---
title: "Gallic War — Book IV"
author: "Julius Caesar"
translator: "W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 7 of 38
url: https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-iv/7/
cite: "Julius Caesar, tr. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, Gallic War — Book IV, section 7. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-iv/7/"
---

# Gallic War — Book IV

*Julius Caesar, tr. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn*

## 7. Book IV — Chapter 7

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-iv/7/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-iv/7/#p-N

[¶0] Having provided corn and selected his cavalry, he began to direct his march toward those parts in which he heard the Germans were.

> Latin: Re frumentaria comparata equitibusque delectis iter in ea loca facere coepit, quibus in locis esse Germanos audiebat.

[¶1] When he was distant from them only a few days' march, embassadors came to him from their state, whose speech was as follows:

> Latin: A quibus cum paucorum dierum iter abesset, legati ab iis venerunt, quorum haec fuit oratio:

[¶2] "That the Germans neither make war upon the Roman people first, nor do they decline, if they are provoked, to engage with them in arms; for that this was the custom of the Germans handed down to them from their forefathers, -to resist whatsoever people make war upon them and not to avert it by entreaty; this, however, they confessed,-that they had come hither reluctantly, having been expelled from their country.

> Latin: Germanos neque priores populo Romano bellum inferre neque tamen recusare, si lacessantur, quin armis contendant, quod Germanorum consuetudo [haec] sit a maioribus tradita, Quicumque bellum inferant, resistere neque deprecari. Haec tamen dicere venisse invitos, eiectos domo;

[¶3] If the Romans were disposed to accept their friendship, they might be serviceable allies to them; and let them either assign them lands, or permit them to retain those which they had acquired by their arms;

> Latin: si suam gratiam Romani velint, posse iis utiles esse amicos; vel sibi agros attribuant vel patiantur eos tenere quos armis possederint:

[¶4] that they are inferior to the Suevi alone, to whom not even the immortal gods can show themselves equal; that there was none at all besides on earth whom they could not conquer."

> Latin: sese unis Suebis concedere, quibus ne di quidem immortales pares esse possint; reliquum quidem in terris esse neminem quem non superare possint.