother Valetiacus had held the same magistracy in the previous year.
§7.32.5Civitatem esse omnem in armis; divisum senatum, divisum populum, suas cuiusque eorum clientelas.
The whole state was in arms; the senate was divided, the people divided, and each of them had his own clients.
Quod si diutius alatur controversia, fore uti pars cum parte civitatis confligat.
If the dispute should be kept up any longer, the result would be that one part of the state would clash with the other.
Id ne accidat, positum in eius diligentia atque auctoritate.
That this should not happen depended on his activity and authority.