[*] 66.5. Caesar: subject of processit, 67 9. In this characteristic example of Latin style notice that the main verb of the sentence is not expressed until the attendant circumstances have been introduced in the form of modifying phrases, dependent clauses, etc. Thus the sense and construction are suspended. Such a sentence is called a Period (§ 600, 601 (346); B. 351. 5; G. 684, 685. 2; H. 685 (573); H-B. 629, 630). An English writer would have used several short, independent sentences, each describing a single act or circumstance, and a really good translation should have that form, thus: — Caesar, after addressing the tenth legion, passed to the right wing. Here he saw his men were hard pressed. The standards were all huddled together and the soldiers of the twelfth, massed in a solid body, were in each other's way. All the centurions of the fourth cohort had fallen, the standard-bearer was killed, and the standard lost. In the other cohorts almost all the centurions were either killed or wounded. Among these the first centurion, P. Sextius Bacuius, one of the bravest of soldiers, was disabled by many severe wounds so that he could no longer stand on his feet. The rest were showing no spirit, and some in the rear had abandoned the fight and were drawing back to get out of range of the missiles. The enemy meanwhile continued to come up in front from below without cessation, and to press them hard also on both flanks. The situation was desperate. Seeing this, and realizing that there were no reserves that could be sent in, Caesar snatched a shield from a man in the rear rank — he had happened to come there without a shield himself — and advanced to the front. [*] 66.6. ubi: construe with vidit, l. 8. — in unum locum: i.e. the soldiers were so crowded together that they could not keep their alignment, and the standards were bunched in a confused mass in the crowd. [*] 66.7. sibi … impedimento, hindered one another in fightinig (lit., were for a hindrance themselves to themselves); cf. 56 4, 62 11. [*] 66.8. quartae cohortis: this stood on the left of the front line and so bore the brunt of the attack. See chapter on military affairs, VI.— omnibus centurionibus occisis: notice that seven different events are expressed in this sentence by ablatives absolute. See note on omni pacata Gallia, 49 6. [*] 66.9. signo: i.e. the standard of the cohort. [*] 67.1. in his, among these. — primipīlo: see chapter on military affairs, I. 7. —Baculo: this was one of Caesar's best centurions. His further exploits are mentioned in Bk. iii. ch. 5 and Bk. vi. ch. 38. [*] 67.3. iam non, no longer. — tardiores: rather slack (discouraged) (§ 291. a (93. a); B. 240. 1; G. 297; H. 498 (444. 1); H-B. 241. 2). [*] 67.4. ab novissimis, in the rear: so below, l. 8. — deserto proelio, withdrawing from the fight (abl. abs.). [*] 67.5. neque: correl. to et = both … not … and. [*] 67.7. vidit: repeated from 66 8 on account of the length of the sentence. — neque ullum subsidium: the rear guard, legions XIII and XIV, had not yet arrived. [*] 67.8. posset: ref. clause of characteristic; cf. 51 4, 64 5. — militi: dat. after detracto; cf. construction of hostibus, 54 5, and note. [*] 67.11. signa … laxare, to charge [and thus] open out the ranks, i.e. as they advanced, the space between the ranks would be increased, nd so more room obtained for the use of the sword. — quo … possent: cf. 60 27. [*] 67.12. gladiis: cf. castris, 66 3. — militibus: dat. with inlata. [*] 67.14. etiam … rebus, even in his own extreme peril.
Hide browse bar Your current position in the text is marked in blue. Click anywhere in the line to jump to another position:
text:
book:
chapter:
chapter 1chapter 2chapter 3chapter 4chapter 5chapter 6chapter 7chapter 8chapter 9chapter 10chapter 11chapter 12chapter 13chapter 14chapter 15chapter 16chapter 17chapter 18chapter 19chapter 20chapter 21chapter 22chapter 23chapter 24chapter 25chapter 26chapter 27chapter 28chapter 29chapter 30chapter 31chapter 32chapter 33chapter 34chapter 35
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
text comm
BOOK FIRST. — B.C. 58.
book 2
BOOK THIRD. — B.C. 56.
BOOK FOURTH. — B.C. 55.
BOOK FIFTH.—B.C. 54.
BOOK VI. BOOK SIXTH.—B.C. 53.
BOOK SEVENTH.—B.C. 52.
Caesar's Gallic War. J. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge and M. Grant Daniell. Boston. Ginn and Company. 1898.
The National Endowment for the Humanities provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.
show
Browse Bar
hide
References (5 total)
- Commentary references from this page
(5):
- Caesar, Gallic War, 3.5
- Caesar, Gallic War, 6.38
- A. A. Howard, Benj. L. D'Ooge, G. L. Kittredge, J. B. Greenough, Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar, 291
- A. A. Howard, Benj. L. D'Ooge, G. L. Kittredge, J. B. Greenough, Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar, 600
- Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, Syntax of Classical Greek, 297
hide
Search
hide
Display Preferences