Humanitext Reader

Julius Caesar · Gallic War §7.89.1-7.89.5

Surrender of Vercingetorix and Distribution of Captives

Passage 347 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Vercingetorix offers his surrender to the Gauls to appease the Romans, and Caesar accepts the surrender, demanding arms and chiefs. He distributes the remaining captives as plunder to his army.

§7.89.1Postero die Vercingetorix concilio convocato id bellum se suscepisse non suarum necessitatium, §7.89.2sed communis libertatis causa demonstrat, et quoniam sit fortunae cedendum, ad utramque rem se illis offerre, seu morte sua Romanis satisfacere seu vivum tradere velint.
On the following day, Vercingetorix, having convoked a council, demonstrates that he had undertaken that war not for his own private necessities, but for the sake of the common liberty; and since they must yield to fortune, he offers himself to them for either alternative, whether they should wish to satisfy the Romans by his death, or to deliver him up alive.
Mittuntur de his rebus ad Caesarem legati.
Ambassadors are sent to Caesar concerning these matters.
§7.89.3Iubet arma tradi, principes produci.
He orders the arms to be delivered up, and the chiefs to be brought forth.
§7.89.4Ipse in munitione pro castris consedit: eo duces producuntur; Vercingetorix deditur, arma proiciuntur.
He himself took his seat on the fortification in front of the camp; thither the leaders are brought; Vercingetorix is delivered up, the arms are cast down.
§7.89.5Reservatis Aeduis atque Arvernis, si per eos civitates reciperare posset, ex reliquis captivis toto exercitui capita singula praedae nomine distribuit.
Reserving the Aedui and the Arverni, to see if he could recover their states through them, he distributes the remaining captives, one to each man throughout the entire army, under the name of plunder.

Notes

  1. §7.89.1non suarum necessitatium — The prepositional noun causa (for the sake of) which appears after sed is understood to apply also to the preceding parallel phrase non suarum necessitatium, or a separate causa is omitted after necessitatium.
  2. §7.89.2sit fortunae cedendum — An impersonal passive construction of the gerundive expressing obligation (sit cedendum), where the agent is omitted as general. fortunae is the dative case governed by the verb cedere (to yield). The clause means 'since they must yield to fortune'.
  3. §7.89.5si per eos civitates reciperare posset — The conjunction si here does not introduce a simple conditional clause, but rather a clause of purpose or trial ('to see if' or 'in the hope that'). The imperfect subjunctive posset is used because the main verb distribuit is a historical present, triggering the secondary sequence of tenses.

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §7.89.1-7.89.5. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:7.89.1-7.89.5

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