Structure as Argument in Civil War 1

In this chapter we argue that in book 1 of the Civil WarCaesar uses the commentary form for a new purpose. Caesar’s seven Gallic Warcommentaries have a consistent year-by-year structure and appear to function as reports to senators and others in Rome about Caesar’s achievements in Gaul. They offered a picture of Caesar the general and Caesar the man who brings order and civilization to the chaotic and warring provinces, but these political and rhetorical purposes remained a function of particular scenes and of the overall picture of success toward which the Gallic Warpoints but at which it never arrives, since it is Hirtius, rather than Caesar, who completes the record in book 8. The Civil Waris different from the Gallic Warin important ways, perhaps none so significant as the fact that its events were not news to Caesar’s first readers: they had lived through and in many cases participated in those events. Thus, the primary justification of the Gallic commentaries was missing for the Civil War. What then was Caesar’s purpose? The structure and argument of Civil War1 can help us understand what Caesar may have been trying to accomplish.

Archaeology · Argument (complex analysis) · Art · Function (biology) · Literature · Political science · Politics · Rhetorical question · Spanish Civil War · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · Classics · History · Law · Philosophy