Midterm Takehome portion: due in my e-mail (jbailly@uvm.edu) with a date stamp on or before Sat. the 3rd at midnight.

Please identify the syntax of the underlined words.

These are the next 3 paragraphs of Caesar's commentary on the Gallic Wars. You might try getting a couple more translations or a commentary as aids.

This will be difficult: to get 100%, you will not need to do every single one, but you will need to get something over 2/3 of them correct. I count 32 separate underlined items. Do the best that you can.

[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.

Translation: After his death nonetheless the Helvetii tried to do that which they had decided to do, to leave their country. When they thought that they were at the point of being ready, they burnt all their strongholds (about 12 in number), their villages (about 40), and the rest of their private buildings: all the grane, except that which they could carry with themselves, they burned up, so that with no hope of a return home they would be quite ready for all the dangers to be undergone: they ordered each person to carry with him/herself three months worth of food. They persuaded the Rauraci and the Tulingi and the Latobrigi, their neighbors, to set out with them using the same plan with their strongholds and villages burnt, and they brought over to themselves the Boii having been received as allies to them, who had inhabited across the Rhine and had crossed over into the Norican territory and were attacking Noreia.

[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.

Translation: There were two paths by which they were able to leave their home territory: one thru the Sequani, narrow and difficult, between the Jura mountains and the river Rhone, on which single carts were scarcely able to be lead, and a very high mountain loomed over it so that a few (enemy) could easily bar the way; another thru our (the Roman) province, much easier and more convenient, in as much as the Rhone flows between the country of the Helvetii and the Allobrogi, who had recently been pacified, and the Rhone is crossed in no few places by a ford. There is a far-out stronghold of the Allobrogi nearest to the country of the Helvetii. From that stronghold a bridge reaches the Helvetii. When all was in readiness for the expedition, they declare the day, the day on which they all gather at the bank of the Rhone. That day was the 5th day before the Kalends of April when L. Piso and A. Gabinius were consuls.


[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.

Translation: When it was announced to Caesar that they were trying to march thru our (Roman) province, he rushed to set out from the city and hurried by means of as long marches as possible into further Gaul and reached Geneva. He mobilized as great a number as possible of soldiers from the whole province (there was one sole legion in further Gaul), and ordered the bridge, which was at Geneva, to be cut. When the Helvetii were informed of his arrival, they sent the noblest men of their state to him as ambassadors (Nammeius and Verucloetius held the highest rank on that embassy) to say to him that they had in mind to make their way thru the province without any malfeasance because they had no other way: and that they asked that it be granted to them do that with his (Caesar's) good will. Caesar, because he remembered that Lucius Cassius the consul had been killed and his army had been routed and made to go under the yoke (a sign of submission) by the Helvetii, did not think that that should be conceded (to the Helvetii); and he did not think that men of hostile mind, when the opportunity was given to make their way thru the province, were going to refrain from harm and malfeasance. Nonetheless, in order that a space (of time) be able to intervene until the soldiers which he had mobilized come together, he responded to the ambassadors that he would take a day to think it over: (and he said that) if they wanted anything (else) they should return on the Ides of April.