The Civil War

Name: The Civil War
Rating: 4.4 (50 reviews)

by Julius Caesar

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3.9(50)

Caesar’s Civil War gives the victor’s account of the conflict with Pompey and the senatorial coalition from the crossing into Italy in 49 BCE through Spain, Massilia, Greece and the campaign that culminated at Pharsalus. It also leads into the Alexandrian War and the eastern aftermath. The book is a useful source for routes, sieges, negotiations, army movements and Caesar’s own argument about legality, clemency and necessity.

Because Caesar is both commander and narrator, the work must also be read as political self-defence. He repeatedly presents his own actions as restrained and necessary while attributing escalation to opponents. That bias does not reduce the account’s value, but it makes the text especially revealing about how a Roman general wanted soldiers, senators and later readers to understand the collapse of republican government.

Historical Periods

Crossing of the Rubicon49 BCE Battle of Pharsalus48 BCE Siege of Massilia49 BCE Late Roman Republic133–27 BCE Alexandrian War48–47 BCE Classical Historiography500 BCE–250 CE