Chapter 1.7

Caesar hastens to Gaul and delays the Helvetii by a pretext.

Caesari: he had been consul in the year 59, and at the end of his year of office he had immediately become proconsul of Gaul. He was at this time near Rome, preparing to leave for his province. The news merely hastened his movements. (Walker)

id: 'this fact', explained by its appositive, the clause eos...conari, 'that they were planning, etc.' (Walker)

Caesari cum id nuntiatum esset…maturat: Note the position of Caesari. The cum clauses with the subjunctive denote nothing more than a part of a past series of events. Often an English expression can be found much more simple, and conveying the temporal idea much less awkwardly than a heavy sentence introduced by when; e.g. the sentence means, ‘Caesar, on receipt of the news that…hastened.’ (Harper & Tolman)

quam maximis potest itineribus: stronger than quam maximis itineribus; ‘with the utmost possible speed.’ (Kelsey); (by the greatest marches that he is able to make), ‘with all possible speed’…. We learn from Plutarch that he travelled 90 miles a day. (Towle & Jenks)

ulteriorem: = transalpinam, ‘beyond the Alps’ from Rome. (Walker)

provinciae...imperat: 'he levied upon the province.' (Walker) 

certiores facti sunt: ‘were informed,’ lit. ‘were made more certain.’ (Walker)

qui dicerent: ‘in order to say.’ (Kelsey)

L. Cassium: This officer was defeated in 107 B.C. by the Tigurini, one of the four Helvetian tribes. According to the Epitome of Livy (ch. 65, with which cf. Orosius, v, 15, §§ 23-4), the defeat took place in the country of the Nitiobroges, which corresponded with the departments of Lotet-Garonne and Tarn-et-Garonne. (Rice Holmes)

occisum...pulsum...missum: these are perfect passive infinitives in indirect discourse, and depend on memoriā tenebat, which is equivalent to a verb of knowing. The perfect infinitive represents the action as past at the time of tenebat; "that Lucius Cassius had been slain," etc. (Walker) (AG 584)

sub iugum: 'under the yoke.' The ' yoke' was composed of two javelins planted in the ground and crossed above by a third. The troops were disarmed before they defiled under it; and in doing so they were of course obliged to stoop, and were mocked by their enemies. (Rice Holmes)

concedendum non putabat: ‘did not think that the request ought to be granted’ ; less freely, ‘that the concession ought to be made.’ (Kelsey) (AG 500)

data facultate: = si facultas data esset, ‘if opportunity should have been granted.’ (Kelsey) (AG 420)

si quid vellent: quid: ‘anything’ (Kelsey)(AG 310.a); vellent, reverterentur: ‘they want,’ ‘they should return’ (Kelsey) (AG 588)