Caesar and the Bellum Alexandrinum

An Analysis of Style, Narrative Technique, and the Reception of Greek Historiography

By (author) Bianca C. Hausburg By (author) Jan Felix Gaertner

Book cover: Caesar and the Bellum Alexandrinum

Extent: 372 pages

Publisher: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht

Subjects: Classical Studies, Literary Studies

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(September 2013)

ISBN: 9783525253007

6.3 x 9.33 inches

Price: $163.00

Out of stock

The book is the first monograph on the Bellum Alexandrinum for 80 years. It demonstrates that the Bellum Alexandrinum is heterogeneous with regard to its style, narrative technique, and the density and quality of the historical information. This suggests that the work is a conglutination of accounts by a number of different authors. The first section is likely to go back to Julius Caesar himself. The analysis sheds new light on the composition of the Corpus Caesarianum, the war of words preceding and following Caesar’s assassination, and the development of Roman historiography in the first century BC.


English summary: The book is the first monograph on the Bellum Alexandrinum for 80 years. It demonstrates that the Bellum Alexandrinum is heterogeneous with regard to its style, narrative technique, and the density and quality of the historical information. This suggests that the work is a conglutination of accounts by a number of different authors. The first section is likely to go back to Julius Caesar himself. The analysis sheds new light on the composition of the Corpus Caesarianum, the war of words preceding and following Caesar’s assassination, and the development of Roman historiography in the first century B.C. German description: Das Bellum Alexandrinum beschreibt die Ereignisse des romischen Burgerkriegs zwischen 49 und 47 v.Chr. und berichtet von Caesars Aufenthalt im agyptischen Alexandria und seiner Auseinandersetzung mit Ptolemaios XIII. Die beiden Autoren widmen sich in diesem Buch vor allem den bisher weitgehend unerforschten Aspekten der literarischen Technik sowie den Bezugen des Bellum Alexandrinum zur griechischen und fruhen romischen Historiografie. Zugleich bietet das Buch aber auch eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Sprache und rekonstruiert die Umstande der Entstehung. Es zeigt, dass der Bericht aus mehreren Einzelberichten zusammengefugt wurde, die sich sprachlich, inhaltlich und erzahltechnisch deutlich voneinander unterscheiden.

  • By (author) Bianca C. Hausburg
  • By (author) Jan Felix Gaertner

"Caesar and the Bellum Alexandrinum, the first full-length study of the Bellum Alexandrinum since Otto Seel's 1935 Hirtius, is a timely contribution to the lively field of Roman historiography. The fact that many long-standing questions about it still lack definitive answers only increases the importance of the ground-breaking step taken here in asking new questions of this fascinating text." -- Cynthia Damon, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2014.09.23
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