Chapter 6.13

Druids and knights alone possess political power. Degradation of the masses. Religious and civil power of the Druids. Their doctrine imported from Britain.

Qui aliquo sunt in numero atque honore: 'who are of any note and are held in any estimation' (Anthon).

aliquo numero: ‘of any account’ (Walker); ‘in any consideration’ (Moberly).

genera: 'classes'. Literally, 'kinds', or 'orders'. (Anthon)

plebes: here a noun of the fifth declension, cf. plebs. (Allen & Greenough). Compare the Roman plebs

cum…premuntur: a general condition expressing repeated action, cum meaning 'whenever' or 'as often as'. (A&G 542)

aere alieno: 'by debt'. Aes alienum means literally, 'the money of another', i. e., due or owing to another. The first money coined by the Romans was of brass, and hence the use of aes in this sense (Anthon)

nobilibus: Compare Roman nobles

magnitudine tributorum: 'the weight of taxes' (Anthon).

iniuria: 'the oppression'. More literally, 'the injurious', or 'insolent treatment' (Anthon).

Sese dicant: 'give themselves up'. (Anthon)

quae dominis: (dat. of poss.) 'as masters have' (Allen & Judson)(A&G 373)

Druides: Compare Roman Priests

equitum: here means 'knights', not 'cavalry'. The 'knights' mentioned in this passage were the Gallic aristocracy, and the 'men of rank' (nobilibus) mentioned in § 2 were the most distinguished of the knights (Rice Holmes). Compare Roman equites

religiones: 'questions of religion' (Rice Holmes).

si qui. . . populus: 'if any one, whether private individual or tribe' (Rice Holmes)

decreto non stetit: ‘does not abide by the decision’ (Walker).

his...decedunt: his is dative, de via being understood with decedunt, just as in English one might say 'Get out ', meaning 'Get out of the way' (Rice Holmes); 'make way for them in the street' (Allen & Greenough).

incommodi: partitive genitive following quid (Allen & Greenough).

Huc omnes...parent: In § 5 Caesar has said that the Druids 'are judges in nearly all disputes' (fere de omnibus controversiis . . . constituunt). Probably the suitors who appealed to them were equites (§ 3), who alone could afford the expense of the journey, and who, having, as Caesar says (§ 3), unlimited rights over their dependants, may have settled their petty disputes without having recourse to Druids. The Druids had not a monopoly of jurisdiction. The Aeduan Vergobret (i.16, § 5 and p. liv) had 'the power of life and death over his countrymen', just as fathers had over their wives and children (vi.19, § 3); and the chief magistrate of every tribe adjudicated on offences against the state (i.4; v.56, § 3; vii.4, § 1), though the punishment which he inflicted may have been sanctioned and superintended by Druids (Rice Holmes).