Happy Latin: Caesar’s BattlesHour 18 · Punitive Expeditions against the Eburones · DBG 6.34–43

Hour 18 — Punitive Expeditions against the Eburones · DBG 6.34–43

Note on sources. The source course-design document specifies Hour 18 = Punitive Expeditions = Wheelock Ch. 18 = Passive Voice. Latin from PerseusDL canonical-latinLit (Holmes 1914), lightly smoothed; English from McDevitte & Bohn (1869), adapted; grammar from Wheelock 6th edn. revised (LaFleur 2005), Ch. 18.

Briefing

From Hour 17 to Hour 18 — the long reprisal

Hour 17 ended with Caesar marching to relieve Cicero. He arrives. The Nervii lift the siege. The campaigning year (54 BC) closes with Cicero alive, his legion broken in body but intact. But Atuatuca remains avenged. Sabinus and Cotta lie dead. The 14th Legion is gone. Caesar has lost a legion under his own command for the first time, and the man responsible — Ambiorix, king of the Eburones — is still alive. Hour 18 takes us to the campaigning year 53 BC, when Caesar will spend the entire summer engaged not in conquest but in a single goal: the destruction of the Eburones as a people. He will not catch Ambiorix. But he will, in his own phrase, "extinguish the entire race and name" of his enemy.

In DBG 6.34–43 Caesar describes this campaign with terrifying clarity. He invites the German peoples east of the Rhine to come west and plunder the Eburones too — and many accept. He sends his lieutenants Labienus, Trebonius, and Fabius in different directions to sweep the countryside. The Roman armies burn villages, slaughter cattle, cut grain, dam wells. Survivors who hide in the forests are killed by Germans coming from the other side. Some Eburones flee, some surrender, some die fighting; Ambiorix escapes again and again. Caesar's policy reaches a level of institutionalized cruelty rare even in his own narrative. He writes about it without apology — and, more disturbing, with the same prose voice he uses for any other military operation. The Eburones disappear from history. The Latin name Eburō never appears again in any Roman source after Caesar.

Our excerpt covers (i) Caesar's call for German auxiliaries (6.35) — Roman policy turning to genocide as logistics; (ii) the divided pursuit (6.34, 6.43); (iii) the killing of the Eburones' people, livestock, and crops; (iv) Caesar's failure to catch Ambiorix. The passage is rich in passive-voice forms — because what is being done is being done to the Eburones, by Romans and Germans alike. Caesar's grammar is the politics.

Hour 18: Punitive Expeditions — Source: DBG 6.34–43

Caesar, with Ambiorix's plans having been learned, decided to ravage the borders of the Eburones. Therefore, after three parts of the army had been sent in different directions, the Eburonian people was to be pursued. Caesar ordered the Germans to be invited and to come across the Rhine, so that they themselves might receive some reward and the borders of the Eburones be devastated. Labienus, Trebonius, and Fabius are sent with the legions; and to each of them, on the basis of why they are sent, the order is given: that villages be burned, grain destroyed, fountains blocked up. When this had been learned, the villages of the Eburones are set on fire, the fields are devastated, grain and herds are carried off by our men. When this had been heard, the Germans cross the Rhine and are mingled with our men; thus the Eburones are pressed by both sides. The remaining Eburones, terrified, lay hidden in the forests; nevertheless they were being found by our soldiers and killed. However, Ambiorix, who from the start had been put in command of these forces, was always escaping; when Roman cavalry came to him, he was driven back into the forests with a few companions. Caesar had great hope of capturing the king; but Ambiorix was not being captured. Some days are consumed in devastating the borders; finally the army is recalled by Caesar. The name of the Eburones — to which all Gaul had been accustomed — without a seat, without a people, without a king, is now barely remembered. The whole race and the stock of the name has been almost destroyed. With this matter accomplished, Caesar leads back the legions into winter quarters, and the war is closed for this year. Ambiorix alone of all is safe: never captured by Caesar himself, he hides in the Belgic forests — so that he may be remembered in history.

Connection to Wheelock

This hour pairs with Wheelock Chapter 18 — Present, Future, and Imperfect Passive Indicative of 1st and 2nd Conjugations; Ablative of Agent. Two halves:

• Passive endings: -r, -ris, -tur, -mur, -minī, -ntur replace the active endings, attached to the same present-stem forms.
• Ablative of Agent: when the agent is a person, Latin uses ab/ā + ablative. When it's a thing, use the bare ablative of Means.

Today's Task

Identify all the verbs (finite + infinitives) AND all passive forms and ablative-of-agent phrases — the chapter's grammar focus.

Grammar Target — Passive Voice & Ablative of Agent

Passive personal endings

Paradigm — amō, amāre (1st conj.) — active vs. passive

Present passive infinitives

• amāre → amārī "to be loved" (1st)
• monēre → monērī "to be advised" (2nd)
• regere → regī "to be ruled" (3rd)
• audīre → audīrī "to be heard" (4th)
• capere → capī "to be captured" (3rd-iō)

Ablative of Agent — ab/ā + person in abl.

• amātur ā Caesare "she is loved by Caesar**"
• occīditur ab hostibus "he is killed by the enemy**"

When the agent is a thing, use the bare ablative of Means: - occīditur gladiō "he is killed with a sword**"

Three warning signs

1. 2 sg. passive -ris ≈ -re (poetic alternative). Both mean "you are loved."
2. Don't confuse 2 sg. pres. pass. with present infinitive: amāre (2 sg. pres. pass. alt.) vs. amāre (pres. infin. act.).
3. Impersonal passive: pugnātur "there is fighting / it is being fought." Common in Caesar.

Vocabulary

(112 entries — see HTML for full badge-tagged table. New badge: PASSIVE marks present passive infinitives and passive markers.)

Selected entries:

Tagging rules in effect this Hour

• Rule #1 — Indicative (red). Carried.
• Rule #2 — Subjunctive. peteretur, vāstārentur, misceantur, venīrent, memorētur.
• Rule #3 — Connective yellow (carried). Quā (ss. 1, 4, 5, 11).
• Rule #4 — Infinitive (green). populārī, invītārī, cremārī, corrumpī, obstruī.
• Rule #5 — Participle. cognitīs, missae, cognitā, audītā, territī, cōnfectā.
• Rule #7 — Noun-adj phrase. Carried.
• Rule #8 — Abl. abs. Multiple in ss. 1, 5, 6, 11.
• Rule #9 — Noun-case ★. Carried.

New this hour: the Battle Task's second toggle isolates passive forms and ablative-of-agent phrases — the Wheelock-Ch.18 grammar focus.

Battle Task — Identify all verbs, and the passive forms / agent phrases

Hour 18 Passage on the Punitive Expeditions

(Passive / agent targets in bold, other verb targets in italics. Yellow-highlighted forms are connecting relatives carried from Hour 17.)

1. Caesar, [Ambiorigis cōnsiliīs cognitīs], statuit fīnēs Eburōnum populārī. ⚡Quā rē, [trēs partēs exercitūs in dīversās partēs missae], gēns Eburōnum peteretur.
2. Caesar Germānōs invītārī et trāns Rhēnum venīre iussit, ut et ipsī acciperent aliquod praemium et finēs Eburōnum vāstārentur.
3. Labiēnus, Trebōnius, Fabius mittuntur cum legiōnibus; quīque quā de causā mittuntur, ita imperātur: vīcōs cremārī, frūmentum corrumpī, fontēs obstruī.
4. ⚡Quā rē cognitā, vīcī Eburōnum incenduntur, agrī vāstantur, frūmenta et pecora ā nostrīs tolluntur.
5. ⚡Quā rē [audītā], Germānī Rhēnum trānseunt et cum nostrīs misceantur; ita Eburōnēs ab utrīsque premuntur.
6. Reliquī Eburōnum, [territī], in silvīs latēbant; tamen ā nostrīs militibus repperiēbantur et interficiēbantur.
7. Tamen Ambiorix, cui ab initiō hīs cōpiīs imperātum erat, semper effugiēbat; cum equitēs Rōmānī ad eum venīrent, paucīs comitibus in silvās repellēbātur.
8. Magnam spem Caesar habēbat capiendī rēgis; sed Ambiorix nōn capiēbātur.
9. Diēs aliquot in vāstandīs finibus cōnsūmuntur; tandem exercitus ā Caesare revocātur.
10. Eburōnum nōmen, ad quod adsuērat tota Gallia, sine sēde, sine populō, sine rēge, vix iam recordātur. Genus tōtum atque stirps nōminis paene dēlēta est.
11. ⚡Quā rē [cōnfectā], Caesar legiōnēs in hiberna redūcuntur et bellum hōc annō conficitur.
12. Ambiorix, sōlus ex omnibus, salvus est: numquam ā Caesare ipsō captus, in silvīs Belgicīs latet, ut in historia memorētur.

Answer Key — Passive / Agent Targets

Pres./Fut./Impf. Passive verbs (~23):

Ablative-of-agent phrases (4):

Questions on the Narrative

1. In s. 2 Caesar invites the Germans to come across the Rhine and devastate the Eburones. What does this tell you about Roman policy in the 50s BC?
2. Sentences 3–4 list three things to be destroyed (villages, grain, wells). Why these three? What's the strategic logic?
3. In s. 6 the Eburones are described as terrified and hiding; yet ā nostrīs militibus repperiēbantur et interficiēbantur. What rhetorical effect does the passive voice produce here?
4. Sentence 7 says Ambiorix "was always escaping" (semper effugiēbat). What's the force of semper + imperfect? Compare to a perfect-tense alternative.
5. Sentence 10 declares the Eburones "almost destroyed." Why "almost"? What does paene let Caesar avoid saying?
6. Sentence 12 closes with a purpose clause: "[Ambiorix hides] so that he may be remembered in history." Is this Caesar's modesty, his self-criticism, or his irony?

Further Questions — Translation

Translate sentences 3, 4, and 6 into idiomatic English. Then translate them again into active voice (e.g. "Caesar orders his legates: 'burn villages, destroy grain, block fountains'"). What is gained and what is lost?

Screening

Proposed clip: Documentary footage of systematic devastation of a region by an invading army (Spanish Civil War; Eastern Front 1941; etc.). Adrian Goldsworthy's lecture on this episode. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) for the fugitive-who-cannot-be-caught theme. Subject to instructor confirmation.

Discussion

1. Caesar reports the destruction of the Eburones in the same prose voice he uses for any other military operation. Why? What's at stake in the choice not to mark this campaign with any change of register?

2. Translate ss. 3–4 into active voice. What is gained and what is lost? Does the active rendering feel more brutal than Caesar's original?

3. Sentence 12 says Ambiorix is "safe... in order that he may be remembered in history." Is this Caesar's modesty, his self-criticism, or his irony?

4. Caesar invites Germans to do the killing (s. 2). What does outsourcing the destruction tell us about Caesar's view of "Roman" military identity?

Intermission

Break before Hour 19 (Second Crossing of the Rhine; Wheelock Ch. 19, Perfect Passive System and Interrogative Pronoun).

Sources

• Latin text: De Bello Gallico 6.34–43, from PerseusDL canonical-latinLit corpus (phi0448), with light morphological smoothing.
• English translation: McDevitte & Bohn (1869), adapted.
• Grammar: Wheelock 6th edn. revised (LaFleur 2005), Ch. 18.
• Course design: 0 Caesar's Latin Course Structure and Task 1-2 .docx.
• Historical context: Adrian Goldsworthy, Caesar: Life of a Colossus (2006), ch. 13 (Caesar's reprisal against the Eburones); Christian Goudineau, César et la Gaule (1990), ch. 8.
• Roman moral discourse on the campaign: Plutarch, Caesar 22 (Cato's senatorial denunciation, repeated for the Eburones campaign); Pliny the Elder NH 7.91 (admiration of Caesar's military feats with no note of the Eburones).
• Passive voice as a political device: A. J. Woodman, Rhetoric in Classical Historiography (1988), chapters on Caesar; Christina Shuttleworth Kraus, "Caesar's Plain Style," Latin Historians (Greene & Kraus, eds., 1997).
• Ambiorix in modern memory: the statue in Tongeren, Belgium (erected 1866); contemporary discussions in Brigitte Cuyx, Ambiorix: le héros gaulois (2015).