The first book written in Latin that I ever bought voluntarily (thus, not a textbook) was Edwards’ old Loeb of the BG, my freshman year in college, at just the moment when I discovered that there were Latin authors (Caesar, Aquinas) that I could actually read and not merely disencrypt in the pedestrian classroom way. The magic of that moment, the discovery that reading Latin makes my head feel good, is with me to this day. The book I have still, a sacred relic. I began translating Caesar to tease and amuse myself at odd moments of distraction from administrative duties, found him rewarding and challenging, and so pressed on, convinced there would be a way to present the book as a work of literature and as the record of deeds deserving to be challenged.
Gibbon said of Augustine that his learning was too often borrowed, his arguments too often his own. I claim no unique learning or scholarly contribution here and have plundered the worthies of Caesarian scholarship unashamedly. Every third word should have a footnote, but this would be inappropriate in a translation meant for readers to enjoy, so I append here the books and articles I have read, with great admiration and gratitude.
* * * *
The scholarly literature on Caesar is naturally vast. I list here the works to which I am particularly indebted, often for modest points of detail, often for much more. I stand on their shoulders, I crouch in their shadows, and I admire and proclaim their learning, insight, and wisdom.
Beckwith C. I. Empires of the Silk Road. 2009.
Bertrand, A. C. “Stumbling through Gaul: Maps, Intelligence, and Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum,” Ancient History Bulletin 11(1997) 107–22.
Bradley, K. Slavery and Society at Rome. 1994.
Canfora, L. “Cesare continuato,” Belfagor 25(1970) 419–29.
———. Julius Caesar. 1999.
Coffee, N. “Caesar Chrematopoios,” Classical Journal 106(2011) 397–421.
Collins, J. “Caesar as Political Propagandist,” ANRW 1(1972) 922–66.
Connor, C. Roman Bridges. 1993.
Edwards, H. J. Caesar: The Gallic War. (Loeb edition) 1917.
Feeney, D. Caesar’s Calendar. 2007.
Gaertner, J. and Hausburg, B. Caesar and the Bellum Alexandrinum: an analysis of style, narrative technique, and the reception of Greek historiography. 2013.
Garcea, A. Caesar’s De analogia. Edition, Translation, and Commentary. 2012.
Gelzer, M. Caesar: Politician and Statesman. Trans. Peter Needham. 1968.
Goscinny, R., and A. Uderzo. Asterix le Gaulois. 1961. The “graphic novel” of Caesar’s war in Gaul, in many volumes. Less inaccurate than one might expect and useful as a running ironic commentary on Caesarean imperialism. See also K. Brodersen, ed., Asterix und seine Zeit: Die große Welt des kleinen Galliers. 2001.
Goudineau, C. “Le gutuater gaulois: idéologie et histoire,” Gallia 60(2003) 383–387; on the word, I follow him against Y. le Bohec, “Gutuater: nom propre ou nom commun?” Gallia 58(2001) 383–87.
Griffin, M., ed. A Companion to Julius Caesar. 2009.
Hammond, C. Caesar: The Gallic War. (Oxford World’s Classics) 1996.
Kaster, R. Cicero: Speech on behalf of Publius Sestius. 2006.
Kemezis, A. “Caesar’s Vesontio Speech and the rhetoric of mendacity in the late republic (Dio 38.36–46),” in Cassius Dio: Greek Intellectual and Roman Politician, Carsten Lange and Jesper Majbom Madsen, eds. 2016: 238–57.
Krebs, C. “Thucydides in Gaul: the siege of Plataea as Caesar’s model for his siege of Avaricum,” Histos 10(2016) 1–14.
Meusel, H. C. Iulii Caesaris Commentarii de bello Gallico / erklärt von Fr. Kraner und W. Dittenberger. 17th ed., 1913.
Millar, F. A Study of Cassius Dio. 1962.
Moscovich, M. J. “Obsidibus traditis: Hostages in Caesar’s De Bello Gallico,” Classical Journal 75.2(1979–80) 122–28.
Napoleon III. Histoire de Jules César. 1865–66.
Ortu, R., “Praeda Bellica: la guerra tra economia e diritto nell’antica Roma.” (http://eprints.uniss.it/1594/1/Ortu_R_Articolo_2005_Praeda.pdf).
Osgood, J. “The Pen and the Sword: Writing and Conquest in Caesar’s Gaul.” Classical Antiquity 28(2009) 328–58.
Pelling, C. “Caesar’s Battle-Descriptions and the Defeat of Ariovistus,” Latomus 40(1981) 740–766.
Raaflaub, K., and J. T. Ramsey. “Reconstructing the Chronology of Caesar’s Gallic Wars,” Histos 11(2017) 1–74.
Rambaud, M. L’Art de la déformation historique dans les Commentaires de César. 1953.
Rice Holmes, T. Caesar’s Conquest of Gaul. 2nd ed., 1911.
———. Ancient Britain and the Invasions of Julius Caesar. 1907.
———. Commentarii rerum in Gallia gestarum VII; A. Hirti Commentarius VIII. 1914.
Riggsby, A. Caesar in Gaul and Rome: War in Words. 2006.
Sahlins, M. Apologies to Thucydides. 2004. Provocative and useful for many reasons, not least for reminding us that the one who gets to name a war gets to create the war. Caesar created his “Gallic War” as Thucydides had created his Peloponnesian one. The struggle over names for the American war of 1861–65 illustrates the same principle.
Seager. R. Pompey. 2nd ed., 2002.
Shatzman, I. “Caesar: an economic biography and its political significance,” Scripta Hierosolymitana 23(1972) 28–51.
Stevens, C. E. “The ‘Bellum Gallicum’ as a work of propaganda,” Latomus 11(1952) 3–17, 165–79.
Syme, R. The Roman Revolution. 1939.
———. Sallust. 1964.
Ulrich, R. B. “Julius Caesar and the Creation of the Forum Iulium,” AJA 97(1993) 49–80. “The Forum Iulium . . . reflected the impudence and even recklessness of its patron.”
Weinstock, S. Divus Julius. 1971.
Welch, K. Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter: the war commentaries as political instruments. 1998.
Wiseman, T. P., and A. Wiseman Battle for Gaul: Julius Caesar: a new translation. 1980.
Wiseman, T. P. Julius Caesar. 2016.
———. The Roman Audience. 2015.
Woolf, G. Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul. 2000.
* * * *
Two good books appeared too recently for me to use: K. Raaflaub et al., The Landmark Julius Caesar (2017) and L. Grillo and C. B. Krebs, eds., The Cambridge Companion to the Writings of Julius Caesar (2018). The nonscholarly reader can enjoy entering Caesar’s (and Cicero’s) world through the novels of Robert Harris, Imperium, Lustrum, and Dictator, or through the Roma sub rosa detective novels of Steven Saylor (eleven novels in the main sequence, plus some prequels and short stories).