The War for Gaul: A New Translation - Hardcover

Caesar, Julius

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 069117492X ISBN 13: 9780691174921

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2019

Synopsis

A new translation that captures the gripping power of one of the greatest war stories ever told―Julius Caesar’s pitiless account of his brutal campaign to conquer Gaul

Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army―a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature―perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists―and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar’s famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor’s dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland.

While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O’Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the “best bad man’s book ever written”―a great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been.

Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic―a book that, as O’Donnell says, “gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.”

About this title

About the Author

James J. O’Donnell is professor of history, philosophy, and religious studies and University Librarian at Arizona State University. His books include Pagans, The Ruin of the Roman Empire, and Augustine: A New Biography (all HarperCollins).

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 069117492X
• ISBN 13: 9780691174921
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 324