De Bello Gallico 1.12

1.12.1Flūmen est Arar, quod per fīnēs Haeduōrum et Sēquanōrum in Rhodanum īnfluit, incrēdibilī lēnitāte, ita ut oculīs in utram partem fluat iūdicārī nōn possit.

There is a river, the Arar, which flows through the territory of the Haedui and the Sequani into the Rhône so incredibly slowly that the eye cannot tell in which direction it flows.

Note. in utram partem fluat: an indirect question, 'in which direction it flows'.

1.12.1Id Helvētiī ratibus ac lintribus iūnctīs trānsībant.

The Helvetii were crossing it on rafts and boats tied together.

1.12.2Ubi per explōrātōrēs Caesar certior factus est trēs iam partēs cōpiārum Helvētiōs id flūmen trādūxisse, quārtam vērō partem citrā flūmen Ararim reliquam esse, dē tertiā vigiliā cum legiōnibus tribus ē castrīs profectus ad eam partem pervēnit quae nōndum flūmen trānsierat.

When Caesar learned from scouts that the Helvetii had already taken three quarters of their forces across this river, but that a quarter was left on this side of the Arar, he set out from camp in the third watch of the night with three legions and reached the part that had not yet crossed the river.

Note. dē tertiā vigiliā: the night was split into four watches; the third began around midnight.

1.12.3Eōs impedītōs et inopīnantēs adgressus magnam partem eōrum concīdit;

Attacking them while they were burdened and off guard, he cut down a large part of them;

1.12.3reliquī sēsē fugae mandārunt atque in proximās silvās abdidērunt.

the rest took to flight and hid in the nearest woods.

1.12.4Is pāgus appellābātur Tigurīnus;

This canton was called the Tigurini;

1.12.4nam omnis cīvitās Helvētia in quattuor pāgōs dīvīsa est.

for the whole Helvetian state is divided into four cantons.

1.12.5Hic pāgus ūnus, cum domō exīsset, patrum nostrōrum memoriā L. Cassium cōnsulem interfēcerat et eius exercitum sub iugum mīserat.

This one canton, when it had left home within our fathers' memory, had killed the consul Lucius Cassius and sent his army under the yoke.

1.12.6Ita sīve cāsū sīve cōnsiliō deōrum immortālium quae pars cīvitātis Helvētiae īnsignem calamitātem populō Rōmānō intulerat, ea prīnceps poenam persolvit.

So, whether by chance or by the plan of the immortal gods, the part of the Helvetian state which had brought a notable disaster on the Roman people was the first to pay the penalty.

Note. Quae pars … ea: the relative clause comes first and ea sums it up: 'the part which … that part'.

1.12.7Quā in rē Caesar nōn sōlum pūblicās, sed etiam prīvātās iniūriās ultus est, quod eius socerī L. Pīsōnis avum, L. Pīsōnem lēgātum, Tigurīnī eōdem proeliō quō Cassium interfēcerant.

In this Caesar avenged not only a public wrong but a private one too, because the Tigurini had killed the grandfather of his father-in-law Lucius Piso, the officer Lucius Piso, in the same battle as Cassius.

Note. quod … interfēcerant: two wrongs, public and private. Caesar's father-in-law was Lucius Calpurnius Piso.