Ad haec Caesar respondit: Se magis consuetudine sua quam merito eorum civitatem conservaturum, si priusquam murum aries attigisset se dedidissent; sed deditionis nullam esse condicionem nisi armis traditis. Se id quod in Nerviis fecisset facturum finitimisque imperaturum ne quam deiticiis populi Romani iniuriam inferrent. Re nuntiata ad suos, quae imperarentur facere dixerunt. Armorum magna multitudine de muro in fossam quae erat ante oppidum iacta, sic ut prope summam muri aggerisque altitudinem acervi armorum adaequarent, et tamen circiter parte tertia, ut postea perspectum est, celata atque in oppido retenta, portis patefactis eo die pace sunt usi.
To this Caesar replied that he would save their state alive rather because it was his custom than for any desert on their part, if they surrendered before the battering-ram touched the wall; but there could be no terms of surrender save upon delivery of arms. He would do, he said, what he had done in the case of the Nervii, and command the neighbours to do no outrage to the surrendered subjects of Rome. They reported this to their tribesmen, and agreed to perform his commands. A great quantity of arms was cast from the wall into the trench which was before the town, so that the heaps of weapons were well-nigh level with the top of the wall and the height of the ramp; and for all tis about a third part, as was afterwards seen, was concealed and kept back in the town. So they threw open their gates, and on that day enjoyed the benefit of peace.
Translation and notes by H.J. Edwards
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