syntax problem Caesar Gallic Book VI

Latin Learning Latin
1

Bonjour,
This is my first post in the Latin forum. I am rereading Caesar and having occasional trouble but generally working my way out of it. I’m stuck on a sentence in chapter 23 of Book VI : Hoc proprium virtutis existimant, expulsos agris finitimos cedere neque quemquam prope se audere consistere.
I get it, but I can’t make the syntax work out to mean what I’m pretty sure it means.

They consider this the very essence of manly virtue to drive their neighbors off their lands and that no one should dare settle near them.
But I don’t see how “expulsos agris finitimos cedere” works syntactically. It looks like an indirect statement in apposition with “hoc”. Okay, but how do you put it together. Is cedere a transitive verb and finitimos the direct object. Does it take on an expanded sense of '"to make them withdraw, move out?
Would someone like to help? I would so love to be able to sleep again.
Many thanks,
Stephen

2

The key is that expulsos agris finitimos is the subject, not the object, of cedere . “They consider this the very essence of manly virtue: for their neighbors to go away driven out of their territory and for no one to dare settle near them.”

A little awkward in English – “it” for “this” would be better, though less literal.

I wouldn’t call expulsos agris finitimos cedere neque quemquam prope se audere consistere an indiirect statement – it’s simply an infinitive phrase in apposition to hoc.

Enjoy your sleep once more.