| Description |
1 online resource (viii, 271 pages) : illustrations, map |
| Contents |
Introduction -- The Social Life of Texts -- The Composition of De Bello Gallico -- Reality and Representation -- 1. Where Was the Gallic War? -- Types of Space -- Geographic Space in De Bello Gallico -- Tactical Space, Surveying, and the Possession of Gaul -- 2. The "Other" and the Other "Other" -- The Ethnographic Tradition -- Caesar's Ethnography -- 3. Technology, Virtue, Victory -- Siegecraft in De Bello Gallico -- Virtus in De Bello Gallico -- The Gallic Assimilation of Virtus -- Conclusion -- 4. Alien Nation -- Playing the Cannibal -- Rhetorics of Empire -- What Is a Roman? -- 5. Formal Questions -- Who and What? -- To What End? -- Whose Voice? -- 6. Empire and the "Just War" -- The Theory of the Just War -- Just War Theory in the Real World -- Cicero's Textual Practice -- Caesar's Textual Practice -- 7. New and Improved, Sort Of -- Facing the Alternatives -- Comparanda -- How Does Caesar Compare? -- Propaganda -- Appendix A: Wars against "Barbarians" -- Apppendix B: Generals' Inscriptions |
| Summary |
"Anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with Latin knows 'Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres' ('All Gaul is divided into three parts'), the opening line of De Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar's famous commentary on his campaigns against the Gauls in the 50s BC. But what did Caesar intend to accomplish by writing and publishing his commentaries, how did he go about it, and what potentially unforeseen consequences did his writing have? These are the questions that Andrew Riggsby pursues in this fresh interpretation of one of the masterworks of Latin prose. Riggsby uses contemporary literary methods to examine the historical impact that the commentaries had on the Roman reading public |
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In the first part of his study, Riggsby considers how Caesar defined Roman identity and its relationship to non-Roman others. He shows how Caesar opens up a possible vision of the political future in which the distinction between Roman and non-Roman becomes less important because of their joint submission to a Caesar-like leader. In the second part, Riggsby analyzes Caesar's political self-fashioning and the potential effects of his writing and publishing the Gallic War. He reveals how Caesar presents himself as a subtly new kind of Roman general who deserves credit not only for his own virtues, but for those of his soldiers as well. Riggsby uses case studies of key topics (spatial representation, ethnography, virtus and technology, genre, and the just war), augmented by more synthetic discussions that bring in evidence from other Roman and Greek texts, to offer a broad picture of the themes of national identity and Caesar's self-presentation."--Publisher description |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 253-267) and index |
| Notes |
Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212 MiAaHDL |
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English |
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Print version record |
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digitized 2010 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve pda MiAaHDL |
| Subject |
Caesar, Julius -- Military leadership
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Caesar, Julius -- Political activity
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| SUBJECT |
Caesar, Julius fast |
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Caesar, Gaius Iulius v100-v44 De bello Gallico gnd |
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Caesar, Gaius Iulius. swd |
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De bello Gallico. swd |
| Subject |
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.
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HISTORY -- Ancient -- General.
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LITERARY CRITICISM -- Ancient & Classical.
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Command of troops
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Political participation
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| SUBJECT |
Gaul -- History -- Gallic Wars, 58-51 B.C. -- Political aspects
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Rome -- History, Military -- 265-30 B.C.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh95002946
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| Subject |
Europe -- Gaul
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Rome (Empire)
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| Genre/Form |
collective biographies.
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Biographies
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History
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Military history
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Biographies.
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Biographies.
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| Form |
Electronic book
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| ISBN |
9780292795792 |
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0292795793 |
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0292713037 |
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9780292713031 |
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