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Julius Caesar · Gallic War §8.55.1-8.55.2

Detention of the Legions and Caesar's Restraint

Passage 404 of 404 · Latin

Summary

Upon arriving in Italy, Caesar learns that the two legions he returned were handed over to Pompey and kept in Italy, but he decides to endure all as long as there is hope for a peaceful legal resolution.

§8.55.1Quo cum venisset, cognoscit per C. Marcellum consulem legiones duas ab se remissas, quae ex senatus consulto deberent ad Parthicum bellum duci, Cn. Pompeio traditas atque in Italia retentas esse.
When he had arrived there, he learned that the two legions sent back by him, which in accordance with the decree of the senate ought to have been led to the Parthian war, had been delivered to Gnaeus Pompey through the consul Gaius Marcellus and retained in Italy.
§8.55.2Hoc facto quamquam nulli erat dubium, quidnam contra Caesarem pararetur, tamen Caesar omnia patienda esse statuit, quoad sibi spes aliqua relinqueretur iure potius disceptandi quam belli gerendi.
Although by this act there was no doubt to anyone as to what was being prepared against Caesar, yet Caesar decided that everything had to be endured, as long as some hope was left to him of deciding the matter by law rather than of waging war.
Contendit
He hastened

Notes

  1. 8.55.1deberent — The verb is in the subjunctive mood (imperfect tense) because it is a subordinate clause within indirect speech (introduced by the main verb cognoscit).
  2. 8.55.2nulli — Dative of possessor used with the verb of existence esse (erat), meaning literally "there was to no one" (i.e., "no one had").
  3. 8.55.2pararetur — The verb is in the subjunctive mood (imperfect) because it is the verb of an indirect question introduced by the interrogative word quidnam.
  4. 8.55.2disceptandi — A gerund in the genitive case, modifying spes (hope), and contrasted with the gerundive construction belli gerendi (also in the genitive) by quam.
  5. 8.55.2Contendit — This is the perfect tense of an intransitive verb meaning "to hasten" or "to march rapidly," serving as the main verb of the sentence (of which only the beginning is included in this chunk).

Cite this passage

Julius Caesar, Gallic War §8.55.1-8.55.2. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi001.humanitext-lat2:8.55.1-8.55.2

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