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  • 13 - Caesar

  • from PART III - LATE REPUBLIC
  • Edited by E. J. Kenney, W. V. Clausen
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of Classical Literature
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    18 March 1982, pp 281-285

  • Summary

    Julius Caesar's surviving output comprises seven books on the Gallic Wars and three on the Civil Wars. This chapter presents the literary background to the Commentaries on the Gallic Wars and on the Civil Wars. The publication of the Commentaries was timed to assert his claim on the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen and to display his dignitas, the Roman quality of achievement which merits recognition by high office. The Gallic Wars was a statement of Caesar's achievements. Caesar's motive is principally simplicity, but the comparison with Livy shows that he is also influenced by concern for purity or propriety of diction. Language had always been a study of interest to him. The style and presentation follow the pattern of the Gallic Wars. The Bellum Hispaniense is one of the very few works written in a predominantly un-literary Latin, and is a very valuable source for the knowledge of the language.