Author | unknown |
---|---|
Language | Classical Latin |
Subject | History, military history |
Publisher | unknown |
Publication date | approx. 40 BC |
Preceded by | De Bello Africo |
De Bello Hispaniensi (also Bellum Hispaniense; On the Hispanic War; On the Spanish War) is a Latin work continuing Julius Caesar's commentaries, De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili , and its sequels by two different unknown authors De Bello Alexandrino and De Bello Africo . It details Caesar's campaigns on the Iberian Peninsula, ending with the Battle of Munda.
De Bello Hispaniensi is preceded by De Bello Alexandrino and De Bello Africo . These three works end the Caesarean corpus relating Caesar's civil war. Though normally collected and bound with Caesar's authentic writings, their authorship has been debated since antiquity. One very plausible theory favors Hirtius as the author of De Bello Alexandrino (see there for details). But due to considerable differences in style, scholarly consensus has ruled out Hirtius or Julius Caesar as the authors of the two last parts. It has been suggested [1] that these were in fact rough drafts prepared at the request of Hirtius by two separate soldiers who fought in the respective campaign; and had he survived, Hirtius would have worked them up into more effective literary form.
Regarding De Bello Hispaniensi T. Rice Holmes writes: [2] "Bellum Hispaniense is the worst book in Latin literature; and its text is the most deplorable. The language is generally ungrammatical and often unintelligible. The copyists performed their tasks so ill that in the forty-two paragraphs there are twenty-one gaps and six hundred corrupt passages, which Mommsen and lesser men have striven with an industry worthy of a better cause to restore."
About the author, A.G. Way ventures that "Macaulay's guess that he was some 'sturdy old centurion who fought better than he wrote' is possibly not far off the truth". [3]
Van Hooff (1974), however, disagrees; in his view the author is more likely to have been a politician such as one of Caesar's legates Quintus Pedius or Quintus Fabius Maximus rather than a professional soldier, although not necessarily either of these, since the writer shows experience of African customs and so had probably visited Africa. At any rate, the work is interesting for the fact that it gives a contemporary view of Caesar not written by Caesar himself. [4]
Storch (1977) also disagrees. In his view the author was almost certainly a cavalry officer present in the war. He points out that "the writer of the Bellum Hispaniense had an unusual interest in cavalry. The most obvious examples relate to his continued reporting of cavalry skirmishes even when of ridiculously minor importance." In this the book is markedly different from Caesar's own commentaries and the de Bello Alexandrino, in which details of cavalry numbers and actions are few. From the detailed descriptions of topography, the information about the weather, and the numbers of casualties recorded even when very small, it is clear that he was also an eye-witness to the events described.
A recent computer-assisted stylistic analysis by Zhang and others (2018) of the five works in the Caesarian corpus confirms that books 1–7 of the Gallic War and 1–3 of the Civil War were written by the same author (presumably Caesar himself), but book 8 of the Gallic War, and the Alexandrian, African, and Spanish War commentaries appear to differ in style not only from Caesar's own works but also from each other.
Commentarii de Bello Gallico, also Bellum Gallicum, is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it, Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting the Celtic and Germanic peoples in Gaul that opposed Roman conquest.
Aulus Hirtius was consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC and a writer on military subjects. He was killed during his consulship in battle against Mark Antony at the Battle of Mutina.
Gaius Volusenus Quadratus was a distinguished military officer of the Roman Republic. He served under Julius Caesar for ten years, during the Gallic Wars and the civil war of the 40s. Caesar praised him for his strategic sense and courageous integrity.
The gens Pompeia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, first appearing in history during the second century BC, and frequently occupying the highest offices of the Roman state from then until imperial times. The first of the Pompeii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pompeius in 141 BC, but by far the most illustrious of the gens was Gnaeus Pompeius, surnamed Magnus, a distinguished general under the dictator Sulla, who became a member of the First Triumvirate, together with Caesar and Crassus. After the death of Crassus, the rivalry between Caesar and Pompeius led to the Civil War, one of the defining events of the final years of the Roman Republic.
Bellum civile, or civil war in Latin, may refer to:
Commentarii de Bello Civili(Commentaries on the Civil War), or Bellum Civile, is an account written by Julius Caesar of his war against Gnaeus Pompeius and the Roman Senate. It consists of three books covering the events of 49–48 BC, from shortly before Caesar's invasion of Italy to Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus and flight to Egypt. It was preceded by the much longer account of Caesar's campaigns in Gaul and was followed by similar works covering the ensuing wars against the remnants of Pompey's armies in Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. Caesar's authorship of the Commentarii de Bello Civili is not disputed, while the three later works are believed to have been written by contemporaries of Caesar.
De Bello Africo is a Latin work continuing Julius Caesar's accounts of his campaigns, De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili, and its sequel by an unknown author De Bello Alexandrino. It details Caesar's campaigns against his Republican enemies in the province of Africa.
De Bello Alexandrino is a Latin work continuing Julius Caesar's commentaries, De Bello Gallico and De Bello Civili. It details Caesar's campaigns in Alexandria and Asia.
Titus Terrasidius was a Roman Knight of the Equestrian order and an officer of the cavalry in Julius Caesar's Legio VII Claudia. He and other officers of the legion were sent out to negotiate provisions for the winter of 56–55 BC; they were captured by Breton tribes who were then subjugated as Caesar describes in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico:
The occasion of that war was this: Publius Crassus, a young man, had taken up his winter-quarters with the seventh legion among the Andes, who border upon the Ocean. He, as there was a scarcity of corn in those parts, sent out some officers of cavalry [who would be equites], and several military tribunes [who would be of senatorial rank] among the neighbouring states, for the purpose of procuring corn and provision; in which number Titus Terrasidius was sent among the Esubii; Marcus Trebius Gallus among the Curiosolitae; Quintus Velanius, [and] Titus Silius, amongst the Veneti.
Leptis or Lepcis Parva was a Phoenician colony and Carthaginian and Roman port on Africa's Mediterranean coast, corresponding to the modern town Lemta, just south of Monastir, Tunisia. In antiquity, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the region.
The gens Minucia was an ancient Roman family, which flourished from the earliest days of the Republic until imperial times. The gens was apparently of patrician origin, but was better known by its plebeian branches. The first of the Minucii to hold the consulship was Marcus Minucius Augurinus, elected consul in 497 BC.
The gens Titia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The gens is rarely mentioned in the Republican period, and did not rise out of obscurity till a very late time. None of its members obtained the consulship under the Republic, and the first person of the name who held this office was Marcus Titius in BC 31.
The gens Sextia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome, from the time of the early Republic and continuing into imperial times. The most famous member of the gens was Lucius Sextius Lateranus, who as tribune of the plebs from 376 to 367 BC, prevented the election of the annual magistrates, until the passage of the lex Licinia Sextia, otherwise known as the "Licinian Rogations," in the latter year. This law, brought forward by Sextius and his colleague, Gaius Licinius Calvus, opened the consulship to the plebeians, and in the following year Sextius was elected the first plebeian consul. Despite the antiquity of the family, only one other member obtained the consulship during the time of the Republic. Their name occurs more often in the consular fasti under the Empire.
The gens Considia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The Considii came to prominence in the last century of the Republic, and under the early Empire, but none of them rose any higher than the praetorship.
The gens Munatia was a plebeian family at Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned during the second century BC, but they did not obtain any of the higher offices of the Roman state until imperial times.
The gens Nasidia was an obscure plebeian family at Rome. The gens is best known from Quintus Nasidius, one of the admirals of Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus during the Civil War. Although none of the Nasidii are known to have held any of the higher offices of the Roman state, a number are known from inscriptions. A coin of this gens depicts the head of Pompeius and a trident on the obverse, and on the reverse a ship, with the inscription Q. Nasidius.
The gens Pedia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned in history during the final century of the Republic, and for the next two centuries they were distinguished in statesmanship, rhetoric, art, and law. The first of the Pedii to obtain the consulship was Quintus Pedius, the nephew of Caesar, in 43 BC.
The gens Petreia was a minor plebeian family at ancient Rome. Members of this gens are first mentioned toward the end of the second century BC, and several were distinguished as soldiers, but none of them ever attained the consulship.
Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, or rather Lucius Varenus and Titus Pulfio were two Roman centurions mentioned in the personal writings of Julius Caesar. Although it is sometimes stated they were members of the 11th Legion, Caesar never states the number of the legion concerned, giving only the words in ea legione. All that is known is that the legion in which they served under Caesar was one commanded at the time by Quintus Cicero.
Quintus Nasidius, sometimes referred to as Lucius Nasidius, was a Roman naval commander who lived during the 1st century BC and sided with the Optimates during Caesar's Civil War.