CaesarsCommentarii

CaesarsCommentarii, in Latin commonly referred to as Caesar’s Commentaries, are a pair of firsthand narrative treatises written by Julius Caesar about his military campaigns. The best known are De Bello Gallico (On the Gallic War) and De Bello Civili (On the Civil War). These works present Caesar’s campaigns as continuous, organized narratives and are among the most important primary sources for late Republican history, military practice, and Roman provincial policy.

Authorship and purpose: attributed to Caesar himself, the commentaries were likely compiled during and after the campaigns to inform Roman readers and to justify his actions to the Senate and the people. They served political and propaganda aims, presenting Caesar as a capable commander and mindful of Roman interests, while also shaping public memory of events.

Content and style: the Gallic War covers Caesar’s campaigns in Gaul and interactions with Gallic tribes and Britain, blending military description with ethnography, geography, and occasional digressions. The Civil War recounts Caesar’s conflict against Pompey and the Roman Senate, detailing maneuvers, battles, and political developments. The prose is concise and practical, written in clear Latin, with an emphasis on observable facts and tactical reasoning, alongside occasional rhetorical self-presentation.

Reception and significance: Caesar’s commentaries became a foundational source for understanding Roman military practice and Republican politics. They influenced later Latin prose and were widely read in antiquity. Modern historians treat them as valuable though biased sources; they are complemented by other evidence to reconstruct events and assess Caesar’s motives and methods.

See also: De Bello Gallico, De Bello Civili, Julius Caesar, Roman history.