Chapter 5.33

Ambiorix's forces attack the column in a defile.

qui...providisset: relative causal clause: 'because he had anticipated' (Gaisser)(A&G 540.c).

trepidare...concursare...disponere: historical infinitives. Translate as simple past tense: 'he bustled about,' 'he ran in every direction,' 'he lined up.' Historical infinitives are very common in an excited or fast-paced narrative (Gaisser) (A&G 463).

haec tamen ipsa: Supply something like faciebat: 'but he (was doing) these very things' (Gaisser).

ut…viderentur: freely, 'so that it was plain he had lost all presence of mind' (Hodges) (A&G 537).

quod: The antecedent is the general confusion described in the previous sentence: 'And this' (Gaisser).

in ipso negotio: 'in the midst of action'. (Hodges)

qui cogitasset: relative causal clause. cogitasset = cogitavisset (Gaisser).

et...et: 'both...and'; qualifies imperatoris and militis: 'of both a commander and a soldier' (Gaisser) (A&G 323.e).

imperatoris: depends upon officia. (Hodges)

quid ... faciendum esset: indirect question: 'what was to be done' (Gaisser) (A&G 574).

possent: the subject is Cotta and Titurius. (Allen & Greenough)

omnia per se obire: 'attend personally to everything'. (Hodges)

Quod consilium: connecting relative: '[but] this plan' (Gaisser) (A&G 308.f).

accidit…ut: etc., this clause is divided into three parts with the verbs discederent, properaret, complerentur, the first two being connected by –que (quaeque) (Allen & Greenough) (A&G 569).

quod fieri necesse erat: i.e., '[a thing] which was inevitable' (Gaisser).

quaeque: 'and [the things] which' (Gaisser).