CAESAR'S WAR COMMENTARIES - Preface - John Mason Brown

Sep 29, 2026

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A translated edition of Caesar’s War Commentaries introduces Gaius Julius Caesar’s life and campaigns, including his political rise, military actions in Gaul and Britain, crossing the Rubicon, and the events leading to his assassination on March 15, 44 B.C. The preface by John Mason Brown recounts how Harvard scholar George Martin Lane and figures such as Oliver Wendell Holmes and Emerson helped make classical reading feel immediate, challenging readers to approach the classics with living engagement rather than fear of the past.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages332

Reading Time8 h 31 min

AccessFree to download

Preface by John Mason Brown

Caesar’s historical outline

Learning and teaching the classics

Emerson’s guidance for reading

Caesar's Waretace by John Mason BronCommentariesA superb new translation gives vigor and timeliness $1.25 # CAESAR'S WAR COMMENTARIES GAIUS JuLIUS CAESAR was born in 102 B.C.After consider-able political intrigue Caesar became consul in Rome in6o B.C.and formed the First Triumvirate with Pompeyand Crassus.He campaigned in Gaul and Britain,6o-51 B.C.With a single legion Caesar crossed the Rubicon in49 B.C.,and thus began the Civil War.After the deathsof Pompey and Crassus,he became dictator.On March 15,44 B.C.Caesar was murdered in the senate at the footof Pompey's statue. # CAESAR’SWAR COMMENTARIES EDITED AND TRANSLATED BYJOHN WARRINGTON Preface by JOHN MASON BROWN A Dutton Paperback Everyman 937.05 ae 11211 NEW YORK E.P.DUTTON &CO.,INC. LIBR A R Y 粤A.BAPTIST COLLEGE &SEMINARY560 S.ST.LOUIS ST.,L.A.CALIF This paperback edition of“Caesar's War Commentaries” Published 1958 by E.P.Dutton c Co.,IncAll rights reserved.Printed in the U.S.A. Third Paperback Reprint # PREFACEBy JOHN MASON BROWN THERE was fire in the older man's eyes as he handedthe book to the tall youth."This was written yesterday,"he said."It will be your exciting privilege to dis-cover a new writer."The older man was Professor GeorgeMartin Lane,apparently the only one of the many Greekand Latin scholars on the Harvard faculty in 1859 whotaught the classics not as drier-than-dust exercises in gram-mar and memory but as volumes very much alive.Thebook was the "Republic,"and the undergraduate OliverWendell Holmes,son of the author of "The Autocrat." Catherine Drinker Bowen tells this story in"Yankeefrom Olympus,"her warm and brilliant biography of theJustice.The story does not stop there.After Holmes haddevoted his six weeks'winter vacation to reading the"Republic"he wrote a fifteen-page paper about it inwhich Plato came off badly.At least young Holmes thoughthe did,and was so pleased with the result that he decidedto submit his essay to the University Quarterly.Beforedoing so,however,he concluded it would be sensible andgratifying to show it to someone not professionally con-nected with Harvard. His choice of a reader would have frightened you andme.It did not frighten young Holmes.He turned to hisfather's friend,Emerson,as a matter of course,and gavehim his paper the next time he dropped by the doctor'shouse.Emerson sat down in the big leather chair by thefire and read it while its author fidgeted on the sofa.Uponfinishing it Emerson arranged the sheets neatly,held themout to Wendell,and shook his head."When you shootat a king you must kill him.” That was all Emerson said.It was enough to cause youngHolmes to take his fifteen pages upstairs and fling themin the wastebasket.A month later Emerson came by again."Have you given Plato another chance?"he asked,smiling kindly."Hold Plato at arm's length as you have beendoing,Wendell.That's good.But say to yourself,Plato一you have pleased the world for two thousand years.Nowlet's see if you can please me.'” I lean heavily on Mrs.Bowen's story of Holmes's intro-duction to Plato because I find it as wise as it is winning.The words of both Harvard's Professor Lane and Emersonseem to me to be words that ought to be remembered-andborrowed-by all those faced with the challenging task ofteaching the classics.They are words which also have muchto say to general readers who limit their adult reading tothe latest books and avoid the standbys from antiquity(even in translation)as if they were bound to be dead anddeadly merely because they are the products of the past.Surely critics,foolhardy enough to try to annihilate a workthat has survived the centuries,would do well,beforetaking aim,to remember Emerson's "When you shoot ata king you must kill him." The attitude toward the classics of most people sup-posedly educated,or at least exposed at great expense towhat is identified as education in this country,is odd,toput it mildly.I write as no classicist,indeed as one who,having les

FAQs

Who wrote the preface and what is its purpose?

The preface is by John Mason Brown. It explains why the introduction to the classics and their enduring vitality matter to readers and teachers.

What key events from Caesar’s life are summarized at the beginning?

The text outlines Caesar’s birth, rise to consul, campaigns in Gaul and Britain, his crossing of the Rubicon, becoming dictator, and his murder on March 15, 44 B.C.

How does the preface describe a young reader’s first encounter with Plato?

Brown recounts Oliver Wendell Holmes preparing a paper on Plato’s Republic and receiving advice from Emerson, who encourages holding Plato at arm’s length yet striving to please both the world and the reader’s own evaluator.

Sep 29, 2026

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