Caesar's Civil War [Paperback]

Caesar'sCivil War, the story of the general's contest with the Pompeian party through nineteen months of civil war, is an unfinished masterpiece. The author abandoned it when he found himself living in a different world than that which saw its commencement. The narrative ends after Pompey's death, amidst the preliminaries to the Alexandrian war that initiated the next phase of the fight for primacy of Rome. The work shows the brilliance for which Caesar's oratory, like his generalship, was known: it was a political judgment, not a literary one, that relegated theCivil Warto the file drawer. The primary topics covered in this introductory book are the generic background of Caesar'scommentariior notebooks; his selection of material; the contemporary context of the civil war; the literary techniques that carry the story; and the work's characterization and structure. General aids to the reader include maps to accompany the particular narrative events discussed, a timeline of Caesar's life and the civil war, explanations of technical terms of Roman history, and a section on Roman names and prominent persons of Caesar's time.

Editors' Foreword
Preliminary Note
Introduction

1. Choices: Genre, Content, Style
2. Structure as Argument inCivil War
3. Taking Sides, Making Sides
4. Mastering Victory
5. Writing Fighting War

Epilogue: Surviving Failure

William W. Batstone and Cynthia Damon have put Caesar's writings back on the map withCaesar's Civil War, showing how odd it is that Caesar's writing are consigned to Beginner's Latin when he is on everyone's short list of three smartest Romans. --Denis Feeney,Times Literary Supplement(Books of the Year)

This book should not be overlooked by scholars as but a students' companion, for even those familiar with Caesar's techniques will find force and insight in the lucid arguments of BatstonelC1