Caesar and Lucretius

Extract

SirFrankAdcock, in his book, Caesar as Man of Letters, observes (p. 72) that Caesar's description of his defeat at Dyrrhachium, in B.C. iii. 69, shows a change of style. ‘Here, as Caesar lives again through this crisis in his fortunes, the plain style is for a moment infused with the vividness of his recollection’; and we note especially the words omniaque erant tumultus timoris fugae plena, which recall plena erant omnia timoris et luctus, found in the description of Curio's disaster in B.C. ii. 41. But long before that, in E.G. v. 33, Caesar had written: ‘Praeterea accidit, quod fieri necesse erat, ut uulgo milites ab signis discederent, quae quisque eorum carissima haberet ab impedimentis petere atque arripere properaret, clamore et fletu omnia complerentur.’ This is in the vivid and moving account of the disaster which befel Sabinus and Cotta in 54 b.c.; and indeed Sir Frank Adcock does note that here ‘there is a more dramatic treatment of the situation’.