English Translation |
Latin Text |
6.13
In all Gaul there are two types of those men, who are of some number and distinction. For the common people have the place nearly of slaves, who dare nothing through themselves, are summoned to no council. And the majority, when either by the coin of another or by the magnitude of tribute or by the wrong of the powerful they are pressed, speak themselves in slavery to the nobles; for whom there are all the same laws toward these men, which there are for masters toward their slaves. But of these two classes one is the class of Druids, the other is the class of knights. Those men take part in divine affairs, attend to public and private sacrifices, handle religious issues: to these a great number of young men rushes for the sake of instruction, and these are of great honor among them. For they generally decide concerning all public and private disputes, and, if some crime is committed, if murder is done, if there is a dispute about inheritance, about boundaries, the same men decide, resolve rewards and punishments; if either any private citizen or any people does not stand according to their decree, they forbid them from sacrifices. This punishment is the most grave among them. For whom it was thus prohibited, these are held in the number of the ungodly and the criminal, all leave from these, flee their approach and their speech, that they not receive anything of inconvenience from contact, and it is not restored for those men seeking justice, nor is any honor shared. Moreover one rules over all these Druids, who has the highest authority among them. This man having died either, if anyone surpasses the rest in rank, he succeeds, or, if many are equal, by a vote of the Druids, sometimes even by arms they contend about the leadership. These men, at a certain time of year, settle in a consecrated place in the territory of the Carnutes, which region holds the middle of the whole of Gaul. All everywhere who have disputes come together to this place and obey their decrees and judgments. It is thought that this system was devised in Britain and was carried over from that place into Gaul, and now those who want to learn this thing more carefully generally leave to that place for the sake of learning. |
6.13
In omni Gallia eorum hominum, qui aliquo sunt numero atque honore, genera sunt duo. Nam plebes paene servorum habetur loco, quae nihil audet per se, nullo adhibetur consilio. Plerique, cum aut aere alieno aut magnitudine tributorum aut iniuria potentiorum premuntur, sese in servitutem dicant nobilibus: in hos eadem omnia sunt iura, quae dominis in servos. Sed de his duobus generibus alterum est druidum, alterum equitum. Illi rebus divinis intersunt, sacrificia publica ac privata procurant, religiones interpretantur: ad hos magnus adulescentium numerus disciplinae causa concurrit, magnoque hi sunt apud eos honore. Nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt, et, si quod est admissum facinus, si caedes facta, si de hereditate, de finibus controversia est, idem decernunt, praemia poenasque constituunt; si qui aut privatus aut populus eorum decreto non stetit, sacrificiis interdicunt. Haec poena apud eos est gravissima. Quibus ita est interdictum, hi numero impiorum ac sceleratorum habentur, his omnes decedunt, aditum sermonemque defugiunt, ne quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant, neque his petentibus ius redditur neque honos ullus communicatur. His autem omnibus druidibus praeest unus, qui summam inter eos habet auctoritatem. Hoc mortuo aut si qui ex reliquis excellit dignitate succedit, aut, si sunt plures pares, suffragio druidum, nonnumquam etiam armis de principatu contendunt. Hi certo anni tempore in finibus Carnutum, quae regio totius Galliae media habetur, considunt in loco consecrato. Huc omnes undique, qui controversias habent, conveniunt eorumque decretis iudiciisque parent. Disciplina in Britannia reperta atque inde in Galliam translata esse existimatur, et nunc, qui diligentius eam rem cognoscere volunt, plerumque illo discendi causa proficiscuntur. |
6.14
The Druids are accustomed to be free from war and do not weigh out tribute together with the rest; they have exemption of military service and freedom from all affairs. Excited by so great rewards and by their own accord many come into study and are sent by their parents and relatives. There they are told to learn a great number of verses by heart. Therefore some remain in study for twenty years. Neither do they think it proper to commit these things to letters, although they generally use Greek letters in the rest of the affairs, in public and private accounts. They seem to me to have adopted this from two reasons, because they do not wish that the teachings be carried into the common people and that they who are learning, having relied on letters, strive for less memory: which generally happens for the majority, that because of the aid of letters they release diligence in learning and memory. They wish to suggest this in the first place, that souls do not die, but cross from one to another after death, and because of this they are thinking that men are excited greatly to virtue, the fear of death having been disregarded. Many furthermore discuss and teach their youth about the constellations and their movement, about the magnitude of the universe and the earth, about the nature of things, about the strength and power of the immortal gods. |
6.14
Druides a bello abesse consuerunt neque tributa una cum reliquis pendunt; militiae vacationem omniumque rerum habent immunitatem. Tantis excitati praemiis et sua sponte multi in disciplinam conveniunt et a parentibus propinquisque mittuntur. Magnum ibi numerum versuum ediscere dicuntur. Itaque annos nonnulli vicenos in disciplina permanent. Neque fas esse existimant ea litteris mandare, cum in reliquis fere rebus, publicis privatisque rationibus Graecis litteris utantur. Id mihi duabus de causis instituisse videntur, quod neque in vulgum disciplinam efferri velint neque eos, qui discunt, litteris confisos minus memoriae studere: quod fere plerisque accidit, ut praesidio litterarum diligentiam in perdiscendo ac memoriam remittant. In primis hoc volunt persuadere, non interire animas, sed ab aliis post mortem transire ad alios, atque hoc maxime ad virtutem excitari putant metu mortis neglecto. Multa praeterea de sideribus atque eorum motu, de mundi ac terrarum magnitudine, de rerum natura, de deorum immortalium vi ac potestate disputant et iuventuti tradunt. |
6.15
The other class is of the knights. These, when there is need and some war arises (which was accustomed to happen almost every year before the arrival of Caesar, that they were either inflicting injuries themselves or repelling inflicted injuries), all engage in war, and as each of them is very noble in birth and resources, thus each has very many vassals and clients around him. They have learned this one influence and power. |
6.15
Alterum genus est equitum. Hi, cum est usus atque aliquod bellum incidit (quod fere ante Caesaris adventum quotannis accidere solebat, uti aut ipsi iniurias inferrent aut illatas propulsarent), omnes in bello versantur, atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet. Hanc unam gratiam potentiamque noverunt. |
6.16
The whole nation of the Gauls is very much devoted to religious ceremonies, and on account of this reason, those who are afflicted with more serious illnesses and those who are engaged in battle and danger, either sacrifice humans as victims or vow that they will sacrifice them, and use the Druids as attendants to these sacrifices, because, unless the life of a man is rendered for the life of a man, they think that the divinity of the immortal gods cannot be pleased, and they publicly hold established sacrifices of the same type. Some have images of immense size, the limbs of which woven from wicker they fill with living humans, which thing having been set on fire the men surrounded by fire are killed. They think that punishment of those who have been arrested in theft or in robbery or in some crime is more pleasing to the immortal gods; but, when they are lacking supply of this kind, they even resort to the sacrifice of innocent men. |
6.16
Natio est omnis Gallorum admodum dedita religionibus, atque ob eam causam, qui sunt adfecti gravioribus morbis quique in proeliis periculisque versantur, aut pro victimis homines immolant aut se immolaturos vovent administrisque ad ea sacrificia druidibus utuntur, quod, pro vita hominis nisi hominis vita reddatur, non posse deorum immortalium numen placari arbitrantur, publiceque eiusdem generis habent instituta sacrificia. Alii immani magnitudine simulacra habent, quorum contexta viminibus membra vivis hominibus complent; quibus succensis circumventi flamma exanimantur homines. Supplicia eorum qui in furto aut in latrocinio aut aliqua noxia sint comprehensi gratiora dis immortalibus esse arbitrantur; sed, cum eius generis copia defecit, etiam ad innocentium supplicia descendunt. |
6.17
They mostly worship the god Mercury. There are very many images of that god: they hold that that one is the inventor of all the arts, that that one is the guide of roads and journeys, they judge that that one has the greatest power for the acquisition of money and for trade. After him they worship Apollo and Mars and Jupiter and Minerva. They generally have the same opinion about these, which the rest of the peoples have: that Apollo drives off illnesses, that Minerva entrusts the essentials of works and trades, that Jupiter holds authority of heavenly things, that Mars controls wars. To this god, when they have decided to fight in battle, they generally devote those things which they will have seized in war: when they have conquered, they sacrifice captured animals and collect the remaining things in one place. In many states it is permitted to observe piled mounds of these things in consecrated places; it does not happen often, that anyone, the religious practice having been disregarded, dares either to hide those things having been seized at his own house or to steal them having been placed, and the gravest punishment was established for this thing with torture. |
6.17
Deum maxime Mercurium colunt. Huius sunt plurima simulacra: hunc omnium inventorem artium ferunt, hunc viarum atque itinerum ducem, hunc ad quaestus pecuniae mercaturasque habere vim maximam arbitrantur. Post hunc Apollinem et Martem et Iovem et Minervam. De his eandem fere, quam reliquae gentes, habent opinionem: Apollinem morbos depellere, Minervam operum atque artificiorum initia tradere, Iovem imperium caelestium tenere, Martem bella regere. Huic, cum proelio dimicare constituerunt, ea quae bello ceperint plerumque devovent: cum superaverunt, animalia capta immolant reliquasque res in unum locum conferunt. Multis in civitatibus harum rerum exstructos tumulos locis consecratis conspicari licet; neque saepe accidit, ut neglecta quispiam religione aut capta apud se occultare aut posita tollere auderet, gravissimumque ei rei supplicium cum cruciatu constitutum est. |
6.18
All Gauls proclaim that they descended from the father Dis and say that this was revealed by the Druids. On account of this reason they measure the spaces of all time not by the number of days but by the number of nights, they observe birthdays and the beginnings of months and years in such a way that the day follows the night. In the remaining customs of life they generally differ from the rest in this, that they do not allow their own sons, except when they have grown up, so that they are able to sustain the duty of military service, to approach them publicly, and they consider it shameful that a son of childish age stands in the presence of his father in public. |
6.18
Galli se omnes ab Dite patre prognatos praedicant idque ab druidibus proditum dicunt. Ob eam causam spatia omnis temporis non numero dierum sed noctium finiunt; dies natales et mensum et annorum initia sic observant ut noctem dies subsequatur. In reliquis vitae institutis hoc fere ab reliquis differunt, quod suos liberos, nisi cum adoleverunt, ut munus militiae sustinere possint, palam ad se adire non patiuntur filiumque puerili aetate in publico in conspectu patris adsistere turpe ducunt. |
6.19
Husbands, as much money as they received from their wives in the name of a dowry, share so much with the dowries from their own goods an estimate having been made. An account of all this money is held jointly and the profits are saved: whichever of them will have surpassed in life, to him the portion of the other with the profits of the previous time comes. Husbands have the power of life and death towards their wives, just as towards their children; and when the father of a family born of a more distinguished place has died, his neighbors come together and, if an affair has come into their suspicion concerning the death, they hold questioning of the wives in the method of a slave and, if it has been proven, they kill the woman having been tortured with fire and all torments. Funerals are magnificent and expensive in proportion to the civilization of the Gauls; and all which they think was for the heart in life they cast into the fire, even animals, and slightly before this account slaves and clients, whom it was known were esteemed by those, proper funeral ceremonies having been conducted were burned together. |
6.19
Viri, quantas pecunias ab uxoribus dotis nomine acceperunt, tantas ex suis bonis aestimatione facta cum dotibus communicant. Huius omnis pecuniae coniunctim ratio habetur fructusque servantur: uter eorum vita superarit, ad eum pars utriusque cum fructibus superiorum temporum pervenit. Viri in uxores, sicuti in liberos, vitae necisque habent potestatem; et cum paterfamiliae illustriore loco natus decessit, eius propinqui conveniunt et, de morte si res in suspicionem venit, de uxoribus in servilem modum quaestionem habent et, si compertum est, igni atque omnibus tormentis excruciatas interficiunt. Funera sunt pro cultu Gallorum magnifica et sumptuosa; omniaque quae vivis cordi fuisse arbitrantur in ignem inferunt, etiam animalia, ac paulo supra hanc memoriam servi et clientes, quos ab eis dilectos esse constabat, iustis funeribus confectis una cremabantur. |
6.20
Which states are thought to administer their public business more conveniently hold it sacred by laws, if anyone will have received anything about the public business from neighboring people by a report or by rumor, that he carries it to a magistrate and does not share it with anyone else, because it is known that often reckless and ignorant humans are frightened by false rumors and are driven to crime and form a plan about the highest matters. The magistrates conceal those things which seem best to hide, and reveal those things which they have judged are of use to the multitude. It is not permitted to speak about the public business unless through a council. |
6.20
Quae civitates commodius suam rem publicam administrare existimantur, habent legibus sanctum, si quis quid de re publica a finitimis rumore aut fama acceperit, uti ad magistratum deferat neve cum quo alio communicet, quod saepe homines temerarios atque imperitos falsis rumoribus terreri et ad facinus impelli et de summis rebus consilium capere cognitum est. Magistratus quae visa sunt occultant quaeque esse ex usu iudicaverunt multitudini produnt. De re publica nisi per concilium loqui non conceditur. |