throughout Gaul, moving every legion towards Rome. Their foe’s departure, delights the Santoni and Bituriges, the Suessones, nimble despite. As for the battle narrative itself, it concerns an early revolt of several tribes, quelled by Caesar and Labienus. The cavalry first met the flow, taking position slantwise across the current, lessening. Although most contemporaries and subsequent historians considered the account truthful, 20th century historians have questioned the outlandish claims made in the work. C. Julius Caesar. The Aquitanians extend from the Garonne river to the Pyrean mountains and that part of the Ocean which is near Spain; it looks between the setting of the sun and the north. Halting in the forum they had seized, the soldiers, were ordered to lay down their arms while a blare, of trumpets, shrill clarion calls and booming horns. Od. It was not Fortune fuelling the envy of foreign. and buried them in the earth to a gloomy muttering. We use cookies for social media and essential site functions. to Pompey's death and the start of the Alexandrian War in the autumn of the following year. O, evilly joined together, blinded by excessive greed, to what end. happenings, the swift and painful collapse of excessive weight, a Rome unable to bear her own greatness. a powerful people turned their own right hands against themselves; When Caesar's letter was delivered to the consuls, they were with great difficulty, and a hard struggle of the tribunes, prevailed on to suffer it to be read in the senate; but the tribunes could not prevail, that any question should be put to the senate on the subject of the letter.The consuls put the question on the regulation of the state. as the vast shape of a Fury stalked round the city, tossing her hissing snaky locks, and brandishing. of space, forming the hairy tail of that baleful star. in defeat, if the fierce tribes of Gaul were raging at my back, how would my enemies be acting then? disdained its former fare; men wore clothes scarcely decent on women; austerity, the mother of virtue, fled; and whatever ruined other nations, was brought to Rome. Finding Caesar turning over alternative paths in his mind. On reaching the banks of the Rubicon’s narrow flow. let my leaderless soldiers at least be paid for their long service; let them march in triumph, whoever their new general may be. Nor will heaven fail us. Trumpets blared, and as armies cry out as they clash. Imagine the chains, imagine the cross reserved for Caesar, my head set on the Rostrum, limbs unburied. to the toga and forgetting in peace how to play a general’s part; courting adulation, lavish with his gifts to the people of Rome, swayed by popularity, overjoyed by the clamour that greeted him. The First Spanish campaign – Ilerda 8. Then let the human race lay down its arms, consider, its own good, and let all nations love one another; let Peace fly. The tumult, of war that shakes Rome, could be no greater if Hannibal, himself had traversed their peaks. ("Agamemnon", "Hom. its canvas, he leaping with his crew into the waves, each man choosing shipwreck before the timbers, of the hull are shattered. The faithful, inspired by fierce. First he decreed that those monstrous, infants be destroyed, whom Nature at odds with herself, engendered from no true seed, ordering the vile. Caesar reacts 3. The contest was, unequal, Pompey being somewhat past his prime, long used. Their rays are quiet now, but Mars, what dire, purpose have you in rousing the threatening. 3:1 Julius Caesar, holding the election as dictator, was himself appointed consul with Publius Servilius; for this was the year in which it was permitted by the laws that he should be chosen consul. are untenanted, and scarcely a soul strays through the ancient sites; if Italy’s unploughed soil is overgrown with thorns, year by year, and the fields cry out in vain for men to till them, such vast ruin, is not due to proud Pyrrhus, or Hannibal; no foreign sword could. They deem him now. For a short while a discordant harmony was maintained, there was. Cynthia Damon has produced a fresh English edition of Caesar’s Civil War that was decades (or centuries!) Appalled by the dark outcome, Arruns grew pale, and snatched up the entrails to read the cause. CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. Charybdis the black churned bloody waves from. The crowd’s flight was irrevocable. With peace will come dictatorship. citizens once more. "Alea iacta est" ("the die is cast") -Julius Caesar upon crossing the Rubicon, (according to Suetonius) Caesar continues his narrative from the Bello Gallico into another several books of commentaries on his civil war with Pompey the Great and the Roman Senate. than mere name and military fame: his energies were un-resting, his only shame in battle not to win; alert and unrestrained, every, summons of anger or ambition his strength answered, he never, shrank from an opportunistic use of the sword; intent on pursuing, each success, grasping the gods’ favour, pushing aside every. We use cookies for essential site functions and for social media integration. for the blood with which you drenched the northern fields, for winter, wounds and death beneath the Alps? Perceiving the prediction, of profound disaster, he cried aloud: ‘I scarcely. his rebellion, and found a pretext for his use of arms. This work is licensed under a giants, even such wickedness and crime is not too high a price to pay. Now Sulla’s ghost was seen to rise from the midst, of the Campus Martius, prophesying doom, while, Marius, burst from his sepulchre, lifting his head. May the gods. I swear by your standards of ten, victorious campaigns, and by your triumphs, whatever, the foe, if you command me to bury my blade in my, brother’s breast, in my father’s throat, in my wife’s. Pharsalia (aka "The Civil War") BOOK I The Crossing of the Rubicon Online Medieval and Classical Library Release #16b. 58–50 B.C.E. nearby, crouches at first, uncertain, rousing himself to rage. We feared the worst, but what, follows will be worse than our fears. Current location in this text. to rumour, and dreads the nameless evils he invents. I sing of a worse than civil war, of war fought between kinsmen, over Pharsalia’s plains, of wickedness deemed justice; of how. Roused from sleep, leaping from their beds, men snatched at the weapons. Resistance at Massilia 7. Bibliographical Note. boldly made their lairs at night in the heart of Rome. If you’d have me despoil the gods, fire their temples, the furnace that coins an army’s pay shall melt their. The liquid that flowed from the gaping wound. My mind is moved to set down the cause of these great events. your son-in-law, resolves to topple you from power. Seek the evidence in no other nation: no long searching for fatal. the Cimbrian invasion, the wild onrush of the Teutones: whenever Fate turns on Rome, its attackers take the road, that passes through here.’ Such was each man’s silent, moan, not daring to utter his fears aloud; none voiced, his grief; so the fields are silent when winter strikes. while it was yet your duty to strip proud Parthia of Italian spoils. Should I not complain when he grasped the whole world’s, harvest and commanded the hungry to obey him? The fair-haired Ruthenians. If in Roman cities now the roofs and walls are half-demolished, and the vast stones of shattered houses litter the earth; if dwellings. of the tribe of Iulus, and you, sacred relics of Quirinus; O Jove of Latium, on Alba’s heights, and you, fires, of Vesta, and you, O Rome, equal in sanctity, favour. Then, at his orders, the fearful citizens circled the city, while the pontiffs empowered to perform the task, cleansed the walls with solemn lustration, marching. thrust so deep: those blows from the hands of kinfolk strike home. The liver, he saw, was flabby and rotten, with ominous streaks, on its exposed part. but we grant the first spoils and bivouac to these madmen. Lightning flared endlessly from a deceptively clear sky, and the flames flickering in the heavens took sundry. The moon, at the full, her horns joined. Let Pharsalia’s dire plains be heaped with dead; let Hannibal’s shade, revel in the carnage; let final battle be joined at fatal Munda. For the Senators, exceeding their powers, had threatened, the fractious tribunes and expelled them from the anxious, city, recalling the like fate of the Gracchi; and so the exiles. Vast the task before me, to show what impelled a frenzied people, to arms, and drove peace from the earth. his fury, and added to his fervour, as a racehorse at Olympia, already straining against the barrier, trying to loose the bolts. So the slender Isthmus divides the waves, and separates two seas, forbidding their waters to merge; and yet. hung beside the household gods, arms of a long peace: disintegrating shields bared to their frames, javelins. beside chill Anio’s stream, scattered the folk in flight. William Duncan. Shall the unfaithful soil refuse its produce. taught wickedness by Sulla and in line to outdo his teacher. it is cowardice to be over-protective of a life that will be renewed. options are on the right side and top of the page. Better if Fate had set us down under an Eastern sky, or in the frozen north guarding the tents of nomads, and not the gateway to Italy. What madness, my countrymen, how wild. Let Rome, drag out an unbroken succession of sufferings, and prolong her agony for years, free only. Edwards and Bushnell. So with war they fled, the abandoned city. But on seeing the glitter of Roman eagles, and Caesar. complaint echoing in their minds: ‘Alas for our town. An illustration of an open book. whither do you bear those standards, my warriors? of Rhine: order me, I must follow with strength and will. are doomed to end on the same day. First the Cilician pirates, then the endless war with Mithridates. and spears in battle, in war without a foe? Pompey leaves Italy 5. Civil Wars. Full search The reddish waters of the Rubicon glide through, the valleys and serve as the boundary between, the land of Gaul and the farms of Italy. the sea, the sky, with their menacing portents. Behind them walked the lesser priests, girded in Gabine, fashion; the Vestal Virgins led by the priestess, her, brow bound with sacred ribbons, she alone allowed, to set eyes on Trojan Minerva; and next the Fifteen. the empire was left exposed to the advance of foreign nations. With that blood, alas, spilled by Roman hands, what lands and seas might not have been, won, where night hides the stars and the sun rises, where fiery air, parches the south, where the winter’s cold that no spring can thaw, freezes the Black Sea in its icy grip! You may accept or manage cookie usage at any time. Such were the leaders’ motives; but there were those hidden causes, of the war, amongst the people, that will ever destroy powerful, nations. Civil War, Book 1 book. Everyone else knows deep peace, profound tranquility. If you lean on any one region of immense space, the axis will feel. Book 2--- 49 B.C. I’ll dare to invade the fields of Italy, mark out the lines; whatever walls you’d level these arms will drive the ram, and break their stones apart, though the city you doom, to utter destruction, be Rome herself.’ All the cohorts. For, the world conquered, and fortune showering excessive, wealth on Rome, virtue yielded to riches, and those enemy spoils drew, men to luxury. St. Louis. takes the Saône in its swift course, and bears it onwards to the sea, where tribes live perched on the mountain heights among the snowy. when supreme power, never so shared before, forged a deadly pact. so that one part hung flabby with sickness, while the other quivered and its veins trembled, to an a-rhythmic beat. The lives of many. to flee their native walls. This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2014 All Rights Reserved. Men say the tribes between the Rhine and Elbe, uprooted. dare to reveal to man the evil the gods prepare. a deep debt to civil war, since what was done, Caesar, was all for you. and the forest roars earth-bent or rebounding to the sky. far and wide, before gathering its scattered energies again. of divine anger. As things are, no long triumphal procession awaits you. So a storm drives a lightning-bolt through the clouds, its flare. Civil War Book 1.1-30 The very opening of the book is lost. at Thebes, or brandished fierce Lycurgus’ goads. The introductions preceding each Commentary give the modern reader a sense of the context that the ancient reader brought to the story and show us Caesar in the process of becoming Caesar.”—Cynthia Damon, editor and translator of Caesar’s Civil War "Caesar waged prose as he waged war—in ways swift, economical, and ruthless. A silent lightning bolt, gathering flame from the cloudless north, struck, Latium’s capital, Alba Longa, and the lesser lights, that move through the sunless sky by night were seen. with its forehead, is encouraged further by the shouting. a gesture commanded quiet, and he addressed them: ‘Friends, who have faced with me the perils of a thousand, battles these ten years past, is this, in victory, your reward. CAESAR'S COMMENTARIES of THE CIVIL WAR. (1.1.18-23) The Belgians begin from the farthest borders of Gaul, they extent for the lower part of the Rhine river, they look into the North and the rising sun. I leave the cause to those who study the workings of the world. Those who tilled. But now the strictures of war silence law; driven from our, city, we suffer exile willingly; for your victory will render us. so close to Gaul, doomed by its site to fatal misfortune! to come were granted; the gods filled the earth. China might have passed, under our yoke, savage Armenia, and those peoples who know, the secret of the Nile’s hidden source. if the land were withdrawn, the Ionian would break on the Aegean. her husband’s anger on the one side, and her father’s on the other. leaps over the weapons careless of such wounds. ... 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. with their painted weapons: others from the fords of the Isar, that river which flows so great a distance, till its waters merge, with the more famous Danube, losing its name before, it meets the waves of the sea. If you come as law-abiding citizens, here you must halt.’. commentariorum libri vii de bello gallico cum a. hirti supplemento In that battle the Parthians. Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. The heart was flattened, the flesh. rule, before turning on herself; she has never yet lacked enemies. 1856. quarter of the skies, nothing material prevents its course; mighty in its descent and its retreat it spreads destruction. The setting is a meeting of the senate on January 1, 49, under the new consuls Lucius Cornelius Lentulus and Gaius Claudius Marcellus, both enemies of Caesar. you wish to be, and where you wish to set your universal throne. Then the general’s limbs quaked, his hair stood on end, faintness overcame him and he halted, his feet rooted, to the river-bank. that general saw a vision of his motherland in distress. southerly wind, clouds veiled the mournful light. He sanctified the place, and brought a sacrificial bull, to a holy altar, a bull chosen for its size, but when, he began to pour the wine, and sprinkle the grain, from his slanting knife, the victim struggled violently, against the unwelcome sacrifice; yet when the noble. attendants dragged on its horns it sank to earth. skywards but leaning to engulf the Italian shore. Books. Their very colour alarmed him, the organs, black with congealed gore, were marked, with signs of malignant sickness, covered everywhere. While this, long procession wound round the vast city, Arruns, gathered the scattered embers of the lightning-bolts. Shown above and discussed below are Cynthia Damon's Studies on the Text of Caesar's Bellum civile, her Latin edition of Caesar's Civil War, and her English translation.. Like most ancient texts, we do not have a pristine copy of Caesar… Let all that region of the sky be clear, and no cloud hide our sight, of Caesar. Book 3--- 48-47 B.C. images; if you’d have me pitch camp by Tiber’s waters. Book 8--- 51-50 B.C. The jaws of brute creatures uttered human speech; women bore monstrous offspring with surplus limbs. For benign Jupiter is hidden deep in the west, Venus’ healthful planet is dimmed, Mercury’s, swift path is retrograde, Mars keeps the heavens, alone. be swift; to those who are on the brink, delay is ever fatal. were the cause of your own ills, made a servant of three masters. Translator’s Note. I sing of a worse than civil war, of war fought between kinsmen. His, shall be the guilt, who forces me to act as your enemy.’, Then Caesar let loose the bonds of war, and led his, standards swiftly over the swollen stream; so a lion, in the untilled wastes of burning Libya, seeing his foes. in the making, depending on how you look at it.. the comet, that signals a change of earthly power. helplessly offering its unprotected neck to the blow. There and then he summoned his legions to the standards; a look silenced the clamour and confusion of the troops. all too bright? Though. How warriors broke into the sanctuary. Yet we’ll complain no more, you gods, if fate could find no other. Renatus du Pontet. And hope for a future free of dread, was lacking, since clear signs of greater ills. around the sacred pomerium, the boundary of the city. While the hot blood moves, and these bodies breathe, while our arms have strength. to where he had risen. Bacchus from Nysa: you alone grant power to Roman verse. Book I:158-182 The hidden causes of the war, Book I:183-227 Caesar’s crossing of the Rubicon, Book I:228-265 Entry into Ariminum (Rimini), Book I:266-351 The exiled tribunes: Caesar’s speech, Book I:466-525 Fear and apprehension in Rome, Book I:673-695 Apollo inspires a prophecy. the voice of the people and a bold champion of freedom. the narrow bounds of a sanctuary for criminals caused the conflict. So the day dawned that witnessed the first turmoil, of the war; though, by the will of the gods, or a stormy. the fields near the outer walls fled on every side. the forces of the quivering globe contended in mutual sinfulness; standard ranged against standard, eagle matched against eagle, spear threatening spear. and Earth would vanish under a waste of waters. Your current position in the text is marked in blue. shouted assent to this, raising their arms aloft together, pledging themselves to any war to which Caesar called, them. Shall Pompey be fed, with despotic power perpetually renewed by his mean venal. the weight; balance heaven by holding the centre of the sphere. c. iulius caesar (100 – 44 b.c.) Then, unsure of a safe haven, or how to escape danger, they followed the crowd. Such was Megaera, who as agent of Juno’s cruelty. to the Senate’s tyranny? Massilia refuses to admit Caesar (34-36). line to jump to another position: THE SUPPLEMENT of DIONYSIUS VOSSIUS TO CAESAR'S FIRST BOOK of THE CIVIL WAR. with the white hair streaming from her turreted head, as with torn tresses and naked arms she stood before him. a check to imminent war. You, might have thought that impious flames had seized, their houses, or that the city swayed to an earthquake’s, shock, since the frenzied crowd ran wildly through, the city, as if the one hope of escape from ruin was. bringing armed leaders down to the level of the crowd. She, if fate had granted her longer life, might alone have restrained. But soon he spoke: ‘O, Jupiter, God, of Thunder, who gazes from the Tarpeian Rock over, the walls of the mighty city; O Trojan household gods. fruit of profitless wombs burned with inauspicious fuel. down upon us such floods as Deucalion saw. her sorrowful face showing clear in nocturnal darkness. Book I :1-32 The nature of the war. Video An illustration of an audio speaker. Hide browse bar Yet do not place it in the north, or where the hot opposing skies. over the earth, and shut tight the iron gates of warlike Janus. so Pompey, who once licked Sulla’s sword, still thirsts. keels; free too that harbour of Monaco, sacred to Hercules, its hollow cliffs encroaching on the sea and over which, neither Caurus nor Zephyrus has power; only Circius that. If Rome, then, has such, a love of illicit war, let her yet bring the whole earth under her. A military leader of legendary genius, Caesar was also a great writer, recording the events of his life with incomparable immediacy and power. If the sun’s light were streaming from Nemean, Leo, then fire would bathe the world, the upper. Born from. Neither spoils nor kingship are my, object: we will simply be driving a tyrant from a servile city.’, So he spoke; but the men, doubtful, muttered anxiously. over Pharsalia’s plains, of wickedness deemed justice; of how. Commentary references to this page (1): J. rose up like those of the royal Theban brothers. henceforth while such civil strife endures. Book 1→ Translation based on W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1859) — I will now say nothing concerning the absurd opinion of those who assert that the following Commentaries on the Civil War were not written by Caesar himself. veiling and hiding it in profound ambiguity. encounter on the wide plains that pasture Bevagna’s bulls; that Caesar’s foreign horsemen scoured the region where, the Nar meets the Tiber; that the general, advancing with, all his gathered eagles and standards led his columns in, full march, halting in crowded bivouacs. Raise your standards, long victorious! © Copyright 2000-2020 A. S. Kline, All Rights Reserved. Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License. of justice, Pompey’s standards laying siege to Milo in the dock? who guard the divine prophecies and mystic chants. Gaius Julius CAESAR (100 - 44 BCE), translated by Thomas Rice HOLMES (1855 - 1933) Commentarii de Bello Gallico (English: Commentaries on the Gallic War) is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. trust readily broken, and multitudes profiting greatly from war. covered by Books 1–8 of The Landmark Julius Caesar, the civil war of 49 and 48 by Books 9–11, wars in Egypt, Anatolia and other parts of the Roman empire in 47 by Book 12 (Alexandrian War), the second round of the civil wars in 46 by Book 13 (African War), and the last round of the civil wars in 45 by Book 14 (Spanish War). in the theatre he had built, trusting in former claims to greatness, he did nothing to establish wider power, and stood as the mere. and the bowels betrayed their hiding place. Intransigence at Rome 2. the waves that nourish him raises the ocean billows skyward? and land in turn, when the vast ocean inundates it or ebbs away; some onshore wind from the horizon blows perhaps, drives, the seas on then fails them, or perhaps Tethys’ wild waters, are attracted by the moon, stirred by the phases of that second, of celestial bodies, or perhaps fire-bearing Titan, to drink. Bellona, who slash their arms, chanted of heaven’s anger, as the Galli whirled their gory locks, shrieking ruin, to the nations. 9.1", "denarius"). those oak-leaves granted for saving a Roman’s life. Scorpion with fiery tail, scorching its pincers? pregnant body, I will do all, though my arm waver. Even men posted to keep the long-haired Cayci from the Belgae, abandoned the Rhine’s savage shores, heading for Rome, and all. the Capitol demands no laurels of yours be consecrated; rather gnawing envy denies you all, and your conquests. Book 8 was written by Aulus Hirtius, after Caesar's death. Fierce Mulciber, in Sicily, opened Etna’s jaws wide; the flames not rising. False report, the swift herald, of imminent war, added to rational fears, filled men’s minds, with presentiments of ruin, and loosed countless tongues, to spread distorted tales. The Civil War is a tense and gripping depiction of his struggle with Pompey over the leadership of Republican Rome - a conflict that spanned the entire Roman world, from Gaul and Spain to Asia and Africa. was not red blood but a strange and terrible slime. Raise them high! Rome with its citizens and subject, peoples, a Rome that could well hold the whole, human race collected, was left a ready prize, to Caesar, by cowardly hands. exuded corrupted blood through gaping cracks. They set no bounds to wealth or buildings; greed. The Civil Wars has been divided into the following sections: Book 1 [145k] Book 2 [83k] Book 3 [187k] Download: A 301k text-only version is available for download. of an old age buried in obscurity. cliffs of the Cevennes. By Julius Caesar. When your role on earth is over and at last you seek the stars. for two. And now, as light dispersed the chill shades of night, Destiny lit the flames of war, setting the spur to Caesar’s, wavering heart, shattering the barriers shame interposed, and driving him on to conflict. so the dark of night rang out though the wind was still. Recall, too, that in Section 1, Caesar noted that the Germans engage in continual warfare with the Belgae and Gauls; he therefore wants to be certain that the Germans stay isolated on the other side of the Rhine, deterred by the river boundary so that war in … Book VII:303-336 Caesar launches the attack Today before us is this war’s punishment or reward. Thus when Crassus, who kept those fierce competitors apart, died, pitifully, drenching Syrian Carrhae with Roman blood, that defeat, by Parthia let loose the furies on Rome. at the last, filled with the sight of their beloved city. So a captain abandons ship, when a southerly gale drives the waves from Libyan, Syrtes’ shoals, and the heavy mast topples with all. The hardship and danger are no greater than before, but greater is the prize that you seek. Please refer to our Privacy Policy. a powerful people turned their own right hands against themselves; of strife within families; how, with the first Triumvirate broken. From Book 116 (which is the eighth dealing with the civil war) [116.1] [45 BCE] Caesar celebrated a fifth triumph, for his Spanish victory. For now, when Julia, Caesar’s daughter, Pompey’s wife, was cut down by fate, she bore with her to the Shades the bonds. waging a war that could win no triumphs! But Caesar possessed more. peace despite the leaders’ wills, since Crassus stood between them. Read reviews from world’s largest community for readers. Civil Wars Book 3 (48-47 B.C.E.) So the Etruscan seer spoke of the tortuous future. Must Pompey hold the reins before lawful age? Caesar: The Civil War. to power so long continued? were freed from their station; the gentle Aude and the Var, at the boundary of an enlarged Italy, joyed to bear no Roman. Enter a Perseus citation to go to another section or work. and fierce heat overtake our temperate clime? With Crassus’ spirit still wandering un-avenged. Book 1--- 50 B.C. my enterprise; I bring no assault on you in wild warfare; see me here, victorious by land and sea, always your, champion – now as ever, if that be possible. So they chose to follow ancient custom and summon, Etruscan seers. a modest spring it is parched by the heat of summer, but then its volume was increased by winter, its waters, swollen by the third rising of a rain-bearing moon, with its moisture-laden horns, and by Alpine snows. of affinity, and a marriage turned, by that dread omen, to mourning. The clash of weapons, was heard, loud cries in the forest depths, sounds, of ghostly armies locked in battle. of the lightning bolt, the signs on the warm entrails, and the significance of every bird wandering the sky, held no secrets. [116.2] [44] After the Senate decreed many of the highest honors (such as the right to be called "father of the fatherland" together with an eternal inviolability and dictatorship), several grudges rose against him: because he did not rise from his … in headlong flight wherever their haste might lead, pouring onwards in long unbroken streams. The Civil Wars By Julius Caesar Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn. obstacle to his supremacy, happy to clear a path through ruin. follows day through the same circuit of the twelve constellations. re-cast what we saw, the entrails prove false, and the arts of our founder Tages mere invention!’. Such was the one who drove Agave to madness. Gone, the soldiers who held the land of the Nemes, and the banks of the Adour, where the Tarbellians hem in the sea, that beats gently against the winding shore. the mothers appalled by this birth of strange infants; while dire prophecies of the Cumaean Sibyl passed, from mouth to mouth. Conditions and Exceptions apply. War’s madness is upon us, where the sword’s power will wildly confound. I see Pangaeus. the ocean bed, and Scylla’s savage dogs whined. who summon Cybele from her bath in Almo’s brook; then the Augurs, who read the meaning of bird-flight. Great things destroy themselves: such is the limit the gods place, on all success. He’s used to civil war. sweat on the Lares testified to the city’s travails; in the temples the offerings fell from the walls, birds of ill-omen marred the day, and wild beasts. A powerful rivalry drove them on: for Pompey feared fresh exploits, might obscure his former triumphs, his ridding the seas of pirates. suddenly plunged into earth’s shadow, grew dim. with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Nor was the prize of such madness a dominion over land and sea. of the world dissolves, in that final hour that gathers in the ages. So saying she fell, abandoned, her frenzy spent. It is wrong to ask who had the greatest right, to seek war; each had great authority to support him: if the victor, had the gods on his side, the defeated had Cato. Were Saturn, the cold and baleful planet displaying his dark, rays in the zenith, then Aquarius would pour. This frenzy will last many years, and what use. with a crash of the heavens, filling the human mind with terror, dazzling the eye with its slanting flame. Shall the ground open and cities be swallowed. Let Pompey, weakened by long peace, come and make war, with his fresh levies and his toga-wearing partisans, eloquent, Marcellus, and Cato that empty name. He must yield all to the strong, who denies them their due. Fate worked to justify. Just as the fierce tiger, that has drunk deep of the blood, of the cattle slain as he follows his mate from lair to lair. The civil wars; with an English translation by A.G. Peskett by Caesar, Julius; Peskett, Arthur George. Proud as they were, and unafraid of bloodshed, they were torn by love for, their country and its gods, till recalled to fear of Caesar, and a dire propensity for slaughter. the sun revolves in his endless task, while night, in the sky above. Outline of Books 1–5 and 6.11–24 17 Bibliography 21 Julius Caesar – Commentaries on the Gallic War Book I 27 Book II 73 Book III 95 Book IV 113 Book V137 Book VI.11–24 167 A Companion to Caesar 177 Latin Morphology 177 Latin Syntax 218 The Geography of Caesar’s Commentaries 251 The Roman Art of War in Caesar’s Time 254 Vocabulary 263 alone, he entered nearby Ariminum, bringing terror. in a victim’s entrails without disaster following; a vast second lobe grew on the lobe of the liver. They say the gods of the nations shed tears, while. of worship. The Commentaries of Caesar. he cried: ‘I, when my voice could serve your interests, Caesar, when I was allowed to take the Rostrum, cementing waverers. lost the ancient snow from its shivering summits; and the sea flooded Calpe and far Atlas in the west. Is it so bad to fight a civil war? shapes in the dense atmosphere, now a great javelin, now a torch with scattered rays. The bards too, who in their verses sing the praise of famous heroes killed, in battle, poured out lays at their ease. Vossius's supplement to the first book: I will now say nothing concerning the absurd opinion of those who assert that the following Commentaries on the … If they rob me of my just reward for my labours. Behold, he saw a horror never once witnessed. Caesar, Civil War [translation and notes by John Carter for Oxford World Classics] Book I (Notes to asterisked portions follow text) The outbreak of the civil war; Caesar invades and captures Italy, Sardinia, and Sicily (i-3 3 ). Shall Pompey cling forever to the honours he has stolen? Shall Pompey grant. Gathering his forces together, encouraged, by the vastness, of his army, to greater things, Caesar advanced through Italy, occupying the nearest towns. Once swallowed, blood will never allow the throat it has, tainted to rid itself of the taste of cruelty. Where, the limits to his crimes? Now once more, he plans illegal conflict, to escape the taint. terrified Hercules, though he’d seen the realm of Dis. Rushing to a given. O how easily, the gods grant us supremacy, and how grudgingly, maintain it! the waters everywhere running with poison? So some oak-tree towers in a rich grove. be hidden. While earth buoys up the sea and the heavens the earth, while. of victory? In the dark of night, unknown constellations were seen, the sky ablaze with fire, light shooting across the void. The Civil Wars. Book VI, the shortest of the hooks in the Gallic Wars, relates Caesar's adventures during 53 B.C. Win a few battles and Rome that subdued the world is yours. Do you lack faith in us? from me let whatever makes that endless motion, as the gods wish. no loyalty between sharers in tyranny; power endures no partner. a monster, more savage than the enemy he has conquered. Pompey. Where shall they find a place to live, what fields to cultivate, what walls to protect their war-torn flesh? Earth ceased turning on its axis; the Alpine chain. So, in fear, each lends strength. The Treviri rejoiced at the army’s leaving, and the close-cropped Ligurians who once outdid their long-haired, neighbours with flowing locks that adorned their necks, and those, who, with pitiful victims, placate their harsh Teutatis, their Esus, whose savage shrines make men shudder, their Taranis whose, altar is no less cruel than that of Scythian Diana. View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document. Recruits swell the cohorts’, ranks; the forests are felled to build ships; Caesar is ordered, to be hounded by land and sea. Perusia’s famine, Mutina’s horrors, the ships sunk at stormy Actium, the war with the slaves near burning Etna, be added, still Rome owes. But at her death bonds of loyalty. a burning pine-tree with its tip held downwards. with dull patches, and spots of blood. that an infamous poisoning failed to end, and now am I, Caesar, to be Pompey’s crowning task, for failing to surrender eagles. Chapter 0. you chose instead to grant our enemies the sight of Roman strife. and parched Libya: there you transport me; Faction again rears its head, and once more, I circle Earth. did those three unite their strength to rule the world between them? Think of Sulla’s crime, the butchery in the Saepta’s pound on the Campus Martius: we wage civil war … the fearful people, but worse was to follow. Groans issued from the urns filled, with the ashes of the dead. and uncertainly under their breath. its power so the rest of the army could ford it with ease. and also concerns itself with giving us an idea of the different cultures of the Germans and the Gauls. instances: Rome’s first walls were drenched in a brother’s blood. Caesar, finding civil war so eagerly welcomed by his men, and finding fortune favourable, granted destiny no delay, due to idleness, but summoned all his forces scattered. all law, and vicious crime be called virtue. Grant me to see a different, land, O Phoebus, for Philippi I have seen.’. Where is the end. the advance of the Senones, the swords of Hannibal. This a parallel presentation of the works of Julius Caesar in Latin and English translation. The most venerable was Arruns, who, lived in the deserted city of Luca, for whom the track. their household gods, or lingered on the threshold. It was a chain of fatal. You could rule not half the world, but the whole of it, alone.’, Eager as Caesar was for war already, this speech increased. and tribunes alike confounding all justice; office snared by bribery, popular support bought at auction, while corruption, year after year. Perseus provides credit for all accepted melted by damp gales. sounded the civil war’s first alarm. B. Greenough, Benjamin L. D'Ooge, M. Grant Daniell, Commentary on Caesar's Gallic War, AG BG 3.23; Cross-references to this page (11): Allen and Greenough's New Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges, SYNTAX OF THE VERB This work may be freely reproduced, stored and transmitted, electronically or otherwise, for any non-commercial purpose. And Figulus, whose aim it was to know the gods, and the secrets of the heavens, he whom not even, Egyptian Memphis equalled in stellar observation. shadow of a mighty name. had set his mind on vast rebellion and future conflict. Click anywhere in the a Thracian northerly falls on the cliffs of pine-clad Ossa. The Druids laid down, their weapons and returned to their barbaric rites and alien modes. colonies to his pirates? frame of the shattered firmament will break free of every law. As the stars fled the light and the morning star shone. Your current position in the text is marked in blue. enough to hurl a javelin, must you submit to the toga. We have his books of Commentarii (notes): eight on his wars in Gaul, 58–52 BC, including the two expeditions to Britain 55–54, and three on the civil war of 49–48. Caesar – the man and his aims The Civil War and the continuations. does not know how the barracks invaded the fearful courts, how soldiers with grim blades gleaming surrounded stunned, and anxious jurors? Click anywhere in the their long spears; the Leuci and Remi, experts in the javelin. The fire was violently doused on Vesta’s altar; while the flames of the pyre signalling the end. 1 []. They alone are granted the true knowledge, or the false, of the gods and celestial powers; they live in the furthest groves, of the deep forests; they teach that the soul does not descend, to Erebus’ silent land, to Dis’ sunless kingdom, but the same spirit, breathes in another body. her orb reflecting her brother Phoebus’s light. perpetuating venal elections to the magistracy, destroyed the State; thence voracious usury, interest greedily seeking payment. headed for Caesar’s camp, now advanced close to Rome. the celestial palace you expect will welcome you, the heavens rejoice. An XML version of this text is available for download, Thus the tribes, on whom the pole star gazes are sweetly deceived, since they are, free of the terror of dying, our greatest fear, and the warrior there, is eager to meet the steel, is brave in the face of death, convinced. She might have struck aside their swords, made them clasp hands, as the Sabine women stood between their husbands and their fathers, and brought about reconciliation. With them was daring Curio of the venal tongue, once. but soon maddened, lashing his tail, his mane erect, sends out a roaring from his cavernous mouth, such, that if a nimble Moor pierces his flesh with the lance, he brandishes, or a spear lances at his vast chest, he. you have endured too much and held back too long. The branches of the panting lungs, were indistinct, with only a thin membrane separating, the vital organs. Their cries rose to the heavens: as loud as when. Ten years you fought. Part I: The Struggle Begins 1. destruction will overtake Rome and all mankind. In the first 10 minutes I provide 5 Campaign/Battle Maps which are directly related to the events in Book 1 (58 B.C.). shattering the daylight sky, with the sound of thunderous air. that yearned for supremacy; Caesar could accept none above him, Pompey no equal. as chief centurion and bearing a well-earned decoration. Lead us among the Scythian tribes, or the hostile shores, of Syrtes, or the burning sands of parched Libya, we, who to leave a conquered world behind us have tamed, the swelling ocean waves and the foaming waters. He is no friend of mine, Caesar, against whom your, trumpets sound. Once Caesar had crossed and reached the Italian shore. in the Hyrcanian jungle, never again loses his fierceness. Caesar’s Senate 6. The campaign of Ilerda and defeat of Afranius and Petreius (37-87) The Civil War is Caesar's masterly account of the celebrated war between himself and his great rival Pompey, from the crossing of the Rubicon in January 49 B.C. sling, or the arrow the Parthian looses behind him. Now, Caesar, swiftly surmounting the frozen Alps. Nor were the people alone filled with baseless terrors, the House was stirred, Senators leapt from their seats, and fled, leaving the Consuls the task of declaring, a war they dreaded. The sun himself, in raising his face to the zenith, veiled his orb in shadow, hid his fiery chariot, in dense darkness, driving humankind to despair, of daylight; such was the darkness that swallowed, Thyestes’ city, Mycenae, when the sun turned back. in peace and tranquility, no delight in liberty free from the sword. If my standards were levelled. The Seige of Corfinium 4. For a woman ran through the stunned city. the Gauls, yet how small a part of Earth Gaul represents! Yet such depths of fear, must be forgiven; Pompey himself in flight gave, cause for fear. Thus they were quick to anger, and crime, prompted by need, was, treated lightly; it was a virtue to take up arms and hold more power, than the State, and might became the measure of right. circling, with your shifting flame, an earth unafraid of this new sun, every deity will yield to you, and nature leave you to choose what god. Then estates were increased, until those fields, once tilled by Camillus’ iron ploughshare, or Curius’ spade, became, vast tracts tended by alien farmers. My sacrifice finds favour, not with mighty Jove, but with the infernal gods who enter the body, of this dead bull. or calculation of the stars’ passage, he also spoke: ‘If the universe changes endlessly ungoverned, by laws, then the heavenly bodies wander on, errant courses, but if it be guided by fate a swift. air burning would be consumed by the solar chariot. What kind of ruin, O gods, does your anger, prepare, and by what means? Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License, Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text, http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng1:1.0, http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng1, http://data.perseus.org/texts/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002, http://data.perseus.org/catalog/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0448.phi002.perseus-eng1. For Laelius, ranked. From tents pitched in the mountains beside Lake Leman, the soldiers came, from the fort on the heights of Vosegus, above winding shores, that controlled the warlike Lingones. News was of some fierce cavalry. The Roman soldier, besieged by the enemy in a foreign land defies, nocturnal danger behind a frail palisade; swiftly, piling turf he sleeps secure in his tent defended, by his mound, but let the name of war be heard, and Rome is abandoned, her walls no shield, even for a single night. Yet now, when Fate. nations against a people that ruled earth and sea: you, Rome. Power was divided by the sword; the wealth of an imperial people, who ruled the sea, the land, possessed the globe, was not enough. No aged father could restrain, his son, no weeping wife her husband, none stayed, to mouth a prayer for escape from danger before. Let me hear no more, talk of pacts, I have placed my trust in those for far, too long, now I must seek the judgement of war.’, So he spoke, urging his men on through the shadows, of night swifter than the missile whirled from a Balearic. An illustration of two cells of a film strip. called out: ‘Mightiest general of the Roman people, if I have leave to speak, and to speak the truth, we say. yielding second place to Caesar’s victories in Gaul; while Caesar, used to battle, inured to endless effort, was driven by an ambition. These dire forebodings were enough to terrify. There is joy where Cinca’s waters flow, where Rhone. While your enemies are in confusion. This edition of the Civil War replaces the earlier Loeb Classical Library edition by A. G. Peskett (1914) with new text, translation, introduction, and bibliography. Thence laws, and statutes of the people passed by force, thence the consuls. our praying to the gods above that it might end? her speech broken by sobbing: ‘Where are you marching. Men’s previous, view of him differs from the present. bird-life dumb, or the wide ocean, muted in calm weather. line to jump to another position: The chapter breaks in this translation have been changed to align with those in the 1901 Latin edition of the De Bello Civili, ed. The full work is split into eight sections, Book 1 to Book 8, varying in size from approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words. Book 1. Such a people took no pleasure. hung with a nation’s ancient trophies, sacred gifts of the victors, and though its clinging roots have lost their strength, their weight, alone holds it, spreading naked branches to the sky, casting shade, not with leaves but its trunk alone, and though it quivers, doomed, to fall at the next gale, among the host of sounder trees that rise, around it, still it alone is celebrated.