Caesar’s War: A Comparison of the Different Accounts of the Roman Civil War
Abstract:
The Great Roman Civil War lasted from 49 to 45 B.C.E. and resulted in the Roman Republic collapsing. At some point before his assassination, Julius Caesar wrote his commentaries titled Civil War, which was used to defend his actions for fighting against the Roman Senate. One hundred years later a poet named Lucan wrote an epic on the war titled Pharsalia, and one hundred years after that a Greek historian with Roman citizenship named Appian of Alexandria wrote his Roman History on the Civil War. During these two hundred years, the details of what occurred during the war were altered to some degree as well as society’s view of both Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great. The differences between the three sources of Caesar, Lucan, and Appian provide important comparisons to understand what was written as truth and what was propaganda as well as how the views of two of Rome’s greatest generals changed over time.