Caesar (Classics) Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

"Recall to your mind and ponder the fact that C. Caesar, while engaged in a most formidable war in Gaul, wrote ... two books of the most meticulous character On Analogy, discussing amid flying darts the declension of nouns, and the aspiration of words and their classification mid the blare of bugles and trumpets [Fro. Parth. 9 transl. Haines]."

In a letter to the emperor Marcus Aurelius, the grammarian and rhetorician Fronto refers to Caesar to encourage his former pupil to dedicate some of his time to intellectual activities. Fronto’s passage is one of the few testimonies to Caesar’s linguistic interests, which culminated in the writing of a treatise in two books, De Analogia. Suetonius (Jul. 56) reports the episode in less romanticized terms, confirming the title and the number of books of the work, and also adding detail about its composition, namely that it was written “while crossing the Alps and returning from Hither Gaul, where he had held the assizes”. Caesar’s treatise is also mentioned by Quintilian (1.7.35) and Gellius, who also transmits two important quotations. The first (1.10.4) is a fortunate aphorism:

[fr. 2]1 Avoid, as you would a rock [scopulum], every unheard and unusual word [inauditum atque insolens verbum].

The second piece, quoted by Gellius, is found in an anecdotic passage (19.8.1-8), in which the same Fronto, engaged in a grammatical discussion, invites his audience to read an excerpt of the De Analogia. The passage quoted is a rhetorical question, in which Caesar apparently opposes a naturalistic conception of language:

[fr. 11B] Surely you do not think that it happens from the nature of these things that we say ‘one land’ and ‘several lands’ ... and that we cannot convert quadrigae into a singular nominal form or harena into a form of the plural, do you?

Another important testimony to De Analogia is found in Cicero. In his rhetorical work Brutus (253), finished in 46 BC, Cicero attests that in the midst of the most absorbing activities (in maxumis occupationibus) Caesar wrote with great care (accuratissime), and dedicated to Cicero himself a treatise on the method of “speaking correct Latin” (de ratione loquendi).
Cicero also quotes two passages from the text. The first, short and paraphrased, is a summary of what seems to be Caesar’s theory of eloquence as presented in De Analogia

(fr. 1A “[Caesar] affirmed that the choice of words is the source of eloquentia”), to which Cicero makes further allusion in a later passage (Brutus 258 = fr. 1C).

The second quotation, in Caesar's own words (his verbis), is a convoluted and flattering (and probably ironic) extract from Caesar's dedication to Cicero:

[fr. 1B] And if, to the task of giving brilliant expression to their thought, some have devoted study and practice - and we must recognize that you [i.e. Cicero] have deserved well of the name and prestige of the Roman people as almost the pioneer and inventor of this resource - yet are we now to consider that the
knowledge of this easy and everyday speech may be neglected [facilem et cotidianum novisse sermonem nunc pro relicto est habendum]?

The dedication to Cicero and the reference to rhetoric are important elements for the reconstruction of the work. They suggest that the treatise was somehow related to Cicero’s rhetorical discourse, and in particular, as will be discussed below, that in all likelihood De Analogia is a ‘response’ to De Oratore (published in 55). Combining these elements with the information on the assizes reported by Suetonius (which excludes 53 and 52), one can suggest the spring 54 as a probable date of composition.
The final piece of evidence for De Analogia consists of a number of passages from grammatical treatises quoting linguistic views of Caesar.
This slight but yet intriguing evidence raises some crucial questions. Why did Caesar dedicate some of his precious time, in such a momentous period, to write a grammatical treatise? What was the content of this work? What was its background? To whom did Caesar address his treatise? What grammatical theory did he adhere to and why? Is there any relation between Caesar's grammatical stance and his other cultural enterprises, such as his reform of the calendar or his supposed Epicureanism? Did De Analogia have a role in Caesar's political agenda?
In this chapter I will address these questions: first I will analyze the fragments of De Analogia and discuss the grammatical background, in order to reconstruct the content and aims of the treatise. I will then explore the relation of these with Caesar’s other intellectual achievements and with the rhetorical, philosophical and political discourse of the late Republic, focusing in particular on the position of the De Analogia in the controversy with Cicero.