Research Catalog

Title

The war for Gaul : a new translation / Julius Caesar ; translated by James J. O'Donnell.

Author

Caesar, Julius

Publication

• Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• O'Donnell, James J., 1950-
• Caesar, Julius.

Description

xlv, 274 pages : map; 23 cm

Summary

"Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army - a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature - perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists -and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar's famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor's dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O'Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the "best bad man's book ever written" - a great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been. Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic - a book that, as O'Donnell says, 'gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.'" -- Front jacket flap.

Uniform Title

De bello Gallico. English. (O'Donnell)

Alternative Title

De bello Gallico.

Subjects

• Military history, Ancient
• 58-51 B.C
• Caesar, Julius > History
• Europe > Gaul
• History
• War
• Gallic Wars (Gaul : 58-51 B.C.)
• Gaul > History > Gallic Wars, 58-51 B.C

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-274) and index.

Language (note)

• Translated from the Latin.

Contents

First Commentary: 58 BCE -- Second Commentary: 57 BCE -- Third Commentary: 56 BCE -- Fourth Commentary: 55 BCE -- Fifth Commentary: 54 BCE -- Sixth Commentary: 53 BCE -- Seventh Commentary: 52 BCE -- Eighth Commentary: 51-50 BCE -- Eighth Commentary: (Continued) 50 BCE -- After War, after Gaul -- Three Meditations on Caesar, His War, and His Book.

Call Number

JFD 19-4647

ISBN

• 9780691174921
• 069117492X

LCCN

2018948731

OCLC

1091628815

Author

Caesar, Julius, author.

Title

The war for Gaul : a new translation / Julius Caesar ; translated by James J. O'Donnell.

Publisher

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2019]

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 271-274) and index.

Language

Translated from the Latin.

Chronological Term

58-51 B.C.

Added Author

O'Donnell, James J., 1950- translator.

Container of (expression): Caesar, Julius. De bello Gallico. English (O'Donnell)

Research Call Number

JFD 19-4647