Latin Philology: Caesar's self-dramatisation in the "Bellum Gallicum"

Gaius Julius Caesar wasn't just an exceptionally gifted politician, commander, priest, reformer (introduction of the solar calendar), explorer (Britannia) and – as his critics judge – tyrant, but an outstanding orator and writer of his day as well. In his books about the Gallic War, Caesar, the author, describes how he as commander conquered and "pacified" all of Gallia and its neighbouring peoples. In doing so he tries for justifying the own advances (in the sense of an also modern legalism) as necessary wars of defence as well as staging them as such. The lecture likes to show why Caesar, the politician and strategist, felt compelled to compose his own historical work, which conventions he challenged at this and how his contemporaries evaluated this approach.