Ab inimicis incitatus: On Dating the Composition of Caesar's Bellum Civile

R.T. Macfarlane: The Composition of Caesar's Bellum Civile 107 Ab inimicis incitâtus: On Dating the Composition of Caesar's Bellum Civile Roger T. Macfarlane The study of the circumstances under which Caesar wrote and published the Bellum Civile has been a battle of no Uttle consequence among scholars. The ground they fight over is a certain knowledge of when Caesar actually composed and disclosed die account of die civil war. To know the date of the composition and publication of the Bellum Civile is to hold the key to understanding Caesar's rhetorical stance in the narrative. Drawing upon external and internal evidence, scholars have argued various theories of composition which place Caesar's authorship either very early or very late. Indeed, in some hypotheses the composition of the Bellum Civile is placed so late in Caesar's life that the work is supposed to have been cut short at his death.1 The purpose of this paper is to examine Caesar's method of referring to his enemies and to suggest how this helps give a fairly precise date to die composition of one portion ofthe text. Klotz believed that Caesar was writing the Bellum Civile at the time of his death and tiiat the narrative was first pubUshed after Caesar's death.2 While the text has suffered from the process of textual transmission, at many especially difficult passages, according to Klotz, Caesar had left the text in sketches. Caesar intended to rewrite and correct this rough draft, and would have done so, had he not died unexpectedly. Contrarily, Barwick claimed in 1938 and more strongly in 1951 that 1 For summaries see M.T. Boatwright, "Caesar's Second Consulship and the Completion and Date of the Bellum Civile," CJ 84 (1988) 31, note 1; and H. Gesche, Caesar (Darmstadt 1976) 12125 , 276-81. 2 A. Klotz, "Zu Caesars Bellum Civile," RhM 66 (1911) 85-89; and id., ed., C. Iulii Caesaris Commentarii Belli Civilis, 2nd ed. (Leipzig 1969) ix. 108Syllecta Classica 7 (1996) Caesar had already published one edition of the Bellum Civile before the Ides of March. This edition, claims Barwick, was packed with falsehoods and errors that had been necessitated by the urgency of the circumstances surrounding their composition.3 This first edition would have been rewritten and corrected—made more honest—after the propaganda had worked its effects, had he Uved long enough to do it4 A paucity of definitive external evidence—a handful of statements in Cicero, Hirtius, and Suetonius—makes it difficult to determine with certainty when the Bellum Civile appeared.5 Klotz and Barwick disputed the meaning ofthese common passages to different ends. Collins advised that neither Barwick nor Klotz could with certainty use Hirtius, or Suetonius' report of Asinius Pollio's opinion, and that such external evidence might "just as well be used against Barwick as for him."6 If the external evidence is thrown out, the loss is not great.7 The examination of internal evidence, instead, makes it possible to determine when and how Caesar wrote the Bellum Civile. Collins took the position that Caesar composed the Bellum Civile by autumn 48 but left it unpublished.8 An abrupt psychological and philosophical change came over Caesar, when he found himself unchallenged at the conclusion of the war with Pompey.9 This freedom from opposition caused Caesar to initiate his contact with Egyptian monarchy, which contact brought a change of attitude and made itself manifest in his tiiird consulship. These events, according to ColUns, necessitated that 3 K. Barwick, "Caesars Commentarii und das Corpus Caesarianum," Philologus, supple. 31 (Leipzig 1938); id., Caesars Bellum Civile. Tendenz, Abfassungszeit und Stil (Berlin 1951) 131. 4 Barwick's argument (ibid.) caused Klotz to withdraw from using Pollio's critique in his second edition, conceding that nothing can be concluded from Suetonius, Julius 56.4. In withdrawing , Klotz acknowledged that already it had been demonstrated that the words of Pollio can apply to either the Bellum Gallicum or the Bellum Civile. Cf. A. de Meß, Das Erbe der Alten 7 (1913) 180, a response to Klotz' article of 191 1, "Zu Caesars Bellum Civile" (above, note 2), 5 Cicero, Brutus 262...