Wheelock's FAQ chapter 24

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Wheelock's FAQ chapter 24: Questions

Questions are listed at the top of the page and are divided into several categories. Click on the links at left and you will be taken to the question and corresponding answer below.
Category: Groton and May (GM's)
GM
"Equitibus facile pulsis, incredibili celeritate ad flumen cucurrerunt." About half of us translated it roughly as 'the cavalry being easily bettered by the enemy', the others (me among them) translated it as the reverse. My reasoning for choosing the latter version was guided by the comments at the head of the passage about it being favorable to Caesar. It seems entirely possible to translate it either way.

Wheelock's FAQ chapter 24: Answers

Category: Groton and May (GM's)
GM:
"Equitibus facile pulsis, incredibili celeritate ad flumen cucurrerunt." About half of us translated it roughly as 'the cavalry being easily bettered by the enemy', the others (me among them) translated it as the reverse. My reasoning for choosing the latter version was guided by the comments at the head of the passage about it being favorable to Caesar. It seems entirely possible to translate it either way.
A:

Gary's answer:

For the pro-Caesar aspect, it makes sense in the other interpretation as well. Caesar's horsemen were beaten. His camp was overrun. The enemy was simultaneously in the camp and the woods and at the river. Everything looked hopeless for the good guys. Then, in the last paragraph, Caesar comes out and saves the day, simultaneously raising the banners, calling the troops, blowing the trumpets, etc. What better way to convince the folks back home that Caesar himself was indispensible to the res publica?

Answer by Tim Haas (Timothy or Lillian Haas [spooner@free-market.net]):

I think in context it can only be Caesar's cavalry who were routed. It was they who dared to pursue only to the edge of the woods (presumably because their numbers were insufficient to engage the enemy in unfamiliar territory). Then the enemy, seeing that the legions were otherwise occupied, rushed out with all of their troops (omnibus cum copiis), overran Caesar's horsemen, and rushed to the river (hence Caesar's comment about them being everywhere at once).

An old interlinear translation I have here confirms this theory ("suddenly they flew forth with all (their) forces, and made an attack upon our horsemen. These having been routed easily and disordered, they ran down with incredible speed to the river; so that almost at one time the enemy were seen both at the woods and in the river, and now in our hands [close at hand]").


Last updated Thu Nov 13 17:12:51 GMT 2003

FAQ ©2003 by its creator Gary Bisaga and Meredith Minter Dixon. Copyright to FAQ answers is retained by their authors.