Ea res est Helvetiis per indicium enuntiata. Moribus suis Orgetorigem ex vinclis causam dicere coegerunt. Damnatum poenam sequi oportebat ut igni cremaretur. Die constituta causae dictionis Orgetorix ad iudicium omnem suam familiam, ad hominum milia decem, undique coegit et omnes clientes obaeratosque suos, quorum magnum numerum habebat, eodem conduxit: per eos, ne causam diceret, se eripuit. Cum civitas ob eam rem incitata armis ius suum exsequi conaretur, multitudinemque hominum ex agris magistratus cogerent, Orgetorix mortuus est; neque abest suspicio, ut Helvetii arbitrantur, quin ipse sibi mortem consciverit.
The design was revealed to the Helvetii by informers. In accordance with their custom they compelled Orgetorix to take his trial in bonds. If he were condemned, the penalty of being burnt alive was the consequence. On the day appointed for his trial Orgetorix gathered from every quarter to the place of judgement all his retainers, to the number of some ten thousand men, and also assembled there all his clients and debtors, of whom he had a great number, and through their means escaped from taking his trial. The state, being incensed by this, essayed to secure its due rights by force of arms, and the magistrates were bringing together a number of men from the country parts, when Orgetorix died, not without suspicion, as the Helvetii think, of suicide.
Translation and notes by H.J. Edwards
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