(3) CAESAR’S LOST WORKS

1. De Analog i a , a treatise on grammar in two Books, dedicated to Cicero (Cic. Brut. 253) and composed in the interval between two of the campaigns in Gaul. Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit et de Analog i a duos libros... In transitu Alpium, cum ex citeriore Gallia convent i bus per act is ad exercitum rediret... fecit.’ It supported the view that analog i a , not anomalia , should be the governing principle in grammar, i.e. that order should be introduced into the chaos of varying usages. Gellius i. 10, 4 has a notable quotation from the first Book, ‘Habe semper in memoria atque in pectore, ut tamquam scopulum sic fugias inauditum atque in so lens verbum.’ 2. De Astris , a book on astronomy, written apparently in connexion with the rectification of the calendar, B.C. 46, perhaps in Greek. Suet on i us says nothing about it, but it was known to Macrobius, Saturn. , i. 16, 39, ‘Iulius Caesar... siderum motus, de quibus non indoctos libros reliquit, ab A egypt i is disciplinis hausit.’ The liber de com put at i one and liber fastorum , attributed to Caesar by the Scholiast on Lucan, x. 185, 187, may have formed part of the De Astris . 3. Antic a tones , written B.C. 45, in reply to Cicero’s panegyric on Cato, with flattering references to Cicero himself. Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit et de Analog i a duos libros et Antic a tones totidem.... Sub temp us Mundensis proelii fecit.’ Cicero expre es himself as highly pleased with the book, ad Att. xiii. 51, ‘bene existimo de ill is libris, ut tibi coram’; but his tone is different in Topic a , 94, ‘quibus omnibus generibus us us est nim is impudenter Caesar contra Catonem meum.’ 4. Apophthegm at a , a collection of notable sayings, probably growing out of the Dicta Collectanea of Sueton. Iul. 56, and completed B.C. 46-5. Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16, 4, ‘audio Caesarem, cum volumina iam confecerit ἀποφθεγμάτων , si quod afferatur ad eum pro meo, quod meum non sit, reicere solere.’ 5. Letters. —In the time of Suet on i us, Caesar’s official despatches to the Senate were extant, and also private letters to Cicero and other friends, e.g. his confidants Balbus and Oppius. In these a cypher was, where nece ary, employed. Cf. Sueton. Iul. 56, and Gell. xvii. 9, 1. 6. Speeches. —About a dozen titles of speeches are known, but only a few detached words and phrases survive. As an orator, Caesar stood in the front rank (Sueton. Iul. 55). For encomiums on his style see Cic. Brut. 252, and Quintilian, x. 1, 114, who considered him second only to Cicero, and remarkable for vis , acumen , concitatio , and elegant i a . The language of Tac. Dial. 21 is le complimentary, ‘Nisi forte quisquam aut Caesar is pro Decio Samnite aut Bruti pro Deiotaro rege ceterosque eiusdem lentitudinis ac teporis libros legit, nisi qui et carmina eorumdem miratur.’ 7. Poems. —Caesar in his youth composed a poem in praise of Hercules, and a tragedy, Oedipus . Plutarch ( Caes. 2) speaks of him as reciting poems of his own composition to the pirates who took him prisoner. On his journey from Rome to Spain, B.C. 46, he wrote a descriptive poem with the title of Iter . Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit... poem a quod inscribitur Iter... [fecit] dum ab urbe in His pan i am ulteriorem quarto et vicensimo die pervenit... Feruntur et a puero et ab adulescentulo quaedam script a, ut Laudes Herculis, tragoedia Oedipus, item Dicta Collectanea: quos omnes libellos vetuit August us publicari, in epistula quam brevem admodum ac simplicem ad Pompeium Macrum, cui ordinand as bibliothecas dele gave rat, mis it.’ Pliny the younger mentions Caesar as a love poet ( Ep. v. 3, 5). His poetry is spoken of by Tacitus in no flattering terms, Dial. 21, ‘fecerunt enim [Caesar et Brutus] et carmina et in bibliothecas rettulerunt, non melius quam Cicero, sed felicius, qui a illos feci e pauciores sciunt.’ The only extant lines are those on Terence ( q.v. ).