Caesar claims that a Gallic king was awoken from a "siesta." Is this just a poor translation? Did the Gauls take daily naps in that sense?

by themediocrebritain

From S.A. Handford's translation of the War in Gaul, VII.46:

"...the Romans soon reached the wall, climbed over, and captured three of the camps- so quickly that Teutomarus, king of the Nitiobroges, was surprised in his tent, where he was taking his siesta, and only just managed to escape, naked to the waist and riding a wounded horse, from the soldiers who entered in search of plunder."

XenophonTheAthenian

There's no problem here. The Latin says ut meridie conquieverat, "where he had rested for noon." It was, and still is, not unusual for people in the Mediterranean basin to take a midday siesta, from which habit it has been translated to the Americas. Handford's translation describes the text perfectly