Happy Latin: Caesar’s BattlesHour 12 · The First Invasion of Britain · DBG 4.24–25

Hour 12 — The First Invasion of Britain · DBG 4.24–25

Note on sources. The source course-design document (0 Caesar's Latin Course Structure and Task 1-2.docx, funmi/happy latin/) specifies Hour 12 = The First Invasion of Britain = Wheelock Ch. 12 = Perfect-Active System. This hour is built directly from the course's own source document 9 De Bello Gallico 4.24-25 Text and Vocabulary.docx, which provides the Latin text, vocabulary, and tactical framework. Macrons restored from Perseus canonical-latinLit (Holmes 1914); English translation adapted from McDevitte & Bohn (1869); grammar from Wheelock 6th edn. revised (LaFleur 2005), Ch. 12.

Briefing

From Hour 11 to Hour 12

Hour 11 closed with the bridge dismantled, the Sugambri scattered, and Caesar back in Gaul having made his political point: the Rhine is not a barrier. The same campaigning year — late summer 55 BC — Caesar will make a second, even more spectacular crossing. He has heard that the Britons have been sending aid to the rebels in Gaul. He has also heard, by way of mercātōrēs (merchants who trade across the Channel), that the island is rich. He decides to invade Britain.

The expedition is, by any rational military standard, badly planned. Caesar takes only two legions (the 7th and the 10th — about 10,000 men), no cavalry (the cavalry transports will be blown back to Gaul by storm), and minimal supplies. He sails on a date late enough that the Channel weather will turn against him. He chooses a landing site at Pegwell Bay, near modern Deal in Kent — but the British, alerted by the Roman fleet visible from the cliffs of Dover, have already positioned cavalry and chariots above the beach. The Romans, in their heavy ships, cannot land in the shallows; the soldiers must jump out and wade through deep water, holding their gear above their heads, into a hostile current — while the Britons drive horses into the water and rain javelins down on them from the dry shore.

DBG 4.24–25 is the moment of crisis. The Roman soldiers hesitate. They will not leap into the sea. The whole expedition is about to fail at its first instant. Caesar, watching from a warship, orders a tactical reorganization (a flanking maneuver by the lighter nāvēs longae, using slings, arrows, and artillery to clear the British shore). But what actually solves the problem is one moment, narrated in three lines of Latin: the standard-bearer (aquilifer) of the Tenth Legion — name unknown — invokes the gods, declares that he himself will perform his duty to the Republic and to the general, and leaps with the eagle into the water. The soldiers, unable to allow the legionary eagle to fall into enemy hands, follow him. This is one of the most famous moments in Latin literature.

Hour 12: The First Invasion of Britain — Source: DBG 4.24–25

There was, on account of these reasons, the greatest difficulty, for the ships, because of their size, could not be anchored except in the deep, and for the soldiers — in unknown places, with their hands hindered, weighed down by the great and heavy burden of their armor — there was at the same time the need to leap down from the ships, to keep their footing in the waves, and to fight with the enemy, while the enemy, either from dry land or having advanced a little into the water — with all their limbs unhindered, in places very well known to them — were boldly throwing javelins and spurring on their well-trained horses. Our men, terrified by these things, and altogether inexperienced in this kind of battle, were not employing the same eagerness and zeal that they had been accustomed to use in land battles. When Caesar noticed this, he ordered that the warships — whose appearance was rather unusual to the barbarians and whose motion was more convenient for use — be moved a little back from the transport ships, be driven forward by oars, be stationed against the exposed flank of the enemy, and from there — with slings, arrows, and artillery — the enemy be driven back and cleared away; this was of great use to our men. For — moved by both the shape of the ships, the motion of the oars, and the unusual kind of artillery — the barbarians halted and gave ground a little. And while our soldiers were hesitating, chiefly on account of the depth of the sea, he who was carrying the eagle of the 10th Legion, having called the gods to witness that the action might fall out happily for the legion, "Leap down," he said, "soldiers, unless you wish to hand over the eagle to the enemy; I, at least, shall have performed my duty to the Republic and to the general." When he had said this in a great voice, he hurled himself from the ship and began to carry the eagle against the enemy.

Connection to Wheelock

This hour pairs with Wheelock Chapter 12 — Perfect Active System (perfect, pluperfect, future perfect indicative active). After ten chapters working in the present-stem system (present, future, imperfect), we now meet the third principal part — the perfect stem — which builds three new tenses. Amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum: the third principal part amāvī is the 1 sg. perfect active, and from its stem amāv- we build amāvī, amāvistī, amāvit, amāvimus, amāvistis, amāvērunt (-ēre) in the perfect. The aquilifer's defiant praestiterō ("I will have performed") in our passage is a future perfect active — a tense that English barely uses, but that Caesar deploys with rhetorical precision.

Today's Task

Identify all the verbs (finite + infinitives) AND all the perfect-active-system forms (perfect, pluperfect, and future perfect indicatives — including the famous future perfect praestiterō).

Grammar Target — Perfect Active System

The third principal part is the perfect stem

Every Latin verb has four principal parts (PP1, PP2, PP3, PP4):

• PP1 (1 sg. pres. ind. active) — e.g. amō "I love"
• PP2 (pres. infinitive active) — amāre "to love"
• PP3 (1 sg. perf. ind. active) — amāvī "I loved / have loved" — this hour's focus
• PP4 (perf. pass. part., neuter) — amātum "having been loved" (next hour)

Strip the final -ī from PP3 to get the perfect stem. The perfect stem is used to build all three tenses of the perfect-active system. The personal endings are unique to this system and must be memorized as a single set:

The Perfect Active Endings (same for every verb)

Paradigm — praestō, praestāre, praestitī (1st conj.)

The aquilifer's verb. Perfect stem: praestit-.

Three warning signs to memorize

1. The perfect stem is unpredictable from PP1 alone. You CANNOT guess it. Amō → amāvī (regular). But capiō → cēpī (vowel shortens & shifts); faciō → fēcī; gerō → gessī (s-perfect); cōgnōscō → cōgnōvī; videō → vīdī (no suffix, just vowel lengthening). Memorize PP3 with PP1.

2. The perfect translates two ways in English: simple past ("I performed") or present perfect ("I have performed"). Context decides. The pluperfect always = "had ed"; the future perfect always = "will have ed."

3. 3rd plural perfect: -ērunt or -ēre. Both endings are correct. Amāvērunt = amāvēre = "they loved / have loved." Poets prefer -ēre for metrical reasons; Caesar uses -ērunt. Recognize both.

The aquilifer's future perfect

In sentence 12 of our passage, the standard-bearer of the 10th Legion declares: "ego certē meum reī pūblicae atque imperātōrī officium praestiterō" — "I, at any rate, shall have performed my duty to the Republic and to the general." Why future perfect? Because the duty is not yet performed at the moment of speaking, but by the time the audience can hear about it — by the time he has reached the shore with the eagle — it will have been. The future perfect is the tense of completed action seen from a future vantage point. It is Caesar (writing later) showing us the standard-bearer using a tense that is exactly correct for the moment.

Vocabulary

(114 entries with full macrons, English and Chinese glosses, and conjugation/declension badges. See the bilingual HTML for the complete badge-tagged table. Source: course document 9 De Bello Gallico 4.24-25.docx.)

Selected high-frequency entries from the passage:

Tagging rules in effect this Hour

• Rule #1 — Indicative (red). Carried.
• Rule #2 — Subjunctive. coicerent, incitārent (s. 4, cum-clause); ēvenīret (s. 11, ut-clause); dīxisset (s. 13, cum-clause — pluperf. subj.).
• Rule #4 — Infinitive (green). cōnstituī (s. 2); s. 7 chain removērī, incitārī, cōnstituī, prōpellī, submovērī; ūtī (s. 5); prōdere (s. 12); ferre (s. 13).
• Rule #5 — Participle. Many in abl. abs.: impedītīs, oppressīs (s. 3); prōgressī, expedītīs (s. 4); perterritī (s. 5); permōtī (s. 9); cunctantibus (s. 10); obtestātus (s. 11).
• Rule #7 — Noun-adj phrase. Carried.
• Rule #8 — Abl. abs. [brackets]. Multiple in ss. 3, 4, 9, 10, 11.
• Rule #9 — Noun-case ★ — 3rd-decl. only. Carried.

New this hour: the Battle Task's second toggle isolates perfect-active-system forms — the Wheelock-Ch.12 grammar focus.

Battle Task — Identify all verbs, and the perfect-active-system forms

Hour 12 Passage on the First Invasion of Britain

1. Erat ob hās causās summa difficultās,
2. quod nāvēs propter magnitūdinem nisi in altō cōnstituī nōn poterant,
3. mīlitibus autem, [īgnōtīs locīs, impedītīs manibus, magnō et gravī onere armōrum oppressīs], simul et dē navibus dēsiliendum et in flūctibus cōnsistendum et cum hostibus erat pugnandum,
4. cum illī aut ex āridō aut paulum in aquam [prōgressī omnibus membris expedītīs], nōtissimīs locīs, audacter tēla coicerent et equōs īnsuefactōs incitārent.
5. Quibus rēbus nostrī [perterritī] atque huius omnīnō generis pugnae imperītī, nōn eādem alacritāte ac studiō quō in pedestribus ūtī proeliīs cōnsuērant ūtēbantur.
6. Quod ubi Caesar animadvertit,
7. nāvēs longās, quārum et speciēs erat barbarīs inūsitātior et mōtus ad ūsum expedītior, paulum removērī ab onerāriīs nāvibus et rēmīs incitārī et ad latus apertum hostium cōnstituī atque inde fundīs, sagittīs, tormentīs hostēs prōpellī ac submovērī iussit;
8. quae rēs magnō ūsuī nostrīs fuit.
9. Nam et nāvium figūrā et rēmōrum mōtū et inūsitātō genere tormentōrum [permōtī] barbarī cōnstitērunt ac paulum modo pedem rettulērunt.
10. Atque [nostrīs militibus cunctantibus], maximē propter altitūdinem maris,
11. quī X legiōnis aquilam gerēbat, [obtestātus deōs ut ea rēs legiōnī feliciter ēvenīret],
12. "Dēsilīte," inquit, "mīlitēs, nisi vultis aquilam hostibus prōdere; ego certē meum reī pūblicae atque imperātōrī officium praestiterō."
13. Hoc cum vōce magnā dīxisset, sē ex nāvī prōiēcit atque in hostēs aquilam ferre coepit.

(Perfect-active-system forms in bold, other verbs in italics.)

Answer Key — Perfect-Active-System Forms (10 forms)

Answer Key — Other Verbs (~31 forms)

S. 1: Erat (3 sg. impf. of sum) S. 2: cōnstituī (pres. pass. infin.); poterant (3 pl. impf. of possum) S. 3: impedītīs, oppressīs (perf. pass. parts., abl. abs.); dēsiliendum, cōnsistendum, erat pugnandum (gerundives in passive periphrastic) S. 4: prōgressī (perf. dep. part.); expedītīs (perf. pass. part., abl. abs.); coicerent, incitārent (3 pl. impf. subj.) S. 5: perterritī (perf. pass. part.); ūtī (pres. dep. infin.); ūtēbantur (3 pl. impf. dep. ind.) S. 7: erat (3 sg. impf.); the long pass. infin. chain in iussit-construction (removērī, incitārī, cōnstituī, prōpellī, submovērī) S. 9: permōtī (perf. pass. part., abl. abs.) S. 10: cunctantibus (pres. dep. part., abl. abs.) S. 11: gerēbat (3 sg. impf. ind.); obtestātus (perf. dep. part.); ēvenīret (3 sg. impf. subj., ut-clause) S. 12: Dēsilīte (2 pl. impv.); inquit (defective, 3 sg.); vultis (2 pl. pres. ind. of volō); prōdere (pres. infin.) S. 13: ferre (pres. infin. of ferō)

Questions on the Narrative

1. What four physical disadvantages does Caesar list for the Roman soldiers in sentence 3?
2. The Britons (s. 4) have what four advantages? Pair them with the Roman disadvantages in s. 3.
3. What is Caesar's tactical response (s. 7)? Sketch it: which ships move where, doing what?
4. What three things, in s. 9, cause the barbarians to halt and retreat a little?
5. In s. 11, who is the unnamed actor "quī X legiōnis aquilam gerēbat"? What is his rank? Why does Caesar withhold his name?
6. Translate sentence 12 word-for-word, paying special attention to praestiterō. What tense is it, and why is this tense rhetorically perfect for the situation?
7. What happens in s. 13? What does the Latin imply about the soldiers' response?

Further Questions — Translation

Translate sentences 5, 12, and 13 into idiomatic English. Pay attention to: - The relative clause inside s. 5 (quō in pedestribus ūtī proeliīs cōnsuērant) — how do you render the embedded pluperfect? - The future perfect praestiterō in s. 12 — does English allow you to be this rhetorically precise? - The chain of three perfect indicatives in s. 13 (dīxisset → prōiēcit → coepit) — what does the asyndeton (no connector between prōiēcit and coepit) do?

Screening

Proposed clip: The Eagle (2011) opening — dramatic but anachronistic. Alternative: Saving Private Ryan (1998) opening Omaha Beach sequence — the closest twentieth-century analogue to the chaos described in ss. 3–5. Or BBC's Caesar's Britain (2003), Adrian Goldsworthy's reconstruction. Subject to instructor confirmation.

Discussion

1. The aquilifer is unnamed. Caesar identifies him only as "the one who was carrying the eagle of the 10th Legion." Why no name? What does anonymity do for the passage's rhetorical work?

2. In s. 12, the aquilifer says: "ego certē meum… officium praestiterō" — emphatic ego and praestiterō. What does the ego do that the implicit subject of a regular verb would not?

3. Caesar's victories, in his own telling, hinge on what? Compare the Atuatuci tower (Hour 6), the Rhine bridge (Hour 11), and the aquilifer's leap (this hour).

4. The aquilifer's gesture is a kind of shaming pact. Is it ethically defensible? Is it psychologically coercive? Both?

Intermission

Break before Hour 13 (Ambush at Atuatuca — Wheelock Ch. 13, Reflexive Pronouns and Possessives; the disaster that ended Caesar's perfect campaign record).

Sources

• Latin text: PerseusDL canonical-latinLit (Holmes, Oxford 1914), phi0448.phi001.perseus-lat2.xml.
• Course source document: 9 De Bello Gallico 4.24-25 Text and Vocabulary.docx (in /happy latin/ resource folder).
• English translation: McDevitte & Bohn (1869), adapted.
• Grammar: Wheelock 6th edn. revised (LaFleur 2005), Ch. 12.
• Course design: 0 Caesar's Latin Course Structure and Task 1-2 .docx (Hour 12 entry on the course schedule).
• Tactical / historical context: Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (2006), ch. 11; Peter Connolly, Greece and Rome at War (1981), ch. on Roman amphibious operations.