40
caesar’s campaigns in gaitl.
was disgusted at the idea of living in a Kalf-Greek province,
in a corner of Asia Minor, the nobles of which had but a
short time before been the captains of pirates. The death of
M. Crassus falls ten years after Cicero’s consulship.
lecture xcv.
I have to mention one curious fact about Caesar, namely,
that not one witty saying of his is recorded ; whereas a great
many, which are no doubt genuine, and are at any rate very
peculiar and excellent, are ascribed to Cicero.
Some time before the second consulship of Pompey, Caesar,
Pompey and Crassus had held a congress at Lucca, at which
each of them appeared accompanied by a mighty train of fol-
lowers. Here they had concluded a peace, and determined on
the fate of the republic. This fact at once discloses to us the
condition of the state. In order to secure the maintenance of
peace, Caesar had given his daughter Julia in marriage to
Pompey; but, two years after the treaty of Lucca, she died in
child-bed, and her child followed her soon after to the grave ;
an event which rent the tie between Pompey and Caesar com-
pletely asunder. Caesar’s affection as a father was so great,
that he would have brooked anything if his daughter had
remained alive.
With regard to his campaigns in Gaul, I have only to refer
you to his own commentaries on the Gallic war, with the sup-
plement of A. Hirtius, a work which every scholar must have
read. It is written with such conciseness and brevity, that if
I attempted to abridge it, as I should be obliged to do if I
were to give an account of those campaigns, nothing would be
left but a miniature outline. I strongly advise you to read
Caesar’s account of his Gallic wars as often as you can, for the
oftener you read it, the more will you recognise the hand
of a great master.
Much yet remains to be done for the works of Caesar, and
a critical edition is still a desideratum. Our materials are of
very different value. Many of the manuscripts which contain
caesar’s commentaries.
41
the Bellum Gallicum have already been collated, but a still
greater number of them have not been consulted; and the
collation of them is an undertaking which I can strongly recom-
mend to young scholars, and which they will find of very great
advantage. In Italy, and especially in the Vatican library and
at Florence, the manuscripts of Caesar are very numerous, and
mostly very old; many of them have never yet been collated.
The English manuscripts have been consulted by Davis and
others ; but they are, on the whole, of much inferior value, and
belong to a very recent time. The manuscripts of the Bellum
Civile may be traced back to a single family of manuscripts ;
with extremely few exceptions they have all the same gaps,
and a collation would yield but few results. The work De
Bello Civili is also акефаХоч in all MSS. The first sentences,
as they now stand, were patched up in the middle ages to
supply the deficiency, a fact which has been recognised by
Davis and Oudendorp. I once proposed a prize essay upon
the other historical works usually connected with those of
Caesar, but the problem was not solved. I will briefly tell you
my opinion about them. The last book of the commentaries on
the Gallic war, and the book on the Alexandrine war, are, as
is proved by their style and diction, the production of one and
the same author, that is, of A. Hirtius. There is no ground
whatever for ascribing them to Pansa. A. Hirtius was a highly
educated man, and well able to execute such works. They
belong to the most excellent compositions in the Latin
language: they are in the highest degree classical; and the
language, like that of Caesar, is such as was spoken by the best
educated and most eminent men of the time. The book on
the African war I assign, without hesitation, to C. Oppius; it is
very instructive, and the author is an intelligent man, a good
officer, and highly trustworthy ; but the language is quite dif-
ferent from that of the work on the Alexandrine war: there
is a certain mannerism about it, and it is on the whole less
beautiful. C. Oppius was the companion of Caesar in all his
wars, and one of his dearest friends. At the time when Caesar’s
power had reached its height, he and Oppius were travelling
together, and arrived at a small farm house. Oppius was ill,
and Caesar made him spend the night in the only room that
was to be had in the house, while he himself slept outside in
the open air.1 This is a natural feature in his character, and
‘ Sueton. Caesar. 72.