''De Bello Alexandrino'' (also ''Bellum Alexandrinum''; ''On the Alexandrine War'') is a

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

work continuing

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...

's commentaries, ''

De Bello Gallico ''Commentarii de Bello Gallico'' (; en, Commentaries on the Gallic War, italic=yes), also ''Bellum Gallicum'' ( en, Gallic War, italic=yes), is Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the Gallic Wars, written as a third-person narrative. In it Ca ...

'' and '' De Bello Civili''. It details Caesar's campaigns in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

Authorship

De Bello Alexandrino is followed by

De Bello Africo ''De Bello Africo'' (also ''Bellum Africum''; ''On the African War'') 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 Alexandri ...

and De Bello Hispaniensi. These three works end the Caesarean corpus relating

Caesar's Civil War Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was one of the last politico-military conflicts of the Roman Republic before its reorganization into the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations between Gaius Julius Caesar an ...

. Though normally collected and bound with Caesar's authentic writings, their authorship has been debated since antiquity.

Suetonius Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus (), commonly referred to as Suetonius ( ; c. AD 69 – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τ� ...

suggests both

Oppius The Oppian Hill (Latin, ''Oppius Mons''; it, Colle Oppio) is the southern spur of the Esquiline Hill, one of the Seven hills of Rome, Italy. It is separated from the Cispius on the north by the valley of the Suburra, and from the Caelian Hill ...

and

Hirtius Aulus Hirtius (; – 43 BC) 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. Biography He was a legate of Julius Caesar's sta ...

as possible authors of De Bello Alexandrino. Alfred Klotz demonstrates in great detail that the style of De Bello Alexandrino is very similar to the style of the eighth and last book of

, which is very commonly attributed to

. Thus it seems likely on stylistic grounds that if it was Hirtius who completed the Gallic Wars, it was Hirtius also who wrote De Bello Alexandrino. But if he did so, his knowledge of the campaign was second-hand, as the author of De Bello Gallico, VIII writes in the introductory chapter: "For myself, I had not the occasion to take part in the Alexandrian and African wars" (''Mihi ne illud quidem accidit, ut Alexandrino atque Africano bello interessem''). A recent computer-assisted stylistic analysis 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; in which case, the ''De Bello Alexandrino'' would have been written by an unknown author.Zhang (2018).

References

Bibliography

* Jean Andrieu: ''Guerre d’Alexandrie''. Paris 1954. * * Jan Felix Gaertner, Bianca C. Hausburg: ''Caesar and the Bellum Alexandrinum. An Analysis of Style, Narrative Technique, and the Reception of Greek Historiography''. Göttingen 2013, . * Raphael Giomini: ''Bellum Alexandrinum''. Rome 1956. * Alfred Klotz: ''Cäsarstudien: nebst einer Analyse der Strabonischen Beschreibung von Gallien und Britannien''. Leipzig/Berlin 1910. * Gustav Landgraf: ''Untersuchungen zu Caesar und seinen Fortsetzern, insbesondere über Autorschaft und Komposition des Bellum Alexandrinum und Africanum''. Erlangen 1888. * Carl Nipperdey: ''C. Iulii Caesaris commentarii cum supplementis A. Hirtii et aliorum. Caesaris Hirtiique fragmenta''. Leipzig 1847. * Heinz Pötter: ''Untersuchungen zum Bellum Alexandrinum und Bellum Africanum. Stil und Verfasserfrage''. Leipzig 1932. * Rudolf Schneider: ''Bellum Alexandrinum''. Berlin 1888. * Zhang, Olivia R., Trevor Cohen & Scott McGill. “Did Gaius Julius Caesar Write ''De Bello Hispaniensi''? A Computational Study of Latin Classics Authorship”. HUMAN IT 14.1 (2018): 28–58 {{latin-stub Depictions of Julius Caesar in literature Latin histories Roman Alexandria

Authorship

See also

References

Bibliography