Julius Caesar's War Commentaries

Gallic Wars

Civil Wars

Later Campaigns - Not written by Caesar

Text Source:

  • Published work: "CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES"
  • Library collection: "Harper's Classical Library"
  • Authors: Caius Julius Caesar and Aulus Hirtius
  • Translators: W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn
  • Publisher: Harper & Brothers: New York, 1869

Authorship information:

Suetonius (Suet.Lives.Julius.56), in his biography of Julius Caesar states that the Gallic and Civil Wars were written by Caesar, and that the 8th book of the Gallic Wars was written by (Aulus) Hirtius. Suetonius also indicates that either Caesar's friend Oppius, or Hirtius likely wrote about the Alexandrian, African and Spanish wars, but that their authorship was not certain.

Subject of the books:

This is a detailed discription of the war campaigns of Julius Caesar, starting from the time that he was in charge of the Roman forces in France (Gaul). Caesar's writting style is that of a detailed factual report, prepared year by year, of the events. The parts not written by him attempt a similiar style, but are not as clean (See the notes of Hortius, at the start of the 8th book of the Gallic Wars). Caesar's writings present himself as a much more balanced and just leader than Suetonius or Plutarch indicate in their biographies of him. Also, the accounts of the army during the Spanish campaign show a more brutal side to his leadership.

Miscellaneous:

  • The original preface indicates that the publishers attempted to provide a literal translation of the text.
  • Latin versions of Caesar's works are available on the Internet
  • The text transcribing was done with an attempt to duplicate the original published print, except for a correction of a few printing errors. No attempt was made to update the spelling to that of more modern American English. Suspected spelling errors in names and places were retained, since there was no way to insure which was more correct.
  • The text indexing is from the printed book, and may or may not match that found in the Loeb's Classical Library. In addition, there are two known indexing errors, both of which exist in the printed copy and the transcriber was unable to resolve their accuracy:
    • Gallic Wars, Book 7: Skips chapter 89
    • Gallic Wars, Book 8: Skips chapter 46