Atque tam celeriter milites concurrerunt et tam propinqui erant hostes ut spatium pila coniciendi non daretur.
And it’s not just the gerund that seems awkward, but that whole subjunctive clause does as well. Here’s what I believe to be the literal translation of it:
And the soldiers ran so quickly and the enemy was so near that space was not given for throwing their javelins.
I’m aware that the gerund is in the genitive, but it seems to make even less sense to say space of throwing their javelins. And coming back to my issue with the subjunctive clause, it doesn’t seem natural to say space was not given; at least not in English. So is that a Latin idiom? And would it be alright to translate it as the following:
…that there was no space to throw their javelins.
Because it doesn’t really sound correct to say:
…that there was no space for throwing their javelins.
Or does it? On second thought it kind of does sound correct to me now. So what would be the better way to translate it?
I think here coniciendi is being used as an objective genitive. Also, although spatium can mean space, here I think the idea is a space of time or interval. The main idea here is that the action was happening so quickly and the distance was so little between the combatants that there was no time to throw their javelins (or no time for throwing javelins).
Also, if you check Lewis & Short, you’ll see that spatium dare or dari is commonly used to mean “a portion of time in which to do anything”
Ita nostri acriter in hostes signo dato impetum fecerunt itaque hostes repente celeriterque procurrerunt, ut spatium pila in hostes coiciendi non daretur. (DBG 1.52)
You’re right. It is clearer. The subjunctive clause of the adapted version makes it seem as if neither the enemy nor the Romans had time to throw their spears.
Atque tam celeriter milites concurrerunt et tam propinqui erant hostes ut spatium pila coniciendi non daretur.
I was assuming it was just the Romans, but I translated as if neither side had time for throwing javelins.