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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §7.49.1-7.49.3

Orders to Sextius and Caesar's Vigilance

Passage 307 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Caesar, noticing the unfavorable battle conditions, orders his lieutenant Sextius at the smaller camp to deploy his cohorts at the foot of the hill on the enemy's right flank, while he himself advances to watch the outcome of the fight.

§7.49.1Caesar, cum iniquo loco pugnari hostiumque augeri copias videret, praemetuens suis ad Titum Sextium legatum, quem minoribus castris praesidio reliquerat, misit, ut cohortes ex castris celeriter educeret et sub infimo colle ab dextro latere hostium constitueret, §7.49.2ut, si nostros loco depulsos vidisset, quo minus libere hostes insequerentur terreret.
Caesar, seeing that the battle was being fought in an unfavorable position and that the enemy's forces were increasing, fearing beforehand for his own men, sent orders to the lieutenant Titus Sextius, whom he had left as a guard at the smaller camp, to quickly lead the cohorts out of the camp and station them at the foot of the hill on the right flank of the enemy, so that, if he should see our men driven from their position, he might terrify the enemy to prevent them from pursuing too freely.
§7.49.3Ipse paulum ex eo loco cum legione progressus, ubi constiterat, eventum pugnae exspectabat.
He himself, having advanced a little from that place with the legion, waited for the outcome of the battle where he had halted.

Notes

  1. §7.49.1pugnari — The present passive infinitive of the intransitive verb pugno (to fight), used impersonally to mean 'that the battle was being fought.' It does not have an explicit accusative subject and, parallel with augeri, forms an accusative-and-infinitive clause functioning as the object of videret.
  2. §7.49.1praemetuens suis — The verb praemetuo (to fear beforehand) takes the dative of the person or thing for whom one is anxious. Here, suis is the masculine plural dative of the possessive pronoun, functioning substantively to refer to his own men (suis militibus).
  3. §7.49.2quo minus libere hostes insequerentur terreret — The verb terreret (might terrify/deter) takes a clause introduced by quo minus (or quominus) with the subjunctive (insequerentur) to express prevention or deterrence, meaning 'to terrify the enemy so as to prevent them from pursuing too freely.'

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §7.49.1-7.49.3. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:7.49.1-7.49.3

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