Commentarii de Bello Gallico
De Bello Gallico or Commentarii de Bello Gallico is a book by Julius Caesar. Its name means "Of the Gallic Wars." It is about how he fought battles and conquered Gaul. Today, we call Gaul France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium.[1] Cesar used this book, and it was likely published during his lifetime. Cesar was assassinated in the year 44 BC. The text was very important, and likely had a wide circulation. Today, there are 33 different medieval manuscripts of the text at the Vatican library, 25 at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, over a dozen in Florence, and many more in other libraries. Despite this, the exact ways in which the text was published and circulated is still unknown.
The title Comentarii de Bello Gallico was given later. Cesar likely called his work Commentarii rerum gestarum Galliae or Commentarii Gallici belli. Today it is the main source about the Gallic Wars, and what Cesar achieved. Cesar had strong political motives to write the book. For this reason, some hisotrians think that it should not be used as a source. Despite its name, the books do not constitute the official account of the war towards the senate.
Vercingetorix appears in this book.[2]
Summary
[change | change source]Book 1
[change | change source]The first book is about the batlle against the Helvetii, and the Germanic tribs, led by Ariovistus. Most of these facts happened in 58 BC
Book 2
[change | change source]This is about the war against the Belgae. It happens in 57 BC.
Other websites
[change | change source]- De Bello Gallico Archived 2011-09-26 at the Wayback Machine translated into English at MIT
References
[change | change source]- ↑ "De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries by Julius Caesar. Project Gutenberg. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
- ↑ Aakar Patel (February 2, 2019). "Long ere the mightiest Julius fell". Hindu. Retrieved May 12, 2021.
