Gaius Julius Caesar: life, works and translation of the versions of De Bello Gallico, discover all the versions translated from Latin to Italian.
Do you have an unbridled need for translated versions of Gaius Julius Caesar for your schoolwork or for tests? Latin, for some, is a nasty beast, we know, but from now on, thanks to our resources you will no longer have problems studying the life and works of Caesar , one of the most influential and famous figures in the history of Rome; and above all you will no longer have difficulties with the Latin versions because we will make all our resources available to facilitate your study!
Continue reading and you will have many surprises: you will find the fundamental phases of the life of the Roman dictator, all of his literary production, with references to works that have been lost or fragmented and, finally, very importantly, the translation of many versions of Caesar.
JULIUS CAESAR: BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
Full Name : Gaius Julius Caesar
Date of Birth : July 13, 100 BC (Rome)
Date of Death by Assassination : March 15, 44 BC (Rome)
Spouse : Cornelia Cinna Minor (84 BC – 69 BC)
Children : Augustus, Ptolemy XV, Julia
JULIUS CAESAR: LIFE IN BRIEF
Gaius Julius Caesar is one of the most important protagonists of ancient history: he was a soldier, consul, dictator, orator and writer and is considered one of the most influential figures in Rome during the transition from the republican to the imperial form of government.
The main sources for the life and role of Gaius Julius Caesar are the Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius and the Parallel Lives by Plutarch. Here is a chronological summary of the events to remember:
- 100 BC (or 102 BC) : Caesar was born on July 13, 101 or July 12, 100 BC in the Suburra, a district of Rome, from an ancient patrician family, the gens Iulia on his father’s side, and from the gens Aurelia , on his mother’s side. According to myth, the gens Iulia had a famous ancestor, Romulus, and descended from Iulus, or Ascanius, son of the Trojan prince Aeneas, whose mother was the goddess Venus.
- 83 BC : Marries Cornelia Cinna Minor, daughter of Lucius Cornelius Cinna, ally of Gaius Marius in the civil war
- 78 BC : After leaving Rome for political reasons, he returns to the city immediately after the death of Sulla; it is in this year that he delivers the first political oration.
- 74 BC : He goes to Rhodes to learn Greek culture and philosophy
- 73 BC : Takes part in the Mithridatic War in Asia
- 72 BC or 71 BC : He becomes military tribune, being the first of those elected
- 69 BC : Caesar delivers funeral eulogies for his aunt Julia, widow of Gaius Marius, and for his wife Cornelia
- 69 BC : His political rise begins: from quaestorship to consulate (69-59 BC)
- 68 BC : He begins his cursus honorum with the support of the populares . In the same year he becomes quaestor in Spain
- 65 BC : He is elected aedile
- 63 BC : He is Pontifex Maximus. He delivers an oration in the Senate against the condemnation to death of the Catilinarians without due process.
- 62 BC : He is praetor
- 61 BC : He repudiates his second wife Pompeia, Sulla’s niece, whom he married after the death of his first wife.
- 60 BC : First Triumvirate. Caesar makes an agreement, a strategic alliance with two of the greatest political leaders of the time: Crassus and Pompey
- 59 BC : He is consul for the first time. In the same year he marries Calpurnia.
- 58 BC : Caesar obtains with the Lex Vatinia of March 1st and thanks to the help of the triumvirate, the proconsulate of the provinces of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum for five years, with an army composed of three legions (VII, VIII and IX). Shortly after, he is also entrusted with the province of Narbonensis.
- 58-52 BC : Campaigns in Gaul against the Helvetii and the Germans of Ariovistus; having stopped the Germanic invasions, he was victorious, thus establishing his own hegemony over the territory, extending, through other operations, the Roman conquest also to Gallia Belgica.
- 56 BC : Conference of Lucca and renewal of the triumvirate agreement
- 55-53 BC : Expeditions to Germany and Britain
- 52-50 BC : Vercingetorix’s revolt and the final subjugation of Gaul: Battle of Avaricum, Battle of Gergovia and Battle of Alesia
- 51 BC : Publishes the Commentarii de bello Gallico
- 50 BC : Caesar asks to be able to run again without returning to Rome but the proposal is rejected by the Senate
- 49-45 BC : Civil war; on January 7, 49 BC he is declared a public enemy. On January 10 he crosses the Rubicon uttering the historic phrase “ alea iacta est ”
- 48 BC : He defeats Pompey at Pharasalus. He goes to Egypt, allying himself with Cleopatra. In the kingdom of the Pharaohs there was a dynastic dispute between Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra VII. Caesar decided to recognize Cleopatra as sovereign, with whom he had a love affair and fathered a son, Ptolemy XV, better known as Caesarion.
- 46 BC : He defeats the Pompeians of Africa at Thapsus. He is Pontifex Maximus and dictator, but he holds the latter position for a short time.
- 45 BC : Defeats the Pompeians of Spain at Munda. Returns to Rome and initiates important political, administrative, social reforms, reorganizes the army and the city. Adopts Gaius Octavian
- 44 BC : He is dictator for life: he thus definitively establishes his total control over Rome
- 44 BC : he appoints himself and Mark Antony as consuls and Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus as praetors but the latter begins to organize an anti-Caesar conspiracy.
- March 15, 44 BC : The Ides of March. Caesar is killed by republican conspirators
- March 20, 44 BC: Caesar’s body is cremated in the forum
- Caesarion, the natural son of Caesar and Cleopatra VII, could never claim any right of succession. His heir is his young eighteen-year-old great-grandson Octavius.
JULIUS CAESAR: THE WORKS
Caesar wrote many orations, epistles, works in verse, pamphlets, grammatical treatises, etc., but only a few fragments of these works have come down to us. The Commentarii , or military and administrative reports of the magistrates in office, have instead come down to us in their entirety. These were very successful and had a following under Caesar, becoming a true literary genre. Here is the complete production of Gaius Julius Caesar:
- Commentarii de bello Gallico : the work is made up of seven books, plus an eighth book, probably composed by Caesar’s lieutenant, Aulus Hirtius, to complete the account of the campaign and chronologically conclude the story of the war operations. The verses that have come down to us deal with the events of the Gallic campaign from 58 to 52 BC, with the description of the military enterprises and with references to interesting ethno-geographical excursus . It is a dry and aseptic work, but with a linear and pleasant style.
- Commentarii de bello civili: Divided into three books, they constitute the account of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey between 49 and 48 BC and the explanation for his refusal to obey the Senate. The date of composition is uncertain. From a contextual point of view, unlike De bello Gallico, the political elements prevail over the military ones.
Lost works include :
- Various orations , including the funeral eulogy of his aunt Julia where he affirmed the descent of the gens Julia from Iulus and therefore from Aeneas and Venus
- De analogia : a treatise in two books on problems of language and style, completed in the summer of 54
- Youthful poetic compositions
- A collection of memorable sayings
- A poem about the expedition to Spain in 45
- Anticato or Anticatones in two books, against the memory of Cato of Uticensis
- An epigram in verse on Terence, of which only a few fragments have reached us.
Finally, spurious works are, in addition to the eighth book of De bello Gallico and the accounts of the latest events of the civil war, composed by Caesar’s officers, three works of the so-called Corpus Caesarianum :
- Bellum Hispaniense : on the war in Spain
- Bellum Africum : on the war in Africa
- Bellum Alexandrinum : on the war in the Middle East and Egypt
JULIUS CAESAR: TRANSLATED VERSIONS
After this overview of the life and works of Gaius Julius Caesar and after having placed his figure in the historiographical context, all that remains is to give you some versions translated from Latin to Italian of his literary production. Below you will find a list of the most searched:
