Poems by Julius Caesar
Poems by Julius Caesar are mentioned by several sources in antiquity.[1] None are extant.
The titles of two works Caesar wrote as a young man are known, a Laudes Herculis ("Praises of
Surviving texts
A single incomplete line survives that might come from the Iter, quoted by Isidore of Seville[9] in discussing the word unguentum, "ointment":
Certain unguents, however, are referred to by place of origin. An example is telinum,[10] as Julius Caesar notes when he says 'We lubricate our bodies with soothing telinum.' This was concocted on the island of Telos, which is one of the Cyclades.
The quoted phrase corpusque suaui telino unguimus is part of a
In his Life of
Reception
Tacitus considered their loss a happy accident for the dictator's literary reputation:[17]
For Caesar and
References
- ^ Pliny, Natural History 19.8.144; Tacitus, Dialogus de oratoribus 21; Suetonius 56; Nonius Marcellus fr. 15; Isidorus, Etymologiae 4.12.7; Firmicus Maternus, Matheseos 2. pr. 2.
- ^ Plutarch, Life of Caesar 2, Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius online.
- ^ Pliny, Epistulae 5.3.5, Latin text at The Latin Library.
- ^ Gian Biagio Conte, Latin Literature: A History (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), p. 226 online.
- ^ Brevis et simplex.
- ^ Suetonius, Julius Caesar 56, Bill Thayer's edition at LacusCurtius online.
- ^ Lucilius 3; Courtney, Fragmentary Latin Poets, p. 187.
- ^ Llewelyn Morgan, "Escapes from Orthodoxy: Poetry of the Late Republic," in Literature in the Roman World (Oxford University Press, 2000), pp. 336–339 online.
- ^ Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 4.12.7, Bill Thayer's edition of the Latin text at LacusCurtius online.
- ^ "A fragrant ointment made from fenugreek": Oxford Latin Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985), p. 1911.
- ^ Courtney, Fragmentary Latin Poets, p. 187.
- ^ Priscilla Throop, Isidore of Seville's Etymologies: Complete English Translation (2005), notes to XII online; William D. Sharpe, "Isidore of Seville: The Medical Writings," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 54 (1964), p. 63 online. Michael von Albrecht takes no position on the attribution of this line, but notes that Caesar was likely influenced by his uncle; see A History of Roman Literature: From Livius Andronicus to Boethius (Brill, 1997), p. 409 online.
- ^ Suetonius, Life of Terence 7.
- ^ Courtney, Fragmentary Latin Poets, p. 155.
- ^ Puri sermonis amator.
- ^ Courtney, Fragmentary Latin Poets, pp. 153–154; Lindsay Hall, "Ratio and Romanitas in the Bellum Gallicum," in Julius Caesar as Artful Reporter: The War Commentaries as Political Instruments (Classical Press of Wales, 1998).
- ^ Unless otherwise noted, citations of primary sources and general overview from Edward Courtney, The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), pp. 153–155 and 187–188.
- ^ Tacitus, Dialogus 21.6, English translation (including remarks on Caesar as a public speaker) by W. Hamilton Fyfe, Tacitus: Dialogus, Agricola, and Germania (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908), p. 22 online; Latin with notes online.
Bibliography
- Courtney, Edward. The Fragmentary Latin Poets. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993.