Key to Reading Unit 8

1. Caesar had extended the fortification from the left corner of the camp to the river. (Caesar, de Bello Civili, III, 66, 6)
   
   
2. For this reason the Haedui fled from their community and came to the senate at Rome (lit. to Rome to the Senate-house). (Caesar, de Bello Gallico, I, 31, 9 adapted)
   
   

3. A sudden war occurred in Gaul. The cause of this war was as follows: Publius Crassus was in winter quarters with a legion among the Andes (a Gallic tribe living in the region of modern Anjou) near the [Atlantic] Ocean. Because there was a shortage of grain in these places he dispatched prefects and tribunes of the soldiers to the surrounding communities for the purpose of [finding] grain; among them (i.e. those he dispatched) he sent Quintus Velanius with Titus Silius to the Veneti. The prestige of this community over (lit. of) the sea-coast of those regions is great because the Veneti both have many ships and surpass the rest in knowledge of ships. They had given hostages to Crassus and for this reason they held Silius and Velanius. (Caesar, de Bello Gallico, III, 7, 2ff. adapted)

4. At Alexandria Caesar learnt of the death of Pompey (cognoscit is a vivid present; cf. note on 17.2,10). (Caesar, de Bello Civili, III, 106, 4)
   
   
5. The kettle-drums and the Berecyntian boxwood of the Idaean mother are calling you (vocat is singular because it agrees with the nearer subject - a common idiom; the Idaean mother is Cybele (also called Cybebe), a mother-goddess whose worship was centred around Mt Ida in north-western Asia Minor; Berecyntus was a nearby mountain and its boxwood trees were used to make pipes, which are referred to here). (Vergil, Aeneid, IX, 619f.)
   
   
6. Your gifts remain fixed for you (i.e. no-one is going to take them from you). (Vergil, Aeneid, V, 348f.)
   
   
7. The shades (of the dead) send false dreams [up] to the sky. (Vergil, Aeneid, VI, 896)
   
   
8. When he said (lit. gave) these words and quickly (lit. quick; cf. 17.1/3) withdrew into the house (pl. for s.), he asked for horses (poscit is vivid present). (Vergil, Aeneid, XII, 81f.)
   
   
9. Altars stand for the shade, gloomy with blue bands and black cypress (Manes is only used in the plural but can refer to the shade or ghost of a single person; this is clear in this line from the broader context, and the shade referred to is that of Priam's son, Polydorus). (Vergil, Aeneid, III, 63f.)
   
   
10. Then regal Juno replied (lit. took up [the conversation] in this way). 'That work [you mention (iste)] will be my concern (lit. with me).' (Vergil, Aeneid, IV, 114f.)
    
    
11. At home I have a father, I have an unjust stepmother. (Vergil, Eclogues, III, 33)
    
    
12. The Ausonians (native Italians) will keep their ancestral speech and customs. (Vergil, Aeneid, XII, 834)
    
    For further elucidation of the above sentences from Vergil consult a translation to see how they fit into the context in which they occur.
    
    
13. A fox changes its hair, not its character (mos in the plural can mean customs, as in 12 above, or character, cf. 8.1/4).
    
    
14. You are telling me my dream (i.e. telling me what I already know).
    
    
15. [X happened] after this, therefore [X happened] because of this (not strictly a proverb but an expression of the fallacy that because one event occurred after another the former was caused by the latter).
    
    

(c) Gavin Betts 2000