Note 467 — Chapter X · (Year of Rome 702.) (Book VII. of the “Commentaries.”) REVOLT OF GAUL—CAPTURE OF VELLAUNODUNUM, GENABUM, AND NOVIODUNUM—SIEGES OF AVARICUM AND GERGOVIA—CAMPAIGN OF LABIENUS AGAINST THE PARISII—SIEGE OF ALESIA.
Reading edition
The Latin term has Altero die, quum ad oppidum Senonum Vellaunodunum venisset, &c. All authors, without exception, considering wrongly the expression of altero die as identical with those of postro die, proximo die, insequenti die, pridie ejus diei, have translated it by the following day. We consider that altero die, when used with regard to an event, signifies the second day which follows that of the said event.
Thus Cicero gives it this sense in his Philippica Prima, § 13, where he reminds us of the conduct of Antony after the death of Cæsar. Antony had begun by treating with the conspirators who had taken refuge in the Capitol, and, at a sitting of the Senate, which he called together ad hoc, on the day of the Liberalia, that is to say, the 16th of the Calends of April, an amnesty was pronounced in favour of the murderers of Cæsar. Cicero, speaking of this session of the Senate, says, Proximo, altero, tertio, denique reliquis consecutis diebus, &c. Is it not evident that here altero die signifies the second day which followed the session of the Senate, or two days after that session?
Here are other examples which show that the word alter must be taken in the sense of secundus. Virgil says (Eclogue VIII., line 39), Alter ab undecimo tum jam me ceperat annus, which must be translated, I was thirteen years old. Servius, who composed a commentary on Virgil at a time when the traditions were still preserved, makes the following comment on this verse: Id est tertius decimus. Alter enim de duobus dicimus ut unus ab undecimo sit duodecimus, alter tertius decimus, et vult significare jam se vicinum fuisse pubertati, quod de duodecimo anno procedere non potest. (Virgil, edit. Burmann, tom. I., p. 130.)
Forcellini peremptorily establishes that vicesimo altero signifies the twenty-second; legio altera vicesima means the twenty-second legion.
The “Commentaries” inform us (De Bello Civili, III. 9) that Octavius, when besieging Salona, had established five camps round the town, and that the besieged took those five camps one after the other. The text is thus expressed: Ipsi in proxima Octavii castra irruperunt. Mis expugnatis, eodem impetu, altera sunt adorti; inde tertia et quarta, et deinceps reliqua. (See also De Bello Civili, III. 83.)
In the “Commentaries” we find sixty-three times the expression postero die, thirty-six times proximo die, ten times insequenti die, eleven times postridie ejus diei, or pridie ejus diei. The expression altero die is used only twice in the eight books De Bello Gallico, viz., lib. VII. cc. 11 and 68, and three times in De Bello Civili, lib. III. cc. 19, 26, and 30. Is that coincidence alone not sufficient to make us suppose that altero die ought not to be confounded with the preceding expressions; and does it not appear certain that, if Cæsar had arrived at Vellaunodunum the morning after his departure from Agedincum, he would have written, Postero die (or proximo die) quum ad oppidum Senonum Vellaunodunum venisset, &c.?
We believe, therefore, that we are authorized in concluding that Cæsar arrived at Vellaunodunum the second day after the army moved.
Farther on, on page 339, will be found a new confirmation of the sense which we give to altero die. It results from the appreciation of the distance which separates Alesia from the battle-field where Cæsar defeated the cavalry of Vercingetorix. (See the opinions of the commentators on altero die in the sixth volume of Cicero, edit. Lemaire, Classiques Latins, Excursus ad Philippicam primam.)