The Gallic Wars in Literature and Culture
The primary historical source for the Gallic Wars is Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico in Latin, which is one of the best surviving examples of unadorned Latin prose. It has consequently been a subject of intense study for Latinists, and is one of the classic prose sources traditionally used as a standard teaching texts in modern Latin education.
The Gallic Wars have become a popular setting in modern historical fiction, especially that of France and Italy. Claude Cueni wrote a semi-historical novel "The Caesar's Druid" about a fictional Celtic druid, servant of Caesar and recorder of Caesar's campaigns. Morgan Llewelyn also wrote a book "Druids" about a Celtic druid who assisted Vercingetorix in his campaign against Julius Caesar. Similarly, Norman Spinrad's The Druid King follows the campaigns from Vercingetorix's perspective. In addition, the comic Astérix is set shortly after the Gallic Wars, where the titular character's village is the last holdout in Gaul against Caesar's legions.
The TV series Rome begins during the conquest of Gaul and lead protagonists, Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo, are based on two historical centurions who fought during the Gallic Wars in Caesar's Legio XIII Gemina and are mentionned in Commentarii de Bello Gallico.
The historical novel Caesar by Colleen McCullough gave a thorough, popular account of the Gallic Wars.
The concept album Helvetios by Swiss Folk Metal band Eluveitie tells the story of the Gallic Wars through the eyes of the Helvetii.
Read more about this topic: Gallic Wars
Famous quotes containing the words wars, literature and/or culture:
“You fade—as if the last of days
Were fading and all wars were done.”
—Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935)
“No state can build
A literature that shall at once be sound
And sad on a foundation of well-being.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“Ours is a culture based on excess, on overproduction; the result is a steady loss of sharpness in our sensory experience. All the conditions of modern life—its material plenitude, its sheer crowdedness—conjoin to dull our sensory faculties.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)