Commentarii de Bello Civili
Commentarii de Bello Civili
Caesar's account of the civil war against Pompey argues that the war was forced on him by an intransigent Senate faction that refused a negotiated peace, casting himself throughout as the reluctant defender of his own dignity rather than an aggressor against the republic.
- civil war framed as forced self-defense, not aggression
- clemency toward enemies as political messaging
- unfinished, breaking off during the Alexandrian campaign
- history written mid-war as active propaganda
An unfinished, three-book account of the civil war Caesar fought against Pompey and the Senate faction that expelled him from legitimate politics in 49 BC, covering the war from its outbreak through the Alexandrian campaign, where the narrative breaks off before Caesar's own continuators picked up the story. Written in the same terse commentarii style as the Bellum Gallicum, the work is even more openly partisan, consistently presenting Caesar as acting in self-defense and portraying his clemency toward defeated enemies as evidence of his fitness to lead. Modern historians read it less as neutral record than as a carefully engineered piece of political self-justification aimed at Roman opinion during an ongoing civil war.
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