---
title: "The Deified Julius · Divus Julius"
author: "Suetonius"
translator: "John C. Rolfe"
languages: [la, en]
shelf: "Classical Latin"
section: 56 of 89
url: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/56/
cite: "Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe, The Deified Julius · Divus Julius, section 56. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/56/"
---

# The Deified Julius · Divus Julius

*Suetonius, tr. John C. Rolfe*

## 56. Chapter 56

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/56/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/suetonius-divus-julius-rolfe-1914/56/#p-N

[¶0] He left memoirs too of his deeds in the Gallic war and in the civil strife with Pompey; for the author of the Alexandrian, African, and Spanish Wars is unknown; some think it was Oppius, others Hirtius, who also supplied the final book of the Gallic War, which Caesar left unwritten. With regard to Caesar’s memoirs Cicero, also in the Brutus speaks in the following terms:

> Latin: Reliquit et rerum suarum commentarios Gallici civilisque belli Pompeiani. Nam Alexandrini Africique et Hispaniensis incertus auctor est; alii Oppium putant, alii Hirtium, qui etiam Gallici belli novissimum imperfectumque librum suppleverit.

*Note: Cic. Brut. 262*

[¶1] He wrote memoirs which deserve the highest praise; they are naked in their simplicity, straightforward yet graceful, stripped of all rhetorical adornment, as of a garment; but while his purpose was to supply material to others, on which those who wished to write history might draw, he haply gratified silly folk, who will try to use the curling-irons on his narrative, but he has kept men of any sense from touching the subject.

> Latin: De commentariis Caesaris Cicero in eodem Bruto sic refert: Commentarios scripsit valde quidem probandos; nudi sunt, recti et venusti, omni ornatu orationis tamquam veste detracta; sed dum voluit alios habere parata, unde sumerent qui vellent scribere historiam, ineptis gratum fortasse fecit, qui illa volent calamistris inurere, sanos quidem homines a scribendo deterruit.

[¶2] Of these same memoirs Hirtius uses this emphatic language: They are so highly rated in the judgment of all men, that he seems to have deprived writers of an opportunity, rather than given them one; yet our admiration for this feat is greater than that of others; for they know how well and faultlessly he wrote, while we know besides how easily and rapidly he finished his task.

> Latin: De isdem commentariis Hirtius ita praedicat: Adeo probantur omnium iudicio, ut praerepta, non praebita facultas scriptoribus videatur. Cuius Cuius ... emendate, found only in ϛ; cf. praef. ad B.G. viii.tamen rei maior nostra quam reliquorum est admiratio; ceteri enim, quam bene atque emendate, nos etiam, quam facile atque celeriter eos perscripserit, scimus.

*Note: De Bell. Gall. viii, preface 5-6.*

[¶3] Asinius Pollio thinks that they were put together somewhat carelessly and without strict regard for truth; since in many cases Caesar was too ready to believe the accounts which others gave of their actions, and gave a perverted account of his own, either designedly or perhaps from forgetfulness; and he thinks that he intended to rewrite and revise them.

> Latin: Pollio Asinius parum diligenter parumque integra veritate compositos putat, cum Caesar pleraque et quae per alios erant gesta temere crediderit et quae per se, vel consulto vel etiam memoria lapsus perperam ediderit; existimatque rescripturum et correcturum fuisse.

[¶4] He left besides a work in two volumes On Analogy, the same number of Speeches in reply to Cato, in addition to a poem, entitled The Journey. He wrote the first of these works while crossing the Alps and returning to his army from Hither Spain, where he had held the assizes; the second about the time of the battle of Munda, and the third in the course of a twenty-four days’ journey from Rome to Farther Spain.

> Latin: Reliquit et de Analogia duos libros et Anticatones totidem ac praeterea poema quod inscribitur Iter. Quorum librorum primos in transitu Alpium, cum ex citeriore Gallia conventibus peractis ad exercitum rediret, sequentes sub tempus Mundensis proelii fecit; novissimum, dum ab urbe in Hispaniam ulteriorem quarto et vicensimo die pervenit.

[¶5] Some letters of his to the senate are also preserved, and he seems to have been the first to reduce such documents to pages and the form of a memorial volume, whereas previously consuls and generals sent their reports written right across the sheet. There are also letters of his to Cicero, as well as to his intimates on private affairs, and in the latter, if he had anything confidential to say, he wrote it in cipher, that is, by so changing the order of the letters of the alphabet, that not a word could be made out. If anyone wishes to decipher these, and get at their meaning, he must substitute the fourth letter of the alphabet, namely D, for A, and so with the others.

> Latin: Epistulae quoque eius ad senatum extant, quas primum videtur ad paginas et formam memorialis libelli convertisse, cum antea consules et duces non nisi transversa charta scriptas mitterent. Exstant et ad Ciceronem, item ad familiares domesticis de rebus, in quibus, si qua occultius perferenda erant, per notas scripsit, id est sic structo litterarum ordine, ut nullum verbum effici posset; quae si qui investigare et persequi velit,velit, ς, ; vellet, Ω; volet, Stephanus. quartam elementorum litteram, id est D pro A et perinde reliquas commutet.

*Note: That is, Caesar reduced his reports to book form. If the book was a roll, the writing was arranged in columns, parallel with the edges (or long sides) of the roll. If it was a codex, several sheets were folded and fastened together and the writing was arranged on each page in one or two columns. His predecessors merely took a sheet, or sheets, and wrote from side to side and from top to bottom, without columns or margins.*

[¶6] We also have mention of certain writings of his boyhood and early youth, such as the Praises of Hercules, a tragedy Oedipus, and a Collection of Apophthegms but Augustus forbade the publication of all these minor works in a very brief and frank letter sent to Pompeius Macer, whom he had selected to set his libraries in order.

> Latin: Feruntur a puero et abet a puero et ab, ΠQ; et a puero ab, R; et aituero ab, MV. adulescentulo quaedam scripta, ut Laudes Herculis, tragoedia Oedipus, item Dicta collectanea: quos omnis libellos vetuit Augustus publicari in epistula, quam brevem admodum ac simplicem ad Pompeium Macrum, cui ordinandas bibliothecas delegaverat, misit.