Advisory Editor: Professor M. M. Willcock Julius Caesar THE CIVIL V/AR BOOKS I 8. II Edited with an Infroduction, Translation & Commentary by J. M. Carter {Qq t Aris & Phillips - Warminsten - England 153 COMMENTARY BOOK I 1.33 The capture of ltaly, Sicily and Sardinia 1-6 Caesar begins with the politícal moves made against him, and the tribunes who snpported him, in the first days of larunry. The aim is to show his chíef enemies a.s men who are unwilling to negotiate, contemptuons of the constitutíon, and actuated by discreditable personal motives. The clímax of this first section is the flight of the two tribunes from Rome on Jarunry 7th, but Caesar rounds it off wìth an account of the decßíons made hy the senate after they had gone, when hís enemies had a free lund to make the díspositions they wished. In spìte af hís supefficíally dispassionate tone, the presentation here is more consistenþ subjective and biased against his opponents thon anywhere else in the work. ' 1 L ...when Caesar's letter was delivered to the consuls: could Caesar have plunged thus, without introduction or explanation, into his narr¿tive? Modem editorial consensus (Fabre, Klotz, Oppermann, Trillitzsch) holds so, but there a¡e strong reasons for believing that at least several sentences have been lost from the start of the book: (a) the narative at the end of Bellum Gallicum I fails to join up properly with the beginning we have here, although Hirtius wrote it speciñcally to filI the gap between Caesar's two wodcs (8.G. 8 praef.); (b) the contents of Caesar's letter were very important and however hastily Caesar may have written the BC it is almost inconceivable that he did not spell out the offer he was making: that either he should be allowed to retain his command, or that all holders of commands should lay them down (cf. 9.3n.); (c) the principles of clear exposition inculcated by ancient education, nicely exemplified by Caesars 154 Book I i it improbable that caesar' famous introduction to his own Gallic war, make for all his directness, began quite so abruptly' (Appian 8.C.2.32,127;Dio The tetter ** io rrä urãoghr by c. curio claudius to the (L. Comelius Lentulus and c' 41.1.1), and delivered "o*utt Marcetlus)inthesenate-housesothattheycould.g!.'opp'"ssit.-Fabius' nafne'p¡esentinatlourMsS,isanigno,rantadditionmadewhenthe c. before cøesaris is also beginning of the book had aheady beerr lost. ql"diq from the record as intrusive, being against his practice except when mentions his own name in the at 13.1; note the |¿,A Cor*n wben ne first end of 50 B'C' see BG, at I.7.1. (F;; d* general situation at the sec.II). Introduction plebis, efforts of the tribunes: (I so translate tribuni the strenuous the pro- ,tribunes of ttre *ontt" tbroughouÐ. These will have been Cassius (see 2'7)' On the question Caesarian tribunes fUilf. Antonf and Q. possessed (and used) ttp of the motion to be debated, although the ribunes therefore have put Caesar's right of putting business to the senate, and could had to wait for the p¡îp"rrt tneñsefu"s, rhey enjoyed a low priority and ä"Uut" ioitiated by the consuls to reach its end' the bandbook which varo wfote to 2 a general debate on public affairs: in 14.7.9) he specified guide Pompey on-,,nuto1.ial procedure (Gellius NA, ('about public affairsl that debate could be either ínft.nite d.e republÍcø ('res6icted to individual without restriction') or de singutìs rebus finite new consuls' term of offtce, topics,). rn a crisis, and on the_first day of the fifth Phitìppic, deliverpd on the former was ctearly appropriate: Cìcero's (Phit'5'34' cf' 6'1)' Hoünans Jan. lst 43 8.C., *u"*,¿* à'" pubtica correctionoftheMss'incivitatet.oinftnitemu$be-fight. of prominertt noble consul Lucius Lentulus: L. comelius Iæntulus cn¡s, family,wasoneofthehard.lineopponentsofCaesar.Thankstothe at Luca in 56 he had been understanding reached by Pompey anA Caesar to have been elected for kept out of the .onrutrt ii for 5i, and was fortunate hitherto of the 49. His remarks refer to the understandable reluctance themselves to armed stnrggle moderate majority of the senate to commit for an agfeement' with Caesar *íthou, exploring all possibilities reference to his own ability Presumably tit o¿O *¿ tppaftotiy inconsistent tlat he too' like curio to,fall back on caesar's eavour and friendship'means a ptittt his debts were large (4'2) and Caeliu, Rotu;;;ight ct aoge sides for and his cupidity patent (Cic' Ar' 11'6'6)' Nasica had become Pompey's 4 scipio: Q. Caecilius Metellus Pius scipio 52, after Pompey had consular colleague and also his father-in-law in marry caesat's gfeat-niece tumed down caerar's proposal that he should Octavia (sister of the future emp€ror Augustus)' --:' Commentary t55 sâf, 2 I launched from Pompey's very lips: the metaphor, entirely appropriate in the context, is that of a weapon being hurled; orationem mittere is not used Dio as an expression by livy, Cicero, Sallust, or Caesar (this passage excepted), lius whereas Caesar frequently uses mittere with telum, pila, or the like (e.g 'lUS asseres missi,E.2.2). the since the senate was meeting in the city and Pompey was nearby: 'in úso the city'signiñes'within the pomoerium', the sacred boundary of the city. fas Caesar needs to mention this fact because the senate \ilas not infrequently the convened outside the pomoeriwn in order to allow holders of proconsular see imperium like Pompey, who could not enter the city unless they relinquished it, to express their views in person (6.1, Cic. Fam.8.4.4). The bís, logic of the clause is difñcult because Caesar is making clear that a) pro- Pompey was not present, but b) Scipio's speech was a true representation of tion his views because in a rather different sense Írc was present (that is, close by the in his house in the suburbs, cf. 3.1). The correction to aberat is tempting, lar's but unnecessary and logicatly inferior, because it produces no explanation the of the fact it pufports to explain. 2 Marcus Marcellus: M. Claudius Marcellus, consul in 51 and brother of te to Gaius, Lentulus' colleague. Both followed Pompey in the war, while their ,fied cousin C. Marcellus, who as consul had placed the sword in Pompey's hand airs, at ttp end of 50 (see Introduction sec. II), remained neutral, mindful dual perhaps of his marriage to Caesar's great-niece Octavia. fice, 3 Marcus Calidius, who gave it as his opinion that Pompey should leave lon for his provinces: M. Calidius, a leading orator of the day, had been lan's praetor in 57 and was one of those who, along with Cicero and Cato, attempted to save Milo from convicfion for the murder of Clodius in 52. oble Pompey's provinces were the two Spains, Nearer and Further, which he had the been appointed to govem by the Lex Trebonia of 55, but had not since been visited. He had exercised his authority in absentia through his legati f for (deputies, see 38.1) while he himself remained in the neighbourhood of the Rome, overseeing ttre com supply to the capital and even contriving to be ggle appointed to a constitutionally unprecedented sole consulship after Clodius' rent. murder. rility In the Latin, note the reflexive suas rcfernng obviously not to the lurio : s¡reaker, Calidius (who had no provinces), but to the nearer subject, (4.2) : Pompey. On the other hand, in the next part Calidius' remarks, \ of I explaining Caesa¡'s fears, Caesar uses the more correct ab eo and ad eíus a pey's perículum to refer to himself because there would have been fa¡ greater had I scope for misunderstanding of a similar reflexive, if he had chosen to úece employ it: Calidius, Pompey, and himself were all possible referents. the two legions that had been taken from him: the Parthians had defeated Crassus at Carrhae in the desert east of Syria in 53 B.C. and I continued to menace that province. To meet this threat the senate had I i I I I 156 Book I agreed in the summer of 50 to withdraw one legion each from Caesar and Pompey and send them to Syria. Pompey surrendered a legion which he had previously lent to Caesar, so that in effect Caesar's anny wÍls reduced by two legions (Hirt. BG 8.54). Both these (I a¡rd XV) came to Italy en route for fl¡e East, but were delayed there by Pompey as the likelihood of armed stn¡ggle with Caesar increased. Marcus Ruftrs: M. Caelius Rufi¡s was the talented and unstable young reprobate so brilliantly defended by Cicero in 56 B.C. He became tribune in 52, aedile in 50, and was by this time such a prominent-supporter of Caesar that he accompanied Q. Cassius and Antony on their flight from Rome a few days after this debate. 6 the majority ...voted unwillingly and under duress: a clearly subjective interpretation by Caesar of the vote against him. before a certain date: Mommsen argued from 9.2 that this was July lst, noting that Velleius (2.49.4) says that the senate voted that Caesar should 'retum as a private citizen to Rome and entn¡st himself as a consular candidate to the votes of the Roman people'; but the text is uncertain and the inference not inevitable.