{"id":872,"date":"2011-03-11T13:32:45","date_gmt":"2011-03-11T11:32:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.military-history.us\/?p=872"},"modified":"2011-03-08T13:33:58","modified_gmt":"2011-03-08T11:33:58","slug":"book-review-sort-of-julius-caesar-the-gallic-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2011\/03\/book-review-sort-of-julius-caesar-the-gallic-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review (sort of): Julius Caesar -The Gallic Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Caesar&#8217;s <em>Gallic Wars<\/em> are a series of eight books that Caesar either wrote or had written detailing his actions during the eight years he was the Roman governor in Gaul. \u00a0 They are best understood as an exercise in propaganda because during the time he was away from Rome the books were an excellent way to keep his name in front of the people in Rome and to enhance his reputation and prestige. \u00a0 That being said, they are still invaluable as an account of his time there and as a look into the mind of one of the best politicians of the most powerful polity of his age.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0It is important to read the books always keeping in mind that they are works of propaganda and while generally factual they are deliberately written to make Caesar look good. \u00a0 What makes the Gallic Wars most impressive to me is that it is one of the few accounts from antiquity we have that relates the story of events from the commander\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perspective. \u00a0 The only other account similar that comes to my mind is the <em>Anabasis<\/em> of Thucydides.<\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0You can read all the traditional histories such as Gibbon, Hanson, Baker, or Turney. \u00a0 <strong>However, nothing can be as riveting as reading the story of events written by the man who was there himself.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00c2\u00a0I highly encourage anybody interested in Roman history to begin by reading the ancients themselves. \u00a0 Start with Tacitus, Josephus, Marcus Aurelius, Livy, Plutarch, and of course, Caesar Himself before delving into modern scholarship. \u00a0 Hearing what the ancients have to say puts all subsequent interpretations into the proper perspective in my view.<\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"http:\/\/rcm.\/e\/cm?t=patsmilhisblo-20&#038;o=1&#038;p=8&#038;l=as1&#038;asins=1934941425&#038;fc1=000000&#038;IS2=1&#038;lt1=_blank&#038;m=amazon&#038;lc1=0000FF&#038;bc1=000000&#038;bg1=FFFFFF&#038;f=ifr\" style=\"width:120px;height:240px;\" scrolling=\"no\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Caesar&#8217;s Gallic Wars are a series of eight books that Caesar either wrote or had written detailing his actions during the eight years he was the Roman governor in Gaul. \u00a0 They are best understood as an exercise in propaganda&#8230; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/2011\/03\/book-review-sort-of-julius-caesar-the-gallic-wars\/\">Continue Reading &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1222],"tags":[68,64,45,42,59,41],"class_list":["post-872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-classical-antiquity","tag-ancient-rome","tag-antiquity","tag-classical-warfare","tag-military-art","tag-operational-art","tag-tactics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.military-history.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}