SC - De Bello Gallico was: Celtic Dung Fires

[Philip & Susan Troy]

brokk wrote:
> 
> >
> 
> Where did he write this ?  In "De Bello Gallico" or somewhere else ?

As I recall, in "De Bello Gallico", originally a series of military
despatches to the Senate.

> When it comes to Caesar his writings are far from accurate sometimes, but i
> guess it all depends on where he got his information from.

I suppose the possibility also exists that he was joking. Caesar never
got to Scandinavia, AFAIK, but he did get to what was then thought of as
Germany, which included parts of northern Gaul and what is now Denmark
as well.

>  He wrote a little
> about Scandinavia (Thule) and to say the least, someone pulled his leg big
> time...  I recall some thing about how elks were caught and to make a long story
> short it gave the impression they were picked like mushrooms *boggle* but IIRC
> Caesar never set his foot in Scandinavia so it must have been 2nd hand info.

Again, as I recall he was writing of Germany, not that that makes much
difference as far as elk culture is concerned ;  ) .

> He
> spent quite a lot of time in Gaul on the other hand, so it would be a _lot_ more
> reliable information.

Possibly. Unfortunately we don't have a heck of a lot else to go on for
the time/place.

> Speaking of DBC....Has anyone been able to find an english translation of it ?
> I've searched for it but only come up with smaller parts/extracts on-line which
> were still in Latin which is not, I'm sorry to say, on my list of languages I'm
> fluent in.

Penguin Classics has two volumes in paperback, covering Caesar's major
works. One is entitled "The Gallic Wars", the other "The Civil Wars".
And then there's columnist Russell Baker's essay, originally published
in the New York Times Magazine, later reprinted in "So This is
Depravity", entitled "Caesar's Peurile Wars", being a recently
rediscovered firsthand account of what the teenage Gaius Julius Caesar
did on his summer vacation, such as making the acquisition of the
paternal chariot and joyriding through the streets of Rome, making the
ejection of empty Falernian wine bottles onto prominent Senatorial
lawns, and going in quest of frumentum, all without benefit of the
license to drive thereof. (Yes, he's kidding, but it's wonderful stuff,
containing, in literal English translation, every pitfall Baker
experienced as a Latin student.) 

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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