---
title: "Gallic War — Book V"
author: "Julius Caesar"
translator: "W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 40 of 58
url: https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-v/40/
cite: "Julius Caesar, tr. W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn, Gallic War — Book V, section 40. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-v/40/"
---

# Gallic War — Book V

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

## 40. Book V — Chapter 40

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-v/40/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/caesar-gallic-war-book-v/40/#p-N

[¶0] Letters are immediately sent to Caesar by Cicero, great rewards being offered [to the messengers] if they carried them through. All these passes having been beset, those who were sent are intercepted.

> Latin: Mittuntur ad Caesarem confestim ab Cicerone litterae magnis propositis praemiis, si pertulissent: obsessis omnibus viis missi intercipiuntur.

[¶1] During the night as many as 120 towers are raised with incredible dispatch out of the timber which they had collected for the purpose of fortification: the things which seemed necessary to the work are completed.

> Latin: Noctu ex materia, quam munitionis causa comportaverant, turres admodum CXX excitantur incredibili celeritate; quae deesse operi videbantur, perficiuntur.

[¶2] The following day the enemy, having collected far greater forces, attack the camp [and] fill up the ditch. Resistance is made by our men in the same manner as the day before;

> Latin: Hostes postero die multo maioribus coactis copiis castra oppugnant, fossam complent. Eadem ratione, qua pridie, ab nostris resistitur:

[¶3] this same thing is done afterward during the remaining days.

> Latin: hoc idem reliquis deinceps fit diebus.

[¶4] The work is carried on incessantly in the night: not even to the sick, or wounded, is opportunity given for rest:

> Latin: Nulla pars nocturni temporis ad laborem intermittitur; non aegris, non vulneratis facultas quietis datur.

[¶5] whatever things are required for resisting the assault of the next day are provided during the night: many stakes burned at the end, and a large number of mural pikes are procured: towers are built up, battlements and parapets are formed of interwoven hurdles.

> Latin: Quaecumque ad proximi diei oppugnationem opus sunt noctu comparantur; multae praeustae sudes, magnus muralium pilorum numerus instituitur; turres contabulantur, pinnae loricaeque ex cratibus attexuntur.

[¶6] Cicero himself, though he was in very weak health, did not leave himself the night-time for repose, so that he was forced to spare himself by the spontaneous movement and entreaties of the soldiers.

> Latin: Ipse Cicero, cum tenuissima valetudine esset, ne nocturnum quidem sibi tempus ad quietem relinquebat, ut ultro militum concursu ac vocibus sibi parcere cogeretur.