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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §7.47.1-7.47.7

Caesar's Retreat Order and the Assault on the Walls

Passage 305 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar orders a retreat, but the soldiers of the other legions, excited by hopes of victory, press the pursuit right up to the town walls. Panic ensues in the town, and the centurion Lucius Fabius becomes the first to scale the wall with the help of his comrades.

§7.47.1Consecutus id quod animo proposuerat, Caesar receptui cani iussit legionique decimae, quacum erat, continuo signa constituit.
Having accomplished that which he had proposed to himself, Caesar ordered the retreat to be sounded, and immediately halted the standards of the tenth legion, with which he was.
§7.47.2Ac reliquarum legionum milites non exaudito sono tubae, quod satis magna valles intercedebat, tamen ab tribunis militum legatisque, ut erat a Caesare praeceptum, retinebantur.
But the soldiers of the remaining legions, not having heard the sound of the trumpet because a rather large valley intervened, were nevertheless being held back by the military tribunes and lieutenants, as had been commanded by Caesar.
§7.47.3Sed elati spe celeris victoriae et hostium fuga et superiorum temporum secundis proeliis nihil adeo arduum sibi esse existimaverunt quod non virtute consequi possent, neque finem prius sequendi fecerunt quam muro oppidi portisque appropinquarunt.
But, elated by the hope of a speedy victory, the flight of the enemy, and their successful battles of former times, they thought that nothing was so difficult for them that they could not accomplish it by their valor, nor did they make an end of pursuing until they approached the wall and the gates of the town.
Tum vero ex omnibus urbis partibus orto clamore, §7.47.4qui longius aberant repentino tumultu perterriti, cum hostem intra portas esse existimarent, sese ex oppido eiecerunt.
Then indeed, a shout having arisen from all parts of the city, those who were further away, terrified by the sudden tumult, thinking that the enemy was within the gates, cast themselves out of the town.
§7.47.5Matres familiae de muro vestem argentumque iactabant et pectore nudo prominentes passis manibus obtestabantur Romanos, ut sibi parcerent neu, sicut Avarici fecissent, ne a mulieribus quidem atque infantibus abstinerent:
The mothers of families cast down clothing and silver from the wall, and leaning forward with bare breasts and outstretched hands, implored the Romans to spare them, and not, as they had done at Avaricum, fail to abstain even from women and children.
§7.47.6nonnullae de muris per manus demissae sese militibus tradebant.
Some, being let down from the walls by hand, surrendered themselves to the soldiers.
§7.47.7Lucius Fabius, centurio legionis VIII, quem inter suos eo die dixisse constabat excitari se Avaricensibus praemiis neque commissurum, ut prius quisquam murum ascenderet, tres suos nactus manipulares atque ab eis sublevatus murum ascendit: hos ipse rursus singulos exceptans in murum extulit.
Lucius Fabius, a centurion of the eighth legion, who was known to have said that day among his men that he was excited by the rewards at Avaricum and would not allow anyone to mount the wall before him, having found three soldiers of his own company and being lifted up by them, mounted the wall; he in turn, taking them up one by one, pulled them onto the wall.

Notes

  1. 7.47.1receptui cani — receptui is a dative of purpose, meaning "for a retreat." cani is the present passive infinitive of the intransitive verb cano (to sound, blow), used impersonally here to mean "to be sounded." Together, the phrase means "he ordered the retreat to be sounded."
  2. 7.47.3neque finem prius sequendi fecerunt quam muro oppidi portisque appropinquarunt — The correlative adverb prius and conjunction quam form a construction meaning "they did not make an end of pursuing until they approached..." The indicative perfect appropinquarunt (syncopated from appropinquaverunt) is used here to emphasize the actual historical fact of their arrival, rather than an anticipated or hypothetical event.
  3. 7.47.7quem inter suos eo die dixisse constabat excitari se Avaricensibus praemiis neque commissurum, ut prius quisquam murum ascenderet — A complex double-nested indirect speech construction. The impersonal verb constabat ("it was well known") takes the accusative-and-infinitive clause quem ... dixisse as its subject, with the relative pronoun quem functioning as the subject of the infinitive. The verb of saying dixisse then governs two parallel accusative-and-infinitive clauses representing the indirect statement: excitari se and [se] neque commissurum [esse]. The ut clause following commissurum is a noun clause of result, where committere ut... means "to allow a situation to happen."

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §7.47.1-7.47.7. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:7.47.1-7.47.7

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