Chapter 1.40

Caesar encourages his officers.

convocātō cōnsiliō: “a council of war being called.” Cassius Dio states that Caesar would not call an assembly of the soldiers, from a well-grounded apprehension that his troops might break forth into open revolt and commit some act of violence (Anthon).

omniumque ōrdinum ad id cōnsilium adhibitīs centuriōnibus: “and the centurions of all ranks being summoned to that council.” On this occasion all the centurions in the army (there were sixty in each legion) were called to the council of war; whereas, on ordinary occasions, the council was composed of the commander-in-chief, the lēgātī or lieutenants, the tribunes of the soldiers (Anthon), and only those centurions of the first rank (prīmōrum ordinum) (Harkness). They were brought together, not for deliberation, but for an address by the commander-in-chief (Kelsey). Caesar now wishes, through the centurions, to reach the whole army as effectively as possible (H-T).

vehementer eōs incūsāvit: “he berated them vigorously” (Moberly); “he severely reprimanded them” (Kelsey), i.e., all the members of the council (M-T). Incūsāre means “blame,” “reproach” (Hodges); “censure,” “find fault with”; accūsāre, on the other hand, means “accuse,” “make an accusation,” as in a court of justice (Harkness). Caesar’s rebuke is put in the form of indirect discourse (L-E), beginning with “Ariovistum … ” below, which depends on the idea of saying implied in incūsāvit (H-T).

prīmum, quod … putārent: “in the first place, [as he told them], for presuming to think that it was for them to inquire or deliberate”; literally “because they thought that they must inquire, etc.” (Anthon); “they thought that they had a right to inquire or consider” (A-G); “they thought it incumbent on themselves to ask or consider” (Hodges); “that it was their business / place to inquire or consider” (Kelsey). This gives Caesar’s reason alleged at the time of the accusation; hence subjunctive is used, as if assigned on another’s authority (Harkness).

sibi quaerendum aut cōgitandum: sc. esse; passive periphrastic construction (AG 500.2) with dative of agent (AG 374).

quam in partem aut quō cōnsiliō dūcerentur: “either in what direction or with what design they were to be led”; indirect question (AG 574) (A-G).

Ariovistum … superāssent: Caesar’s speech to his troops is reported in the form of indirect discourse. The conversion of this portion to direct discourse is as follows, with changes underlined: Ariovistus mē cōnsule … populī Rōmānī amīcitiam adpetiit (adpetīvit); cūr hunc … quisquam ab officiō discessūrum iūdicet? Mihi quidem persuādētur, cognitīs meīs postulātīs … eum neque meam neque populī Rōmānī grātiam repudiātūrum. Quod sī furōre...impulsus bellum intulerit, quid tandem vereāminī? Aut cūr dē vestrā virtūte aut dē meā dīligentiā dēspērētis? Factum (est) eius hostis perīculum … ; factum (est) etiam nūper in Italiā servīlī tumultū, quōs tamen aliquid ūsus ac disciplīna quam ā nōbīs accēperant sublevābant. Ex quō iūdicārī potest quantum habeat in sē bonī cōnstantia, proptereā quod, quōs … inermōs sine causā timuistis (timueritis), hōs posteā armātōs superāvistis (A-G).

Ariovistum: subject of adpetīsse in indirect discourse (Hodges). As to this particular case, there was no reason to expect war with Ariovistus (Moberly).

sē cōnsule: sē = Caesare; this was the preceding year (Harkness). Ablative absolute (AG 419 a) (Spencer).

populī Rōmānī: subjective genitive (AG 343 note 1) with amīcitiam, as well as later with grātiam.

appetīsse: = adpetīvisse or adpetiisse: “strove to secure,” a rhetorical exaggeration (Kelsey).

cūr … quisquam … iūdicāret? “why should any one suppose?” (Stock). A negative answer is implied (Hodges); imperfect subjunctive for iūdicet in direct discourse, deliberative subjunctive in an indirect question (AG 444, 575 b). In a particular negative aliquis (aliquī) “someone” (“some”) is regularly used, where in a universal negative quisquam (“anyone”), or ūllus (“any”) would be required (AG 311): “there is no reason why anyone should think” (M-T).

hunc: = Ariovistum (A-G); note its emphatic position: “that this man would deviate from the path of duty so causelessly” (L-E).

temerē: “recklessly” (Kelsey).

ab officiō: “from his obligation” of allegiance (Kelsey); “from his loyalty” (Walpole). Officium, in this case, is the duty imposed by gratitude of acting in a friendly spirit toward the Romans (M-T).

discessūrum: sc. esse.

sibi … persuādērī: “for his part, he was becoming convinced,” more literally, “to him at least it was being proved” (Hodges); “in fact he was convinced” (L-E), literally, “that it was persuaded to him” (Harkness). The subject of persuādērī is eum … repudiātūrum [esse] (A-G). The passive of intransitive verbs which govern the dative is used only impersonally and the dative (sibi) is then retained (L-E).

cognitīs suīs postulātīs: see Chapter 35. Translate by a clause commencing with “after” (Kelsey): “after his demands were made known.”

aequitāte: “the fairness” (Anthon).

perspectā: “should have been clearly understood” (Kelsey).

eum: = Ariovistum (Hodges).

suam: = Caesaris (Walpole).

repudiātūrum: sc. esse: “that he would reject.” Repudiō is formed from re- and ped- (the stem of pēs, pedis, “foot”) meaning “to spurn” or “reject” (M-T).

quod sī … bellum intulisset: “but if he had attacked them.” Caesar puts the responsibility of war on Ariovistus (M-T). Intulisset replaces intulerit in the direct form (Hodges).

furōre … impulsus: “carried away by rage and madness” (Kelsey).

āmentiā: denotes simply a “lack of reason,” as an idiot; dēmentia, in contrast, is a “perversion of reason,” as in a madman (Harkness).

quid tandem verērentur?: in interrogative and exclamatory sentences tandem denotes strong feeling, usually disgust or impatience, and gets its translation from the context (H-T): “what, pray tell, should they be afraid of?” (A-G); “what in the world should they be afraid of?” (Hodges). Verērentur replaces verēminī of direct discourse (Walpole).

aut cūr dē suā virtūte aut dē ipsīus dīligentiā dēspērārent?: “or why should they despair either of their own valor or of his prudent activity? (Anthon); “ … his careful leadership” (Kelsey); “ … his watchful care” (Spencer).

suā:“their own” (= vestra in direct discourse), a direct reflexive referring to the army, the subject of dēspērārent (L-E), which Caesar is addressing through its representatives (Hodges).

ipsīus: “his, of himself,” refers to Caesar (Harkness), used in this way to avoid the repetition of suā; it is an indirect reflexive (AG 300.2) (A-G).

factum eius hostis perīculum patrum nostrōrum memoriā: sc. esse with factum: “that a trial / test had been made of this foe within the memory of our fathers,” i.e., in the days of our fathers (Anthon). The hostis referred to here is the Germans, not Ariovistus (M-T). The root of perīculum (“trial”) is in experior (A-G). Eius hostis is objective genitive (AG 348) with perīculum. Notice the emphatic position of the word factum (Hodges).

Cimbrīs et Teutonīs ā C. Mariō pulsīs: see Chapter 33; the battles of Aquae Sextiae and Vercellae Marius were fought in 102, 101 B.C., a little more than 40 years before (Harkness), and was the worst danger that had threatened the Romans since the destruction of the city by the Gauls three centuries before (A-G).

C. Mariō: Gaius Marius was Caesar’s uncle. “What the uncle has done, can not the nephew do?” would be the thought suggested to his listeners (L-E).

cum … meritus vidēbātur: sc. esse with meritus: “an occasion on which the army was seen to have earned” (Hodges), “ … clearly earned” (Kelsey). The statement seems artfully thrown in as a hint to the army to be equally deserving of praise in the current situation (Hodges). Although this clause was a part of Caesar’s speech to his officers, the indicative is used to emphasize to the reader the reality of the fact it asserts (A-G), and that it contains a statement of the writer, not of the person whose speech is being reported (M-T). This is the only instance in the Gallic War of an imperfect indicative after cum.

meritus: sc. esse (A-G).

factum etiam: sc. perīculum esse (Anthon). Anaphora (Moberly).

nūper: “more recently” (Hodges), i.e., fourteen years previous (Anthon); among the centurions present there were probably a number who had served as soldiers in the war with Spartacus, the term of military service being twenty years (Kelsey).

servīlī tumultū: = tumultū servōrum (Kelsey), ablative of time when (AG 423): “at the time of the insurrection of the slaves,” literally, “during the servile war” (Anthon), i.e., the insurrection led by Spartacus, 73-71 B.C. (A-G). For several years this mixed army of gladiators, slaves, and outlaws (to the number of 120,000), carried devastation over some of the finest districts of Italy (Spencer). Many of the slaves who joined Spartacus were Germans taken captive by Marius in his victories over the Cimbri and Teutones (M-T). The Romans applied the word tumultus (a much stronger term than bellum) to a sudden war or revolt in Italy or an invasion of the Gauls (Anthon); in such case all citizens were bound to serve, and were summoned by the signal of flags hung out from the Capitol by the magistrate appointed to command the hasty levies (exercitus tumultuārius) (M-T).

quōs tamen aliquid ūsus ac disciplīna, quam ā nōbīs accēpissent, sublevārent: = quamvīs ūsus ac disciplīna … eōs sublevārent, hence the subjunctive in accēpissent (Moberly): “and yet these [last] the experience [from practice] and training [from a teacher], which they had received from us, assisted in some respect” (Anthon), i.e., they had been taught the Roman drill, and the use of Roman arms in the gladiators’ training school (M-T). The antecedent of quōs is implied in servīlī, i.e., servōrum: “in the revolt of the slaves, whom” (Harkness). Aliquid, “somewhat” (Harkness), “to some extent” (Walpole) is an adverbial accusative (AG 390.c).

tamen: answers to an unexpressed quamquam (M-T): “and yet” (Anthon); “not withstanding the fact that” (Kelsey), i.e., though they were defeated (Hodges).

ex quō: “from this.” Though introduced by a relative, this is practically an independent sentence; hence posse, not posset, in indirect discourse (Hodges).

posse: the subject is quantum … cōnstantia (L-E).

quantum habēret in sē bonī: bonī is partitive genitive (AG 346) with quantum (Harkness): “how great an advantage (“value” (Hodges)) resolution has” (Walker), literally, “how much [of] good steadfastness has in itself” (Kelsey). In Latin such expressions of a general, or permanent, truth usually conform to the law of sequence of tenses (Hodges).

cōnstantia: “a firm and resolute spirit” (Anthon), i.e., a mind not to be moved by fear (Spencer).

aliquamdiū: “for a long time” (Kelsey).

inermōs: from a nominative inermus (a contraction for inarmātus (Moberly)), less common than the 3^rd declension form inermis (M-T), referring to the slaves of Spartacus’s force (A-G). At first the insurgents were without arms to any great extent (or their arms were of the most primitive kind (Hodges)), and hence, they are here called “unarmed” (Anthon). They subsequently obtained arms and gained many victories (armātōs ac victōrēs). They were finally defeated by Crassus with the help of Pompey in 71 B.C. (Harkness).

hōs: antecedent of quōs (Kelsey).

armātōs: “equipped with arms” (Kelsey).

posteā: i.e., in the Servile War (L-E).

superāssent: = superāvissent.

dēnique … posse: Caesar’s speech continues in the form of indirect discourse. Converted to direct discourse, it is as follows, with changes underlined: dēnique hī sunt īdem Germānī quibuscum saepe numerō Helvētiī congressī, nōn sōlum in suīs sed etiam in illōrum fīnibus, plērumque superāvērunt; quī tamen parēs esse nostrō exercituī nōn potuērunt. Sī quōs adversum proelium … commovet, hī, sī quaerent (quaerant), reperīre possunt … Ariovistum … dispersōs subitō adortum, magis ratiōne … quam virtūte vīcisse. Cui ratiōnī contrā hominēs barbarōs … locus fuit, hāc nē ipse quidem spērat nostrōs exercitūs capī posse (A-G).

dēnique: “finally,” closing the argument about the Germans (Kelsey).

hōs esse: i.e., the Germans with Ariovistus (A-G).                                                                                                                

quibuscum … superārint: (changing the relative clause), “with whom the Helvetii had often met and [whom they] had beaten not only on their own ground, but even … ” (A-G). Quibuscum goes with congressī, and the object of superārint (= superāverint) and potuerint (M-T).

suīs: sc. fīnibus, referring to the territories of the Helvetii (Anthon).

illōrum: = Germānōrum (Kelsey).

plērumque superārint: “generally defeated [them]” (Kelsey). The object, not expressed, is to be supplied from quibuscum above (M-T). The changed tense sequence (superārint and potuerint) (cf. superāssent) serves to emphasize the victories of the Helvetii over the Germans and their defeat by the Romans as matters of fact (Stock). In the next sentence Caesar returns to the regular tense sequence (Hodges).

quī tamen: the antecedent is Helvētiī (Walker): “and they nevertheless” (Kelsey); though the Helvetians were strong enough to beat the Germans (A-G). Tamen refers, as often, to a suppressed clause (Walpole). The argument is that since the Helvetii have beaten the Germans, and the Romans have beaten the Helvetii, the Romans can beat the Germans (Walker).

nostrō exercituī: dative with the adjective parēs (AG 384).

sī quōs … commovēret: “if any were alarmed by … ,” literally, “if the disastrous battle disturbed any [of them]” (A-G).

adversum proelium et fuga Gallōrum: i.e., the “defeat” at Admagetos’s stronghold (Kelsey); see Chapter 31 (Anthon).

diūturnitāte bellī: “by the length of the war” (Kelsey).

dēfatīgātīs Gallīs: ablative absolute (AG 419), expressing both time and cause (Hodges). Ordinarily the accusative would be used as the object of the infinitive vīcisse; the construction is varied here because of the distance between Gallīs and vīcisse; and the participles dēspērantēs, dispersōs imply an accusative pronoun as the grammatical object of the verb: “the Gauls being worn out … , Ariovistus conquered them” (M-T).

Ariovistum: subject of vīcisse (A-G).

cum … sē … tenuisset: “after he had kept himself secluded” (Kelsey).

castrīs: a preposition is not used because the ablative is one of means as well as place (Hodges).

palūdibus: “marshes,” added to explain how the encampments were shut off from approach (Kelsey): “entrenched himself in a camp amongst the fens” (M-T).                                                                               

neque suī potestātem fēcisset: “and had not given them the opportunity to fight with him” (H-T); “had not given them an opportunity of approaching him” (M-T); “and had never offered them battle at all” (Moberly). Facere potestātem suī means generally, “to allow one’s self to be approached,” “to allow access to” (Anthon).

dēspērantēs, dispersōs: sc. Gallōs (H-T), which is the object of adortum (Walker): “when they were despairing of a battle (literally, “giving up hope of battle” (Kelsey)) and scattered” (Hodges).

adortum: sc. eōs: “having attacked them suddenly” (Hodges); agrees with Ariovistum and governs dēspērantēs, with which a pronoun must be supplied. This may always be omitted in Latin if any word appears to show its case (A-G).

magis ratiōne et cōnsiliō: “more by stratagem and cunning” (Spencer).

cui ratiōnī … hāc … (etc.): = hāc ratiōne cui, with ratiōnī attracted into the relative clause: “by that cunning for which” (Harkness); “as for the mode of warfare which had been possible against unskilled barbarians” (Moberly); “not even Ariovistus himself hoped that our armies could be caught by this ruse, for which there had been a place in fighting against unskilled barbarians” (Hodges).

ipsum: sc. Ariovistum (Kelsey).                                                                 

capī: = in fraudem dūcī (Walpole): “be caught” (Kelsey); “be ensnared.”

quī … maximē: Caesar’s speech continues in the form of indirect discourse. Converted to direct discourse, it is as follows, with changes underlined: Quī suum timōrem in reī frūmentāriae simulātiōnem … cōnferunt, faciunt arroganter, cum … dē officiō imperātōris dēspērāre … videantur (videntur). Haec mihi sunt cūrae; frūmentum Sēquanī, Leucī … subministrant, iamque sunt … frūmenta mātūra; dē itinere (vōs) ipsī … iūdicābitis. Quod nōn fore dictō audientēs … dīciminī (more probably dīcuntur mīlitēs), nihil (ego) eā rē commoveor; sciō enim, quibuscumque exercitus dictō audiēns nōn fuerit, … avāritiam esse convictam; mea innocentia perpetuā vītā, fēlīcitās … bellō est perspecta. Itaque (ego) quod … conlātūrus fuī repraesentābō, et … castra movēbō, ut … intellegere possim utrum apud vōs pudor...an timor plūs valeat. Quod sī praetereā nēmō sequitur, tamen (ego) cum sōlā decimā legiōne ībō, dē quā nōn dubitō, mihique ea praetoria cohors erit (A-G).

quī … vidērentur: “that they, who ascribed their fear to a pretended alarm relative to provisions and the narrowness of the roads, acted presumptuously, since they appeared either to distrust the official qualifications of their commander, or to dictate to him” (Anthon). The antecedent is eōs, to be supplied as subject of facere (H-T): “as for those who pretended that their fears were about supplies and the difficulties of the route” (Stock).

in reī frūmentāriae simulātiōnem: “to a pretended anxiety in regard to supplies” (Harkness); “to the pretext / pretence of the corn supply,” i.e., of the supposed difficulty of procuring it (M-T). Reī is an objective genitive (AG 348) with simulātionem (Walker).

cōnferrent: “attribute to” or “lay on”; so often with culpam, causam, etc. (M-T).

arroganter: “presumptuously” (Kelsey); from ad-rogāre, “asking more than their due” (M-T).

facere: sc. eōs as its subject, which is also the antecedent of quī (Harkness).

dē officiō imperātōris dēspērāre: “to be discouraged about the commander’s discharge of his duty” (A-G); “to despair of the diligence (duty) of their commander” (Harkness); “to lack confidence in the general’s performance of duty” (L-E); “to lack faith in the ability or qualify-cations of the commander” (Spencer).

praescrībere: sc. officium: “to dictate to him” what his duty was (A-G).

haec sibi esse cūrae: “that he was looking after these matters” (L-E), literally, “that these things were a care to him,” i.e., that he had not neglected these things (Anthon). The double dative construction (AG 382.1): sibi is dative of reference; cūrae is dative of purpose / service.

Leucōs: located about Toul in the department of Meurthe-et-Moselle (Stock).

subministrāre: “were [now] furnishing” (A-G); “were supplying” (Kelsey). The prefix sub- gives the sense of “supplying deficiencies,” as in cōnsul suffectus (a consul elected to fill a vacancy) (M-T).

esse: “were beginning to be” (A-G).

frūmenta mātūra: “crops were ripe” (A-G); Napoleon III calculates that it was now (iamque) Aug. 22 (Stock). In the plural frūmenta means “crops”; in the singular it means “grain,” “corn.”

ipsōs: = vōs ipsī in direct address, i.e., the soldiers (L-E).

brevī tempore iūdicātūrōs: “would soon have an opportunity to judge” (Anthon).

quod nōn fore … dīcantur: sc. mīlitēs (Kelsey): “as to the fact that it was said that the soldiers would not be obedient to command or move forward” (Hodges); i.e., as to the report which had reached him of the soldiers intending to disobey his orders (Anthon). Notice the primary tense (Hodges); the present tense is probably intended to signify that the rumor of mutiny was still current, i.e., it is used of a present incompleted action (M-T).

nihil sē eā rē commovērī: “that he [Caesar] was not at all disturbed by their statement … ” (L-E).

scīre enim … esse convictam: sc. sē: “for he [Caesar] knew that either, in consequence of some mismanagement of an affair, fortune had failed those commanders with whom an army was not obedient to orders; or else, that the charge of avarice had been fastened upon their characters, in consequence of some act of misconduct having been discovered” (Anthon); “for he knew that because of an unsuccessful battle good luck had failed, or from some manifested crime greed had been proven, in the case of any whose orders the army had not obeyed” (L-E).

quibuscumque: dative after audiēns dictō (“obedient”) (AG 367): “that to whomsoever an army had not been obedient” (Walker); i.e., no one has ever had a mutinous army who has not either been unsuccessful by his own fault, so that his men had no confidence in his ability, or been convicted of avarice by some overt act, so that they had no confidence in his integrity (A-G). For an antecedent supply eīs after dēfuisse: “that in the case of any [commanders] whatever who had found their armies mutinous, either their luck had failed them in consequence of the bad handing of some enterprise, or … ” (Kelsey).

fuerit: perfect tense of a general, and therefore always present, truth (M-T).

male rē gestā: “in consequence of some mismanagement” (Harkness).

fortūnam: the Romans were superstitious in avoiding anything that seemed unlucky (Kelsey).

facinore: “crime” (Kelsey); referring to dishonesty or meanness in regard to financial matters (Spencer).

avāritiam esse convictam: sc. eōrum: “avarice was brought home [against them]” (Walpole); “greed had been clearly proved [against them]”; greed was the underlying cause of the crimes committed by generals, according to Caesar (Kelsey). Convincere aliquem, “to prove a person guilty or wrong,” is the usual construction; but convincere aliquid alicui, “to prove a thing (fault or crime) against a person” is also found (M-T).

suam: emphatic by position; equivalent to “in his case” (A-G).

innocentiam: “blamelessness,” “freedom from avarice,” as opposed to avāritiam (Harkness); “integrity,” i.e., freedom from corruption (Kelsey); “fair dealing”; what the soldiers would object to would be the general’s keeping too large a share of the booty for himself (Walker). Innocentia was one of the virtues which constituted the Roman ideal of character. We may translate “the cleanness of his own hands.” Other component parts of the Roman ideal were fidēs, cōnstantia, gravitās, industria, temperantia, clementia, facilitās, and humānitās (Stock). In a technical sense innocentia means freedom from the charge of plunder and extortion. In fact, Caesar’s fault lay just the other way, a lavish and reckless generosity at the expense of subjects or allies (A-G).

perpetuā vītā: “throughout the whole of his [past] life” (Anthon); ablative of time within which (AG 423). Perpetuus is derived from per- and the root of pateō, of an unbroken surface (M-T).

fēlīcitātem: “his good fortune” (Anthon); “luck” as a personal quality (Hodges). This was an important qualification for a general (Spencer). With the Romans fēlīcitās was not so much a result of other qualities, as a quality in itself. It was an attribute which one man might have and another might lack, apart from any other difference between the two. Sulla claimed it and called himself “Felix” and his son “Faustus.” Cicero enumerates it among the indispensable requisites of a general, ascribing it to Fabius Maximus, Marcellus, Scipio, Marius and Pompeius. Here Caesar advances for himself the same claim as Sulla. Whether the Roman view of fortune be correct or not, at all events a belief in their star, in divine favor, or simply in themselves, has been characteristic of great men of action, and a contributing cause of their success: possunt quia posse videntur (Stock).

itaque sē quod in longiōrem diem conlātūrus fuisset repraesentātūrum: sc. esse: “that he would, therefore, immediately do what he intended to have put off to a more distant day” (Anthon); “that he would perform immediately what he had intended to defer until some future time (L-E). Longiōrem = longinquiōrem, “more distant” (M-T). Conlātūrus is used here in the sense of dīlātūrus (Anthon): “which he had intended to defer” (Harkness). Repraesentātūrum is a legal term, meaning “to do a thing before the time” (A-G) or “do at once,” literally, “to bring back to the present” from the past or future (M-T). Thus a person is said solūtiōnem repraesentāre, who pays the money owed before the day it is due. It is from this general meaning that the verb also obtains the meaning of doing a thing immediately (Anthon).

dē quārtā vigiliā: “during the fourth watch,” i.e., between three and six o’clock in the morning (Harkness).

quam prīmum: “as soon as possible” (Harkness).

utrum apud eōs pudor atque officium an timor plūs valēret: “whether a sense of honor and duty, or whether fear had more influence with them” (Hodges). Pudor is a “feeling of shame” at doing a disgraceful thing, hence a “sense of honor” (M-T). Valēret, “were the strong or ruling motive” (M-T). An indirect double question (Walker).

quod sī … nēmō sequātur, tamen sē … itūrum: sē itūrum [esse] = ego ībō (i.e., Caesar) in direct discourse: “But that, if no one else should follow, yet he would go with only the tenth legion.” Sequātur stands in for the future indicative of direct discourse (M-T).

decimā legiōne: Caesar’s favorite legion (M-T). This was the legion which had been stationed in the province of Gallia Transalpina when Caesar first came there; it was distinguished for discipline and courage (A-G). The legions were called “first,” “second,” etc. from the order in which they were raised (Anthon).

dē quā nōn dubitet: “about which he had no doubts” (L-E).

praetōriam cohortem: “the cohort of the commander (praetor)” (Spencer); “the general’s body-guard,” made up of the bravest men (A-G). Among the Romans, the general was usually attended by a select band, called cohors praetōria, so called, according to Festus, because it never left the commander, or, as he was called in early Latin, the praetor (= quī praeit exercituī) (Anthon). The Latin word cohortem eventually passed over to the meaning of its English derivative “court”: 1) “a body of troops”; 2) in imperial times, “the emperor’s body-guard”; 3) “the suite of the emperor,” or the “official staff of a governor” (H-T).

huic legiōnī Caesar cōnfidēbat maximē: “in this legion trusted most”; confidō (AG 367) in Caesar generally is followed by dative of a person to whom trust is given, by an ablative of a thing trusted in (e.g., confidere nātūrā locī) (M-T).

This speech deserves to be carefully studied as a specimen of oratory. Caesar was ranked by the Romans second only to Cicero among their orators. As a general he relied much on his power of persuasion. This speech produced an instantaneous effect, as will be seen in the next chapter (Hodges).

The oratorical skill of this speech is worth notice. Caesar appeals first to the reason of the men by showing the groundlessness of their fear; then to their pride in their reputation as soldiers of Rome; to the confidence in himself which his career ought to inspire; and lastly, by threatening to march with only one legion he touches their sense of honor, which would not let them abandon their general to certain destruction, and at the same time secures the loyalty of his best veterans of the tenth legion by so special a mark of trust in them (M-T).

Observe the excellence of this speech. It is quiet and appeals to reason; yet the topics are of the unquestionable character which alone can convince a blind panic. After displaying these briefly but fully, he returns to his favorite mode of thought and expression: there will be no mutiny, because he has not deserved any, and he ends by a bold rhetorical declaration that he is ready to march with the tenth legion only (Moberly).

This speech, one of the most remarkable, if not one of the most famous of antiquity, stamps Caesar as a consummate orator as well as an able general. His whole fortunes may be said to have depended on this campaign, at the outset of which he is confronted with a mutiny. By this skillfully contrived address, in which he glosses over the difficulties of the undertaking, which he must have known well, he contrives to inspire in his soldiers the Roman spirit, which was invincible whenever it was really roused. Caesar’s marvelous conquest of Gaul depended quite as much on the devotion of his soldiers as on his unequalled ability as a general (A-G). The tactful and self-reliant combination of rebuke and encouragement makes the speech very effective. Military discipline demands severe punishment for mutiny, but this speech prevented open mutiny and served Caesar’s purpose better than punishment. There was never again any sign of mutiny in the Gallic war (Walker).