A Complete Good Works Translation from De Bello Gallico 7.57-62
Caesar's account of Labienus at Lutetia gives a compact witness to the Parisii, the old commander Camulogenus, the island town on the Seine, the pressure of the Bellovaci, Roman river deception, and the battle that followed. It belongs to the same revolt narrative as Gergovia and Alesia, but it opens a less familiar Gallic front beyond the famous central scenes.
Translation
Section 57
While these things were being done with Caesar, Labienus left at Agedincum the reinforcement that had lately come from Italy, so that it might guard the baggage, and set out with four legions for Lutetia. This is a town of the Parisii, placed on an island in the river Seine. When his arrival was known by the enemy, great forces gathered from the neighboring states. The highest command was handed over to Camulogenus the Aulercan, who, though nearly worn out by age, was called to that honor because of his singular knowledge of war. When he noticed that there was a continuous marsh flowing into the Seine and greatly obstructing that whole place, he settled there and began to keep our men from crossing.
Section 58
At first Labienus tried to drive forward vineae, fill the marsh with hurdles and a mound, and make a road. After he saw that this was being accomplished with too much difficulty, he left camp silently in the third watch and reached Metiosedum by the same route by which he had come. This is a town of the Senones placed on an island in the Seine, as we said a little before about Lutetia. About fifty ships were seized, quickly joined, and loaded with soldiers; the townspeople, terrified by the newness of the matter, and with a great part of them called out to war, were overcome without a contest. After repairing the bridge that the enemy had cut in the preceding days, Labienus led the army across and began to march downstream toward Lutetia. The enemy, learning the matter from those who had fled from Metiosedum, ordered Lutetia to be burned and the bridges of that town to be cut. They themselves left the marsh and settled on the banks of the Seine opposite Lutetia, facing Labienus' camp.
Section 59
It was now being heard that Caesar had left Gergovia; rumors were now being brought about the defection of the Aedui and a second rising of Gaul; and in conversations the Gauls asserted that Caesar had been cut off from the route and the Loire, and, forced by lack of grain, was hurrying into the Province. The Bellovaci, after learning of the Aeduan defection, though already untrustworthy on their own account, began to gather bands and openly prepare war. Then Labienus understood, in so great a change of affairs, that a very different plan had to be taken from what he had previously intended. He was no longer thinking how to gain something and challenge the enemy in battle, but how to bring the army safely back to Agedincum. For on one side the Bellovaci, a state that has the greatest reputation for courage in Gaul, were pressing; on the other Camulogenus held the way with a prepared and arranged army; and the legions, cut off from their guard and baggage, were separated by a very great river. Faced suddenly with such great difficulties, he saw that help had to be sought from courage of spirit.
Section 60
Toward evening, after calling a council, Labienus encouraged them to manage carefully and energetically the things he had commanded. He assigned one by one to Roman knights the ships he had brought down from Metiosedum, and ordered them, after the first watch was completed, to go silently four miles downstream and wait for him there. He left five cohorts in camp as guard, those he judged least firm for fighting. He ordered the remaining five cohorts of the same legion to set out from midnight with all the baggage upstream with great noise. He also gathered small boats and sent them, driven by a loud sound of oars, in the same direction. He himself, a little afterward, went out silently with three legions and made for the place where he had ordered the ships to be brought.
Section 61
When that place was reached, the enemy scouts, who had been posted along every part of the river, were caught unprepared by our men because a great storm had suddenly arisen. The army and cavalry were quickly carried across under the management of the Roman knights whom he had put in charge of that matter. At almost the same time, near dawn, the enemy were told that there was unusual disturbance in the Roman camp, that a great column was going upstream, that the sound of oars was being heard in the same direction, and that a little below, soldiers were being carried across in ships. Hearing these things, because they thought the legions were crossing in three places and that all were disturbed by the Aeduan defection and preparing flight, they also divided their own forces into three parts. Leaving a guard opposite the camp and sending a small force toward Metiosedum, which was to advance only as far as the ships had gone, they led the remaining forces against Labienus.
Section 62
At first light all our men had been carried across, and the enemy battle line was visible. Labienus encouraged the soldiers to keep the memory of their old courage and most successful battles, and to think that Caesar himself, under whose leadership they had so often overcome the enemy, was present. Then he gave the signal for battle. In the first clash, on the right wing, where the seventh legion had taken its place, the enemy were driven and thrown into flight. On the left, which the twelfth legion held, although the first ranks of the enemy fell pierced by missiles, the rest nevertheless resisted most fiercely, and no one gave any suspicion of flight. Camulogenus himself, the enemy commander, was present with his people and encouraged them. While the outcome of victory was still uncertain, when the tribunes of the seventh legion were told what was happening on the left wing, they showed their legion behind the enemy's back and advanced the standards. Not even then did anyone leave his place; all were surrounded and killed. Camulogenus bore the same fortune. Those who had been left as guard opposite Labienus' camp, when they heard that battle had been joined, went to help their own people and seized a hill, but they could not withstand the attack of our victorious soldiers. Mixed with their own fleeing men, all whom woods and mountains did not cover were killed by the cavalry. After this affair was completed, Labienus returned to Agedincum, where the baggage of the whole army had been left; from there he reached Caesar with all his forces.
Colophon
This page translates Caesar, De Bello Gallico 7.57-62 from Latin for the Celtic continental expansion of the Good Work Library. Caesar's report is Roman command prose and hostile war narrative; the translation keeps that frame visible while preserving the full Lutetia source-unit.
Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026.
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Source Text: Caesar, De Bello Gallico 7.57-62
Latin source text from The Latin Library's text of Caesar, De Bello Gallico, Book 7. This page gives the complete Labienus-at-Lutetia source-unit, from the Parisii island town and Camulogenus' command through the Seine maneuver and battle.
Section 57
Dum haec apud Caesarem geruntur, Labienus eo supplemento, quod nuper ex Italia venerat, relicto Agedinci, ut esset impedimentis praesidio, cum quattuor legionibus Lutetiam proficiscitur. Id est oppidum Parisiorum, quod positum est in insula fluminis Sequanae. Cuius adventu ab hostibus cognito magnae ex finitimis civitatibus copiae convenerunt. Summa imperi traditur Camulogeno Aulerco, qui prope confectus aetate tamen propter singularem scientiam rei militaris ad eum est honorem evocatus. Is cum animadvertisset perpetuam esse paludem, quae influeret in Sequanam atque illum omnem locum magnopere impediret, hic consedit nostrosque transitu prohibere instituit.
Section 58
Labienus primo vineas agere, cratibus atque aggere paludem explere atque iter munire conabatur. Postquam id difficilius confieri animadvertit, silentio e castris tertia vigilia egressus eodem quo venerat itinere Metiosedum pervenit. Id est oppidum Senonum in insula Sequanae positum, ut paulo ante de Lutetia diximus. Deprensis navibus circiter quinquaginta celeriterque coniunctis atque eo militibus iniectis et rei novitate perterritis oppidanis, quorum magna pars erat ad bellum evocata, sine contentione oppido potitur. Refecto ponte, quem superioribus diebus hostes resciderant, exercitum traducit et secundo flumine ad Lutetiam iter facere coepit. Hostes re cognita ab eis, qui Metiosedo fugerant, Lutetiam incendi pontesque eius oppidi rescindi iubent; ipsi profecti a palude ad ripas Sequanae e regione Lutetiae contra Labieni castra considunt.
Section 59
Iam Caesar a Gergovia discessisse audiebatur, iam de Aeduorum defectione et secundo Galliae motu rumores adferebantur, Gallique in colloquiis interclusum itinere et Ligeri Caesarem inopia frumenti coactum in provinciam contendisse confirmabant. Bellovaci autem defectione Aeduorum cognita, qui ante erant per se infideles, manus cogere atque aperte bellum parare coeperunt. Tum Labienus tanta rerum commutatione longe aliud sibi capiendum consilium atque antea senserat intellegebat, neque iam, ut aliquid adquireret proelioque hostes lacesseret, sed ut incolumem exercitum Agedincum reduceret, cogitabat. Namque altera ex parte Bellovaci, quae civitas in Gallia maximam habet opinionem virtutis, instabant, alteram Camulogenus parato atque instructo exercitu tenebat; tum legiones a praesidio atque impedimentis interclusas maximum flumen distinebat. Tantis subito difficultatibus obiectis ab animi virtute auxilium petendum videbat.
Section 60
Sub vesperum consilio convocato cohortatus ut ea quae imperasset diligenter industrieque administrarent, naves, quas Metiosedo deduxerat, singulas equitibus Romanis attribuit, et prima confecta vigilia quattuor milia passuum secundo flumine silentio progredi ibique se exspectari iubet. Quinque cohortes, quas minime firmas ad dimicandum esse existimabat, castris praesidio relinquit; quinque eiusdem legionis reliquas de media nocte cum omnibus impedimentis adverso flumine magno tumultu proficisci imperat. Conquirit etiam lintres: has magno sonitu remorum incitatus in eandem partem mittit. Ipse post paulo silentio egressus cum tribus legionibus eum locum petit quo naves appelli iusserat.
Section 61
Eo cum esset ventum, exploratores hostium, ut omni fluminis parte erant dispositi, inopinantes, quod magna subito erat coorta tempestas, ab nostris opprimuntur; exercitus equitatusque equitibus Romanis administrantibus, quos ei negotio praefecerat, celeriter transmittitur. Uno fere tempore sub lucem hostibus nuntiatur in castris Romanorum praeter consuetudinem tumultuari et magnum ire agmen adverso flumine sonitumque remorum in eadem parte exaudiri et paulo infra milites navibus transportari. Quibus rebus auditis, quod existimabant tribus locis transire legiones atque omnes perturbatos defectione Aeduorum fugam parare, suas quoque copias in tres partes distribuerunt. Nam praesidio e regione castrorum relicto et parva manu Metiosedum versus missa, quae tantum progrediatur, quantum naves processissent, reliquas copias contra Labienum duxerunt.
Section 62
Prima luce et nostri omnes erant transportati, et hostium acies cernebatur. Labienus milites cohortatus ut suae pristinae virtutis et secundissimorum proeliorum retinerent memoriam atque ipsum Caesarem, cuius ductu saepe numero hostes superassent, praesentem adesse existimarent, dat signum proeli. Primo concursu ab dextro cornu, ubi septima legio constiterat, hostes pelluntur atque in fugam coniciuntur; ab sinistro, quem locum duodecima legio tenebat, cum primi ordines hostium transfixi telis concidissent, tamen acerrime reliqui resistebant, nec dabat suspicionem fugae quisquam. Ipse dux hostium Camulogenus suis aderat atque eos cohortabatur. Incerto nunc etiam exitu victoriae, cum septimae legionis tribunis esset nuntiatum quae in sinistro cornu gererentur, post tergum hostium legionem ostenderunt signaque intulerunt. Ne eo quidem tempore quisquam loco cessit, sed circumventi omnes interfectique sunt. Eandem fortunam tulit Camulogenus. At ei qui praesidio contra castra Labieni erant relicti, cum proelium commissum audissent, subsidio suis ierunt collemque ceperunt, neque nostrorum militum victorum impetum sustinere potuerunt. Sic cum suis fugientibus permixti, quos non silvae montesque texerunt, ab equitatu sunt interfecti. Hoc negotio confecto Labienus revertitur Agedincum, ubi impedimenta totius exercitus relicta erant: inde cum omnibus copiis ad Caesarem pervenit.
Source Colophon
The Latin source was captured from The Latin Library on 2026-05-13 and inspected on disk at Tulku/Tools/celtic/sources/continental_batch_2026-05-13/caesar_gallic_war_7_latin_library.html. The English translation is a New Tianmu Anglican Church Good Works Translation made from the Latin source.
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