Participating in a new wave of Caesar studies, this book examines the Bellum Civile as a piece of literature written by a recognized intellectual and not simply a successful politician and general. Focusing on the peculiarities of Caesar's art, this reading explores the work's style, rhetoric, ideology and architecture.

Traditional approaches have reduced Caesar's Bellum Civile to a tool for teaching Latin or to one-dimensional propaganda, thereby underestimating its artistic properties and ideological complexity. Reading strategies typical of scholarship on Latin poetry, like intertextuality, narratology, semantic, rhetorical and structural analysis, cast a new light on the Bellum Civile: Ciceronian language advances Caesar's claim to represent Rome; technical vocabulary reinforces the ethical division between 'us' and the 'barbarian' enemy; switches of focalization guide our perception of the narrative; invective and characterization exclude the Pompeians from the Roman community, according to the mechanisms of rhetoric; and the very structure of the work promotes Caesar's cause. As a piece of literature interacting with its cultural and socio-political world, the Bellum Civile participates in Caesar's multimedia campaign of self-fashioning. A comprehensive approach, such as has been productively applied to Augustus' program, locates the Bellum Civile at the interplay between literature, images and politics.

In his Commentarii de Bello Civili Julius Caesar sought to re-invent his image and appear before his present and future readers in a way which he could control and at times manipulate. Offering a new interpretation of the Bellum Civile this book reveals the intricate literary world that Caesar creates using sophisticated techniques such as a studied choice of vocabulary, rearrangement of events, use of indirect speech, and more. Each of the three books of the work is examined independently to set out the gradual transformation of Caesar's literary persona, in step with his ascent in the 'real' world. By analysing the work from Caesar's viewpoint the author argues that by adroit presentation and manipulation of historical circumstances Caesar creates in his narrative a different reality, one in which his conduct is justified. The question of the res publica is also a key point of the volume, as it is in the Bellum Civile, and the author argues that Caesar purposely does not present himself as a Republican, contrary to commonly held views. Employing detailed philological analyses of Caesar's three books on the Civil War, this work significantly advances our understanding of Caesar as author and politician.

A revised critical edition for the Oxford Classical Texts series of the Latin text of Caesar's Bellum civile, his account of his civil war against Pompey Features an expanded and up-to-date critical apparatus Includes an appendix critica, an appendix orthographica, and a conspectus editionum Suitable for classroom use as well as for research purposes

Studies on the Text of Caesar's Bellum civile is a companion volume to Damon's revised Oxford Classical Texts edition of Caesar's Bellum civile, his account of his civil war with Pompey. Comprising three parts, this volume investigates the detailed philological arguments that underpin the revised edition of the text. The first part supplements the preface of the Oxford Classical Texts edition, providing an expanded background on the history of the text and a more detailed argument for the shape of the stemma. The second part is a discussion of nature and the causes of the difficulties present in the text of the Bellum civile and their consequences for the revised edition. The third part presents a series of around 75 notes on different areas of the text, exploring in depth the contentions behind the various remedies suggested in the critical apparatus of the Oxford Classical Texts edition.

In his Commentarii de Bello Civili Julius Caesar sought to re-invent his image and appear before his present and future readers in a way which he could control and at times manipulate. Offering a new interpretation of the Bellum Civile this book reveals the intricate literary world that Caesar creates using sophisticated techniques such as a studied choice of vocabulary, rearrangement of events, use of indirect speech, and more. Each of the three books of the work is examined independently to set out the gradual transformation of Caesar's literary persona, in step with his ascent in the 'real' world. By analysing the work from Caesar's viewpoint the author argues that by adroit presentation and manipulation of historical circumstances Caesar creates in his narrative a different reality, one in which his conduct is justified. The question of the res publica is also a key point of the volume, as it is in the Bellum Civile, and the author argues that Caesar purposely does not present himself as a Republican, contrary to commonly held views. Employing detailed philological analyses of Caesar's three books on the Civil War, this work significantly advances our understanding of Caesar as author and politician.

Well-known as a brilliant general and politician, Caesar also played a fundamental role in the formation of the Latin literary language and history of Latin Literature. This volume provides both a clear introduction to Caesar as a man of letters and a fresh re-assessment of his literary achievements.