Caesar and the Gallic War

Oxford Latin Anthology – Bravery and Strategy in Battle

In this course, Professor Christopher Whitton (University of Cambridge) explores the Pullo and Vorenus episode from Caesar’s Gallic War. It will be particularly useful for those reading the ‘Bravery and strategy in battle’ set text for OCR Latin GCSE (J282). In the first lecture we provide an introduction to Julius Caesar himself, his campaigns in Gaul, and his accounts of these campaigns in De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War). After that, in the second lecture, we look more closely at the Titus and Vorenus episode in Book 5 of the Gallic War. And in the third letter, we turn to the episode in which Quintus writes a letter to Caesar requesting military support, and the importance of letters in Caesar’s narrative more generally. The course ends with some suggestions for further reading.

Caesar and the Gallic War

In this lecture we provide an introduction to Julius Caesar and his account of the conquest of Gaul, De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War), focusing in particular on: (i) the figure of Julius Caesar, his military and political career, his role in the civil wars, his assassination, and his legacy; (ii) Caesar’s account of his conquest of Gaul, De Bello Gallico (The Gallic War), including its structure and style; (iii) the ‘rhetoric’ of De Bello Gallico – how does this apparently simple, transparent account persuade us to adopt a particular point of view?