Transcript Caesar as author

Caesar
As
Author
Bust of Julius Caesar
Caesar as Author - Surviving Works
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Commentarii de Bello Gallico – 7 books (+ an 8th book
composed after his death by his legatus, Aulus Hirtius).
Many scholars believe all 7 books were written in the
winter of 52-51. Others prefer a year-by-year
composition during the winters.
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Commentarii de Bello Civili - 3 books
a verse epigram on Terence, the comic playwright
Caesar as Author – Lost Works
Lost Works:
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Many speeches, including the funeral elogium over his
aunt Julia in which he asserted the divine descent of the
gens Iulia from Ascanius-Aeneas-Venus
De Analogia, a treatise on language and style
many verses, incl. an extended poem, Laudes Herculis
a tragedy, Oedipus
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Iter, a poem about his expedition to Spain in 45
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Anticato, a two-book pamphlet against the memory of
Cato, who committed suicide at Utica. This was a
response to Cicero’s elogium entitled Laus Catonis
Caesar as Author – Spurious works
Spurious Works (= works attributed to Caesar but
written by others):
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The 8th book of Commentarii de Bello Gallico composed
by his legatus, Aulus Hirtius, to link up the narrative of
DBG to the narrative of DBC (years 51 and 50)
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Corpus Caesarianum – 3 Books, called the Bellum
Alexandrinum, the Bellum Africum, and the Bellum
Hispaniae.
Caesar as Author - Genre
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The term commentarius (cf. Greek hypomnema)  a
narrative, more polished than personal notes and
reports, but a narrative short of polished historiography
(historia).
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Commentarii would often be presented to other
professional historians to be reworked into a more
literary history (with more stylistic and rhetorical
embellishments. Caesar’s Commentarii were never
rewritten; tho Hirtius in the preface to the 8th book (&
Cicero, Brutus 262) suggested that no one would dare
rewrite what Caesar wrote with incomparable simplicity.
Caesar as Author - Genre
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Caesar’s Commentarii close to historia: Caesar uses
certain elements of historia, including direct
speech, and dramatization of certain scenes (but
his are never over dramatized)
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No ego here! ... By referring to himself in the
3rd person, Caesar placed himself in the narrative
as an independent character. (and detached
himself from any emotionality of the action)
Caesar as Author – DBG Summary…
7 Books cover action from 58-52
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Book I: deals with the campaign against (1) the
Helvetii, whose migratory movements gave
Caesar the pretext for going to war (as both a
defensive and preventive operation), and also
(2) against the German leader Ariovistus.
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Book II: discusses the revolt of the Gallic tribes
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Book III: discusses the campaign against the
peoples along the Atlantic coast
Caesar as Author – DBG Summary…
7 Books cover action from 58-52
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Book IV: deals with campaigns and operations
against invading Germanic tribes, who had
crossed the Rhine; the massacre of the Usipeti
and the Tencteri; and operations against the
rebellious Gallic leaders, Indutiomarus and
Ambiorix. Expedition into Britain. (55 BC)
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Book V: 2nd expedition into Britain (54 BC);
more resistance by the Belgae, whom Caesar
crushes and exterminates in Books 5 and 6
Caesar as Author – DBG Summary…
7 Books cover action from 58-52
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Book VI: Devastation and extermination of the
Gallic Belgica rebels. More insurrections led by
Vercingetorix, king of the Arverni.
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Book VII: Romans put down the general revolt
led by Vercingetorix, which culminates in the
storming of Alesia, where Vercingetorix is
captured
Sources of Caesar’s Life
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The authentic and spurious works of Caesar
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The Life of Caesar by Suetonius
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The Life of Caesar by Plutarch in his Parallel Lives
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Speeches and letters of Cicero and Sallust
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Appian’s Bella Civilia
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Cassius Dio, Books 36-44
Caesar’s Nachleben (afterlife)
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Livy supplanted Caesar as historical source of his
period
circa 1300, Maximus Planudes translated DBG into
Greek
Renaissance rediscovered Caesar as author/politician;
Petrarch wrote a biography of JC
15th c., Andrea Brenzio forged a speech of Caesar’s to
his soldiers
16th c., the German Nicodemus Frischlin based a
school drama, Helvetiogermani, on Book I of the DBG
Caesar Kaiser, Czar, Tsar, Jersey (Nova Caesarea)
Pretext of the DBG
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Alleged provocations and border violations
committed in the Gallic area under Caesar’s
jurisdiction by tribes engaged in mass migrations
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Caesar presented his conquest of Gaul, which
took 7 years, as a defensive and preventive
operation