''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 spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
work continuing
Julius Caesar
Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 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 Caesar's civil wa ...
's commentaries, ''
De Bello Gallico'' and ''
De Bello Civili''. It details Caesar's campaigns in
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
and
Asia
Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
.
Authorship
De Bello Alexandrino is followed by ''
De Bello Africo'' and ''
De Bello Hispaniensi''. These three works end the Caesarean corpus relating
Caesar's Civil War
Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected ret ...
. 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 ( ; – after AD 122), was a Roman historian who wrote during the early Imperial era of the Roman Empire. His most important surviving work is ''De vita Caesarum'', common ...
suggests both
Oppius
The Oppian Hill (Latin language, Latin, ''Oppius Mons''; ) 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 as possible authors of De Bello Alexandrino.
Alfred Klotz (1910) demonstrated in great detail that the style of De Bello Alexandrino is very similar to the style of the eighth and last book of ''
De Bello Gallico'', which is very commonly attributed to
Hirtius. 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 detailed analysis of the style of the published in 2013 argues that "whereas the first part of the narrative of events in Alexandria (chh. 1-21) is particularly Caesarian, the conclusion of that panel (22-33), and the narratives of events in Illyricum (42-47), Spain (48-64), and Pontus (34-41, 65-78) are distinctly less so". The authors suggest that the book was put together by an author, probably Aulus Hirtius, on the basis of various sources written by other people. But they deny Hirtius's authorship of the whole work, stating: "The attribution of the Bellum Alexandrinum to Hirtius should no longer be regarded as a serious option".
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).]
See also
* ''
De Bello Africo''
* ''
De Bello Hispaniensi''
*
Caesar's civil war
Caesar's civil war (49–45 BC) was a civil war during the late Roman Republic between two factions led by Julius Caesar and Pompey. The main cause of the war was political tensions relating to Caesar's place in the Republic on his expected ret ...
for a brief account of the campaign
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
External links
{{latin-stub
Depictions of Julius Caesar in literature
Works about history in Latin
Roman Alexandria
Works about ancient Rome