CAESAR DE BELLO GALLICO II
Edited with Introduction, Notes and Vocabulary by
E.C. Kennedy
Bristol Classical Press
This impression 2003 This edition published in 1983 by Bristol Classical Press an imprint of Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd. 90-93 Cowcross Street, London ECIM 6BF Tel: 020 7490 7300 Fax: 020 7490 0080
[email protected] www.ducknet.co.uk First published in 1967 by University Tutorial Press Ltd © 1967 by E.C. Kennedy
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 86292 101 5 Printed and bound in Great Britain by Antony Rowe Ltd, Eastboume
Cover illustration: Silver denarius of Caesar styled as general (IMPerator) wearing a laurel wreath, struck in 44 Be; British Museum, London. [Drawing by Jean Bees]
PREFACE Every twenty or thirty years a new set of school textbooks for" 0" and " A" Level Latin pupils seems required, to suit the changing needs and abilities of succeeding generations of boys and girls. This is more than ever necessary to-day, when changes in the teaching of Latin are in the air. Whatever happens to formal grammar and composition, it seems certain that the classical authors will continue to be read, though no doubt more rapidly and with less attention to detail, and. of the prose writers the most suitable for beginners is undoubtedly Caesar. Rice Holmes, the great English authority on Caesar's Gallic War, whose work, though now over fifty years old, has not yet been superseded, said, "There is no more interesting book for boys than Caesar's account of the Gallic War", adding, "providing that they will give their minds to it and have the help of a good teacher". Not all pupils perhaps would agree with this statement, but they might do so if they could read the books quickly enough and knew just what was happening. To quote Rice Holmes again, "Even Macaulay's Essays might be dull if they were read by a foreigner with a dictionary at the rate of a single paragraph a day". For Macaulay's Essays anyone who reads these words should substirute his own favourite author. So this edition is intended to help boys and girls to read one of the most interesting of the books on the Gallic War at a fair pace, with an analysis of each chapter at the beginning of it so that readers should be able to realise exactly what is going on. Pupils of to-day need more help with syntax and transla.tion than was given even twenty years ago, to say nothing of that in books written over sixty years ago and still in use. I have given what I hope may be considered a satisfactory amount of help by means of iii
Preface explanations and translations; but something must be left for the pupil to get his teeth into, for an entirely predigested diet would be as bad as the raw meat of a "plain text" with no assistance whatever. I have also provided definitions, with some explanation when reqnired of the various uses of cases, tenses, and moods. These may one day be no longer considered necessary in onr classrooms, but those who want to understand the Latin will find the answers here, either for an examination or because they are of an enquiring turn of mind. The text is the Oxford Classical Text of R. L. du Pontet, by kind permission of The Clarendon Press, Oxford. This has been reproduced in its entirety except that I have changed the -is ending of the accusative plural of third declension nouns and adjectives into the more familiar -es, and I have made the following changes where the O.C.T. has "obelisked" words: 19, I, quod ad hostesfor tquod hostisf. 19, 5, porrecta loca aperta for fporrecta ac loca apertaf. 30, 4, muro se posse for fmuro essef. 35,4, dierum for tdiest·
I have consulted the usual authorities and editions, including the excellent translation of H. J. Edwards in the Loeb Library, Olwen Brogan's Roman Gaul (Bell, out of print), and in particular Caesar's Conquest of Gaul by T. Rice Holmes (Oxford, 2nd edition, 19II), a book that is absolutely indispensable to all students of Caesar's Gallic campaigns. My former colleague, Mr John Hart, has very kindly read and criticised the Introduction, and Dr Bertha Tilly, the General Editor of the Palatine Classics, has made some valuable suggestions. Malvern.
E. C. iv
KENNEDY.
BOOK LIST Besides the three books mentioned in the last paragraph of the Preface, I recommend for general reading Caesar's Invasions of Britain, by T. Rice Holmes (Oxford), which, like its companion volume on Caesar's Conquest of Gaul, contains a straightforward account of the events described by Caesar, reinforced by copious explanations of doubtful points in the second part of each book. These are perhaps teachers' rather than pupils' books, but the narrative can be appreciated by readers of all ages. Younger students will particularly enjoy The Conquered, by Naomi Mitchison (Cape, reprinted 1966), which describes the adventures of a young prince of the Veneti who was enslaved after the rising of his tribe in 56 B.C. and sent first to Rome and then back to Gaul with his owner, where he took part in many of the events described by Caesar in the war. A book of short stories by the same author on similar subjects, called When the Bough Breaks, is out of print but may be found in libraries. Julius Caesar by John Buchan (Peter Davies), a good and readable "biography, also out of print, can be obtained from most libraries.
Contents
Contents Chapter 1: The Gauls
I
I: II: Ill: IV: V: VI:
Origins and Migrations The Gauls south of the Alps "The Province" Gallia Camata Gallic Politics and Religion The Druids and Religion VII: Characteristics of the Gauls VIII: The last years before Caesar's arrival in Gaul
Part II: The Defeat of the Nervii
45 45 55
Part III:
65
GALLIC WAR, BOOK II Part 1: The Abortive Rising of the Belgae
I
2
3 4 7 8
The Punishment of the Aduatuci
69
Notes Vocabulary
114
The Plates are bound as a section between the iilll'oductory matter and the text.
MAPS AND PLANS
10
PAGE
II
6
TRANSALPINE GAUL
Chapter 2: Julius Caesar I: Early life, 100·64 B.C. II: Rise to power, 63·61 B.C. III: The Triumvirate, 60 B.C.
IV: Caelar's" Gallic War" V: The Approach of Civil War, 54·50 B.C. VI: The Ciflil War, 49·45 B.C. VII: Caesar as sale ruler, 45·44 B.C. VIII: The Murder of Caesar, 44 B.C. IX: Caesar's character and appearance
Chapter 3: The Roman Army I: The old Republican Army II.'
The Organisation
0/ Caesar's Legions
III: Order of Battle aud the march IV: Equipment and arms
V: VI: VII: V III:
Other troops, and the baggage The Camp Sieges The Army IInder the Empire
Chapter 4: Pronunciation and Translation I: Syllable Division II: Ill:
Stress Accent DOl; English" or "Gobbledegook"
H
vi
I2
BELGIC GAUL
,8 ArsNB
I2
CAESAR'S CAMP ON THE
13
OPERATIONS ON THE AISNB
14
THE BATTLE OF THE SAMBRB
37 50 58
15 21
22
23 23 25
27 27 27 31
32 34 35 38
40 42 42 42 43
vii
Chapter I.
1:
The Gauls
ORIGINS AND MIGRATIONS The Celtic Gauls were a branch of the Indo-European race which lived in pre-historic times in the basin of the Upper Danube in central Europe. They began their ntigrations westward across the Rhine in about 800 B.C., during the first Iron Age, called Iron Age "A" or the "Hallstatt Culture" (from the. large setdement whose remains were discovered at Hallstatt, near Salzburg in Austria), which lasted in Europe from about 1000 to 500 B.C. But the second Iron Age, called Iron Age "B" or.~' La Tene Culture" (from the village on Lake NeucMtel in Switzerland where many specimens of Celtic art were fuund), which lasted fur another 500 years, is specially connected with the Celts of Gaul. These later immigrations began in about 450 B.C., and the invaders found in Gaul, besides their Hallstatt predecessors, Iberians and an ancient race called Ligurians living in the south-east (Liguria in north-west Italy still bears their name), and also the Greeks who settled at Massilia (Marseilles) in about 600 B.C. and brought Greek trade and culture to their new country. Both the Hallstatt and La Tene Celts crossed to Britain a century or so after each entered Gaul, and the latter built there the typical Iron Age hill-forts protected by earth or stone ramparts, of which Maiden Castle in Dorset is the best example; in the third century B.C. they brought with them a highly developed form of Celtic art. Another branch of the Celtic Gauls also began to move southeastwards from their original settlement, down the Danube to Greece and Asia Minor. They attacked the famous
Chapter
Greek religious centre of Delphi in 280 B.C. and settled in Asia Minor a generation or so later in the country called Galatia after them; St Paul wrote his Epistle to the Galatians to the descendants of these Gauls.
II.
THE GAULS SOUTH OF THE ALPS In the early sixth century a tribe of Gau1s called Insubrians crossed the Alps, defeated the Etruscans on the River PQ, and founded Mediolanum (Milan), to be followed by other Gallic tribes which eventually possessed the whole of the Po valley. The last comers, the Senones, made an expedition much funher south, defeated the Romans on the River Allia in 390 B.C. and actually captured and burnt Rome itself, but their leader, Brennus, allowed himself to be bought off, and the marauders withdrew, never to come so far south again. Roman tradition related that Titus Manlius was roused by the cackling of geese which heard the footsteps of the enemy climbing up the steep rock of the Capitol and saved the citadel from the invaders. It was also said that when the ransom of gold to buy off the Gauls was being weighed out a Roman complained that the scales were unfairly weighted, whereupon Brennus increased the amount by throwing his sword into the balance, with the words, Vae victis, "Woe to the conquered!" . Fighting went on at intervals for many years between the Romans aJ;Id these "Cisalpine" Gauls (the name means "on this side of the Alps", i.e. on the Roman side) until eventually, after suffering several defeats and after joining Hannibal in the Second Punic War (218-202), they gave up the struggle in 191 B.C. The Insubres and Cenomani were allowed to keep theh territories on condition of helping to guard the northern frontier of Italy, but the Boii lost half their country, in which several Roman colonies were established. Cisalpine 2
Chapter
1
1
Gaul was made into a regular province by Sulla in 91 B.C., but it was regarded as being almost pan of Italy and indeed was often called [talia, even by its governor Caesar, though like all provincial governors he was not permitted to leave his province and enter Italy proper with an army during his period of office. When he finally crossed the Rubicon, the southern boundary of Cisalpine Gau1, in 49 B.C. with an armed force he was committing an act of war against Rome. During Caesar's lifetime Cisalpine Gaul, now completely Romanised, produced two famous poets, Catullus of Verona and Virgil of Mantua, who were both probably of at least partly Gallic origin; Catullus had met Caesar and addressed an unflattering two-line epigram to him, and Virgil as a schoolboy of twelve, may have seen him raising troops in Cremona for his first campaign in Gau1. Four of Caesar's ten legions, the IIth, 12th, 13th, 14th, were raised in Cisalpine Gaul from Roman settlers and native Celts, and did excellent service for him in the Gallic and Civil wars. III.
"THE PROVINCE"
Halfway through the second century B.C. the people of Massilia appealed for help against the Ligurian invaders, whom the Romans drove off, and a similar appeal twentyfive years later brought the Romans across the Alps once more, when after dealing with the Ligurians they were opposed by the Gallic tribe of the Allobroges, who lived between the Isere and the Rhone. The Aedui, a Gallic tribe living in Burgundy, had recently become "Friends and Allies" ofthe Romans, and the Arverni, a powerful people from which Auvergne gets its name, noW came to help the Allobroges. The Romans utterly defeated both tribes, victories which led to their forming the new province of Transalpine or Narbonese Gaul (121 B.C.), which extended 3
Chapter 1 from the Alps to the Pyrenees and inland to Geneva and Tolosa (Toulouse). It was known as Gallia Braccata, because its inhabitants wore the native dress, trousers, but the Romans called it simply PrO'Vincia Nostra or PrO'Vincia alone, "the Province", a name which survives to-day in Provence. The rest of Gaul north of the Province was called Gallia Comata, "Long-haired Gaul". The new province soon became civilised and prosperous, but it suffered from the usual rapacity of governors and their staff and publicani, tax collectors, which caused several risings; but the process of Romanisation went steadily on, and the Gauls provided large numbers of auxiliaries, mostly cavalry, for the Roman army. Within a few years the Province, and indeed Italy itself, was threatened with invasions by the migrating German tribes of Cimbri and Teutoni, who wandered for several years through central Europe and Gallia Comata and defeated Roman armies more than once, the last time being at Arausio in the Province (105 B.C.). But they hesitated to take the way to Italy that lay open to them until 102 B.C., when Marius defeated the Teutoni at Aquae Sextiae (Aix) and the Cimbri near Vercellae in Cisalpine Gaul in 101 B.C. This was the end of the German danger south of the Alps. IV.
GALLIA COMATA, NORTH OF THE PROVINCE
We now return to Transalpine Gaul before the encroachments of the Romans in the first century B.C. Geographically, as we are told by Caesar, it was divided into three distinct parts, Celtic Gaul, Belgic Gaul, and Aquitania, each of which differed from !he others in language, customs, and laws, though it is likely that the language of the Celtic and Belgic Gauls was basically the same. Aquitania, whose people were probablY non-Celtic speaking Iberians, 4
Chapter
1
lay in the extreme south-west, between the Garonne (Garumna) and the Pyrenees, and being nearest to the Province it quickly submitted to Caesar in 56 B.C. In the north-east was Belgic Gaul, from the Seine (Sequana) to the Rhine, comprising all that part of modern France and Belgium and much of Holland. The Belgic tribes were of mixed Celtic and Germanic origin, and only the Remi submitted to Caesar at once and remained loyal to the end. The Nervii were the bravest of all the Gauls, and being the farthest away from Roman influence were the most bitterly opposed to Roman aggression and almost ended Caesar's military career and his life too in.a desperate battle on the Sambre. The rest of the country was called Celtic Gaul, or simply Gaul, and consisted of the whole of modern France except the south-west and north-east. There were fifty or sixty different communities in the various parts of the country north of the Alps. Gaul was a country of dense forests and wide pasturelands, fortunate in having so many navigable rivers that made intercourse and trade among the different tribes easy at a time before the Romans introduced the science of road-engineering, though the important towns were linked by fairly good roads (at least in summer) carrying wheeled traffic. The broad plains of the north and west were suitable for tillage, and several improvements in agriculture came to Italy from Gaul. The people had reached a comparatively high degree of civilisation and were certainly not "barbarians", a word which to Caesar meant simply "non-Roman", just as the Romans themselves had been barbarians to the Greeks because they did not speak Grepk when Greece represented the high-water-mark of Mediterranean civilisation. The Gauls lived in strong-walled towns placed on hill-tops, sometimes in stone houses built partly undergound, or in fortified towns on the plains, and in the countryside there were villages built round large 5
Chapter
Chapter
1
I
farmhouses made of timber and wattles, with good thatched roofs. The Gauls of Brittany were skilful sailors and traded with Britain in ships larger than those used in the Mediterranean, and elsewhere trading barges moved up and down the rivers, which were crossed by many bridges, and paid toll to the chieftains through whose lands they passed. There were skilled copper-miners in Aquitania and elsewhere, and the metal-work of Gaul, both for ornament and use, especially for swords, was famous, and decorative art had flourished for several centuries, in enamel as well as metal, and later in sculpture. From the third century B.C. there had been a currency in gold and silver, first in Greek coins from Massilia and Greece and debased Gallic imitations, and then in Roman denarii from the Province and Italy and local copies. V.
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