The Conquest of Gaul

Caesar’s own account, in the third person, of eight years of campaigning in Gaul, Germany and Britain. It is a primary source and a piece of political self-presentation at the same time — written in plain, fast Latin and circulated in Rome while the war was still going on, by a general who needed the Senate to keep funding him. That double character is the reason to read it in a curriculum: it is both the best surviving description of Gallic and Germanic societies and a demonstration of how a commander writes his own record.

Context: Julius Caesar (100-44 BC) conquered Gaul between 58 and 50 BC, then turned the army that did it against the Republic. The commentaries have been a standard Latin schoolbook for centuries.

Connections

• A Library to Build Great Americans — the 468-title curriculum this card came from; listed in the Ages 13-99+ band under History.
• Julius Caesar — the author.
• Rome — the republic Caesar was writing to, and would shortly end.
• War — the subject.
• Leadership — command as the book presents it, in its own words.