§7.58.1Labienus primo vineas agere, cratibus atque aggere paludem explere atque iter munire conabatur. §7.58.2Postquam id difficilius confieri animadvertit, silentio e castris tertia vigilia egressus eodem quo venerat itinere Metiosedum pervenit. §7.58.3Id est oppidum Senonum in insula Sequanae positum, ut paulo ante de Lutetia diximus.
At first Labienus attempted to advance the vineae, to fill up the marsh with hurdles and earth, and to construct a road. After he perceived that this was too difficult to be accomplished, departing silently from the camp at the third watch, he arrived at Metiosedum by the same route by which he had come. This is a town of the Senones, situated on an island in the Sequana, as we have said a little before of Lutetia.
Deprensis navibus circiter quinquaginta celeriterque coniunctis atque eo militibus iniectis et rei novitate perterritis oppidanis, quorum magna pars erat ad bellum evocata, sine contentione oppido potitur. §7.58.5Refecto ponte, quem superioribus diebus hostes resciderant, exercitum traducit et secundo flumine ad Lutetiam iter facere coepit. §7.58.6Hostes re cognita ab eis, qui Metiosedo fugerant, Lutetiam incendi pontesque eius oppidi rescindi iubent; ipsi profecti a palude ad ripas Sequanae e regione Lutetiae contra Labieni castra considunt.
Having seized about fifty ships and quickly fastened them together, and having put soldiers on board them, and the townsmen being terrified by the novelty of the thing, of whom a great part had been called out to the war, he took possession of the town without a struggle. Having repaired the bridge, which the enemy had broken down in the preceding days, he led his army across and began to march down the river toward Lutetia. The enemy, having learned of the matter from those who had fled from Metiosedum, ordered Lutetia to be set on fire and the bridges of that town to be broken down; they themselves, having set out from the marsh, took up their position on the banks of the Sequana opposite Lutetia, facing the camp of Labienus.