Caesar's Civil War

The Civil War is the story of Caesar's contest with the Pompeian party through nineteen months of civil war; it ends after Pompey's death, amidst the preliminaries to the Alexandrian war that initiated the next phase of the fight for primacy of Rome. The work shows the brilliance for which Caesar's oratory, like his generalship, was known. The primary topics to be covered in this introductory book will be the generic background of Caesar's commentarii, or "Notebooks," his selection of material, the contemporary context of the Civil War, the literary techniques that carry the story, and the work's characterization and structure.