… multo facilius atque expeditius, propterea quod inter fines Helvetiorum et Allobrogum …

“… much easier and freer from obstacles, because the Rhone flows between the boundaries of the Helvetii and those of the Allobroges …”

Gallic Wars, pp. 14 – 15

My translation of the Latin above was initially this way:

“Many things [were] easy and indeed unencumbered, on account of the fact that [it went] between the borders of the Helvetii and Allobrog …”

I thought that the unexplained inter (between) referred to the road, but apparently it’s the Rhone, which shows up later in the sentence. Other than that, I had it pretty close.

When I first looked at the phrase propterea quod, I thought it meant “therefore because.” Propterea can mean therefore, and quod can mean because. On a closer look, a better translation was “on account of (propterea) the fact that (quod).” On account of the fact that. Translator Ruedele just took a shortcut and rendered it “because.”