Chapter 5.45

A Gallic slave carries a dispatch to Caesar.

Quanto...gravior...tanto crebriores: 'the more severe...the more frequent' (Harkness); quanto and tanto are ablative of degree of difference (Gaisser). (A&G 414.a)

in dies: 'day by day,' 'each day' (Gaisser).

magna parte…confecta: ablative absolute (Gaisser) (A&G 419).

Res…pervenerat: the garrison had been reduced (lit., the thing had come) to a small number of defenders. (Harkness)

pars: 'a part,' 'some.' Caesar does not say what happened to the messengers not caught by the enemy. Evidently they did not get through (Gaisser).

loco: 'place or position' in society. Cf. 'know your place' in English (Gaisser).

a prima obsidione: 'immediately after the beginning of the blockade' (Rice Holmes); 'from the beginning of the siege' (Gaisser) (A&G 221.1.b).

fidem praestiterat: 'had showed his loyalty' (Gaisser).

servo: dative with persuadet (A&G 367). The well-born Nervius persuaded his slave to go with a message to Caesar (Gaisser).

magnis praemiis: 'by the promise of large rewards' (Rice Holmes)

ille: i.e., the slave (Gaisser).

in iaculo: i.e. the shaft of the spear was probably hollow and the letter was inserted in it (Allen & Greenough). In must mean 'on': for if the letter was inserted in the hollowed shaft of a javelin, lashing (illigatas) was obviously both superfluous and impossible. The letter could easily have been concealed by lashing twine over it, as if the javelin had been spliced. (Rice Holmes)

versatus: 'going about' (Allen & Greenough); 'moving about' (Gaisser).