English Translation |
Latin Text |
1.1
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, another the Aquitani, the third those who by their language are called Celts, by ours Gauls. These all differ in language, customs, laws between themselves. The river Garumna divides the Gauls from the Aquitani, and the Matrona and Sequana rivers divide them from the Belgae. Of all these the bravest are the Belgae, because they are the farthest from the civilization and humanity of the Province, and merchants visit them the least often and carry to them those things which concern effeminating their spirits, and they are close to the Germans, who inhabit across the Rhine, and with whom they continually wage war. And for this reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in virtue because they fight in almost daily battles with the Germans, either when they are keeping the Germans from their boundaries, or when they are waging war in the Germans’ territories. One part of this, which it is said the Gauls hold, occupies the beginning from the river Rhone; contained by the river Garumna, the ocean, the borders of the Belgae; touches even the river Rhine from the Sequani and Helvetii; lies toward the seven oxen. The Belgae arise from the outermost boundaries of Gaul; reach to the lower part of the river Rhine, look into the seven oxen and the east sun. Aquitania reaches from the Garumna river to the Pyrenaei mountains and that part of the ocean which is toward Hispania; looks between the setting of the sun and the seven oxen. |
1.1
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit. Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt. Qua de causa Helvetii quoque reliquos Gallos virtute praecedunt, quod fere cotidianis proeliis cum Germanis contendunt, cum aut suis finibus eos prohibent aut ipsi in eorum finibus bellum gerunt. Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano, continetur Garumna flumine, Oceano, finibus Belgarum, attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum, vergit ad septentriones. Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur, pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni, spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem. Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones. |
1.2
Among the Helvetii the noblest and richest man by far was Orgetorix. He, when Marcus Messala and Pupis Piso were consuls, drawn by desire of power caused a conspiracy within the nobility, and he persuaded the citizens to go out from their borders with all their supplies: that it was very easy, since they were superior in virtue to all, to seize control of the whole of Gaul. He easily persuaded them of this, because the Helvetii are confined everywhere by the nature of the place: on one side by the widest and deepest river Rhine, which divides the land of the Helvetii from the Germans; on the other by the highest mountains of the Jura, which is between the Sequani and the Helvetii; on the third side by Lake Lemannus and the river Rhone, which divides our province from the Helvetii. Because of these things it happened that they were both wandering less widely and were less easily able to wage war with bordering peoples; and for this reason they as a people eager for war, were afflicted with great pain. In proportion to the multitude of people, moreover, and in proportion to the glory of war and bravery, they were thinking that they had narrow boundaries, which extended 240 miles in length, 180 miles in width. |
1.2
Apud Helvetios longe nobilissimus fuit et ditissimus Orgetorix. Is M. Messala, et M. Pupio Pisone consulibus regni cupiditate inductus coniurationem nobilitatis fecit et civitati persuasit ut de finibus suis cum omnibus copiis exirent: perfacile esse, cum virtute omnibus praestarent, totius Galliae imperio potiri. Id hoc facilius iis persuasit, quod undique loci natura Helvetii continentur: una ex parte flumine Rheno latissimo atque altissimo, qui agrum Helvetium a Germanis dividit; altera ex parte monte Iura altissimo, qui est inter Sequanos et Helvetios; tertia lacu Lemanno et flumine Rhodano, qui provinciam nostram ab Helvetiis dividit. His rebus fiebat ut et minus late vagarentur et minus facile finitimis bellum inferre possent; qua ex parte homines bellandi cupidi magno dolore adficiebantur. Pro multitudine autem hominum et pro gloria belli atque fortitudinis angustos se fines habere arbitrabantur, qui in longitudinem milia passuum CCXL, in latitudinem CLXXX patebant. |
1.3
Led by these things introduced and thoroughly moved by the influence of Orgetorix, they decided to prepare those things which concerned leaving, to buy as large a number of mules and wagons as possible, to do as much planting as possible so that on the journey supplies of grain might be in store, to establish peace and friendship with the nearest states. They considered that two years was enough for them for completing these things; for the third year they established their departure with a law. Orgetorix was picked to do these things. He undertook a commission to the states for himself. On this journey he convinces Casticus of the Sequani, the son of Catamantaloedis, whose father had held power among the Sequani for many years and had been called a friend of the Roman people by the Senate, to seize power in his state, which his father had previously held; and just so persuades Dumnorix of the Aedui, brother of Diviciacus, who at that time held the chief authority in his state and was accepted the most by the people, to try the same, and gives him his daughter in marriage. He demonstrated for them that to accomplish the things they were trying was very easy to do, because he himself was going to acquire control of his state: that there was no doubt that the Helvetii were the most powerful of the whole of Gaul; he established that he would acquire power for them with his resources and his army. Influenced by this speech they give loyalty and an oath among themselves and anticipate, having taken control, to be able to obtain the whole of Gaul by means of the three strongest and most powerful peoples. |
1.3
His rebus adducti et auctoritate Orgetorigis permoti constituerunt ea quae ad proficiscendum pertinerent comparare, iumentorum et carrorum quam maximum numerum coemere, sementes quam maximas facere, ut in itinere copia frumenti suppeteret, cum proximis civitatibus pacem et amicitiam confirmare. Ad eas res conficiendas biennium sibi satis esse duxerunt; in tertium annum profectionem lege confirmant. Ad eas res conficiendas Orgetorix deligitur. Is sibi legationem ad civitates suscipit. In eo itinere persuadet Castico, Catamantaloedis filio, Sequano, cuius pater regnum in Sequanis multos annos obtinuerat et a senatu populi Romani amicus appellatus erat, ut regnum in civitate sua occuparet, quod pater ante habuerit; itemque Dumnorigi Haeduo, fratri Diviciaci, qui eo tempore principatum in civitate obtinebat ac maxime plebi acceptus erat, ut idem conaretur persuadet eique filiam suam in matrimonium dat. Perfacile factu esse illis probat conata perficere, propterea quod ipse suae civitatis imperium obtenturus esset: non esse dubium quin totius Galliae plurimum Helvetii possent; se suis copiis suoque exercitu illis regna conciliaturum confirmat. Hac oratione adducti inter se fidem et ius iurandum dant et regno occupato per tres potentissimos ac firmissimos populos totius Galliae sese potiri posse sperant. |
1.4
This affair was reported to the Helvetii by an informer. By their customs they forced Orgetorix to plead his case in chains; if convicted it was necessary to follow the penalty, that he was burned by fire. On the day set for pleading the case Orgetorix gathered to the trial on all sides all his household, about ten thousand men, and assembled in the same way all his clients and debtors, of which he had a great number, and with their help that he not plead his case he rescued himself. While the state, irritated on account of this affair, was attempting to enforce the law with weapons, and the magistrates were rounding up a crowd of men from the fields, Orgetorix died; nor was the suspicion lacking, as the Helvetii were thinking, that he contrived death for himself. |
1.4
Ea res est Helvetiis per indicium enuntiata. Moribus suis Orgetoricem ex vinculis causam dicere coegerunt; damnatum poenam sequi oportebat, ut igni cremaretur. Die constituta causae dictionis Orgetorix ad iudicium omnem suam familiam, ad hominum milia decem, undique coegit, et omnes clientes obaeratosque suos, quorum magnum numerum habebat, eodem conduxit; per eos ne causam diceret se eripuit. Cum civitas ob eam rem incitata armis ius suum exsequi conaretur multitudinemque hominum ex agris magistratus cogerent, Orgetorix mortuus est; neque abest suspicio, ut Helvetii arbitrantur, quin ipse sibi mortem consciverit. |
1.5
After the death of that man, the Helvetii none the less try to do that which they had decided, that they would depart from their borders. When they considered that now they were prepared for this undertaking, they burned all their towns, about twelve in number, about four hundred villages, and the rest of their private buildings; all the grain, besides that which they would bring with them, they burned up, so that the hope of returning home having been destroyed they more prepared for all dangers might endure; they ordered each man to carry from home grain for himself for three months. They persuaded the neighboring to themselves Raurici and Tulingi and Latubrigi, having used the same plan, their towns and villages having been burned up, to depart together with them, and the Boii, who inhabited across the Rhine and who had migrated into the land of the Noricum and had attacked Noreia, having been received among them they adopted them as allies to themselves. |
1.5
Post eius mortem nihilo minus Helvetii id quod constituerant facere conantur, ut e finibus suis exeant. Ubi iam se ad eam rem paratos esse arbitrati sunt, oppida sua omnia, numero ad duodecim, vicos ad quadringentos, reliqua privata aedificia incendunt; frumentum omne, praeter quod secum portaturi erant, comburunt, ut domum reditionis spe sublata paratiores ad omnia pericula subeunda essent; trium mensum molita cibaria sibi quemque domo efferre iubent. Persuadent Rauracis et Tulingis et Latobrigis finitimis, uti eodem usi consilio oppidis suis vicisque exustis una cum iis proficiscantur, Boiosque, qui trans Rhenum incoluerant et in agrum Noricum transierant Noreiamque oppugnabant, receptos ad se socios sibi adsciscunt. |
1.6
There were altogether two journies, by which journies they were able to go out from home: one was through the Sequani, narrow and difficult, between the Jura mountains and the river Rhone, where single carts would be driven with difficulty, moreover the very high mountain was impending, that very few might be able to prevent them easily; the other was through our province, much easier and unimpeded, because between the territories of the Helvetii and the Allobroges, who had recently been pacified, the Rhone flows and in a few places is crossed by a ford. The town of the Allobroges outermost and closest to the Helvetii’s borders is Geneva. The bridge from that town extends to the Helvetii. They were thinking either that they would persuade the Allobroges, because they seemed not yet of good spirit toward the Roman people, or that they would compel them by force to allow them to go through their borders. All things for departing prepared they declare the day, on which day they all come together to the banks of the Rhone. This day was on the fifth day before the calends of April, when Lucius Pisone and Aulus Gabinius were consul. |
1.6
Erant omnino itinera duo, quibus itineribus domo exire possent: unum per Sequanos, angustum et difficile, inter montem Iuram et flumen Rhodanum, vix qua singuli carri ducerentur, mons autem altissimus impendebat, ut facile perpauci prohibere possent; alterum per provinciam nostram, multo facilius atque expeditius, propterea quod inter fines Helvetiorum et Allobrogum, qui nuper pacati erant, Rhodanus fluit isque non nullis locis vado transitur. Extremum oppidum Allobrogum est proximumque Helvetiorum finibus Genava. Ex eo oppido pons ad Helvetios pertinet. Allobrogibus sese vel persuasuros, quod nondum bono animo in populum Romanum viderentur, existimabant vel vi coacturos ut per suos fines eos ire paterentur. Omnibus rebus ad profectionem comparatis diem dicunt, qua die ad ripam Rhodani omnes conveniant. Is dies erat a. d. V. Kal. Apr. L. Pisone, A. Gabinio consulibus. |
1.7
When this thing was reported to Caesar, that they were trying to make their journey through our province, he hurries to depart from Rome, and by means of the greatest marches he is able to make he hastens to upper Gaul and arrives at Geneva. He enlists from the whole province the greatest number of soldiers he is able (there is in upper Gaul altogether one legion), and he orders the bridge which is to Geneva to be destroyed. When the Helvetii were made more certain of his arrival, they send the noblest legates of the state, of which embassy Nammeius and Verucloetis were holding the first place, who were to say that it was in mind for them to make their journey through the province without any harm, because they were having no other route: to ask that it be permitted for them to do this by his consent. Caesar, because he was remembering that the consul Lucius Cassus was killed and his army defeated and sent under the yoke by the Helvetii was thinking that this must not be permitted; neither that these of unfriendly mind, the opportunity of making the journey through the province having been given, would refrain from injury and harm. Nevertheless, so that a period of time would be able to pass while the soldiers which he had ordered were assembling, he responded to the legates that he would take the day for deliberating: if they were wanting something, they should return on the Ides of April. |
1.7
Caesari cum id nuntiatum esset, eos per provinciam nostram iter facere conari, maturat ab urbe proficisci et quam maximis potest itineribus in Galliam ulteriorem contendit et ad Genavam pervenit. Provinciae toti quam maximum potest militum numerum imperat (erat omnino in Gallia ulteriore legio una), pontem, qui erat ad Genavam, iubet rescindi. Ubi de eius adventu Helvetii certiores facti sunt, legatos ad eum mittunt nobilissimos civitatis, cuius legationis Nammeius et Verucloetius principem locum obtinebant, qui dicerent sibi esse in animo sine ullo maleficio iter per provinciam facere, propterea quod aliud iter haberent nullum: rogare ut eius voluntate id sibi facere liceat. Caesar, quod memoria tenebat L. Cassium consulem occisum exercitumque eius ab Helvetiis pulsum et sub iugum missum, concedendum non putabat; neque homines inimico animo, data facultate per provinciam itineris faciundi, temperaturos ab iniuria et maleficio existimabat. Tamen, ut spatium intercedere posset dum milites quos imperaverat convenirent, legatis respondit diem se ad deliberandum sumpturum: si quid vellent, ad Id. April. reverterentur. |