Caesar was careful with his own language. His war with his rival Pompey -- the attack he was masterminding during his sojourn by the Rhône -- is not called a "civil war" by him. That pejorative name came later. He never described the "crossing of the Rubicon" in his memoirs either. The phrase that later denoted an irrevocable step or a self-justified illegality was avoided by the man who actually crossed that stream near Rimini in 49 B.C., formally leaving the province of Gaul, where he had lawful power, for Italy, where he did not.
--Peter Stothard What Came After The Ides of March, by Peter Stothard, review of 'Caesar: A Life in Western Culture', by Maria Wyke, The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2008
(via Arts & Letters Daily)Recommended reading:
by Julius Caesar at
Reading RatCriticism (articles, essays, reviews):
Caesar, Augustus and the fall of a republic, review by David Walton reviews
Caesar: Life of a Colossus, by Adrian Goldsworthy, and
Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor, by Anthony Everett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, October 13, 2006
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