Civil War provides a vigorous, direct, clear, third-personal, impassioned account of Caesar’s campaigns during the civil war of 49–48 BC, drawn from his three books of commentarii.

The Civil War is Caesar's masterly account of the celebrated conflict between himself and his great rival Pompey, from the crossing of the Rubicon in January 49 B.C. to Pompey's death and the start of the Alexandrian War in the autumn of the following year. This new translation is the most fully annotated edition available, and also includes accounts of the Alexandrian War, the African War, and the Spanish War by other hands.

Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each other and plunged Rome into civil war. Legion was pitched against legion in a vicious battle for political domination of the vast Roman world. Based on original sources, Adrian Goldsworthy provides a gripping account of this desperate power struggle. The armies were evenly matched but in the end Caesar's genius as a commander and his great good luck brought him victory in 45 BC.

Military historians will discover details about every facet of Roman warfare from weaponry to personnel policy, tactics, operations, and logistics."--BOOK JACKET.

In Caesar's Civil War: Historical Reality and Fabrication Westall offers an innovative approach to Caesar’s Bellum Civile that combines literary analysis of the Latin text with a concern for the socio-economic history of the Roman empire.

Publisher description

Julian Romane examines the campaigns of Julius Caesar throughout the civil wars that followed his famous crossing of the Rubicon, through to the defeat of the final Pompeian diehards at the battle of Munda. He analyzes Caesar's generalship in the widest sense, with a strong emphasis on the logistical and financial effort required to put his legions in the field and keep them equipped, fed and paid. The attention given to this important but often-neglected aspect sets this account apart from many others. The author discusses the nature of late Republican Roman armies, describing their organization, tactics and equipment. The fact that such armies were employed both by and against Caesar only emphasizes the role of generalship in the outcome. This is followed by a detailed account of the strategic maneuvers in Caesar's epochal duel with Pompey the Great and the resultant battles at Dyrrhachium and Pharsalus. The final campaigns to mop up opposition in Spain and Africa are studied in equal detail to give a complete picture of Caesar's command performance in these history-shaping events.