4. Apophthegmata, a collection of notable sayings, probably growing out of the Dicta Collectanea of Sueton. Iul. 56, and completed B.C. 46-5. Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16, 4, ‘audio Caesarem, cum volumina iam confecerit ἀποφθεγμάτων, si quod afferatur ad eum pro meo, quod meum non sit, reicere solere.’
5. Letters.—In the time of Suetonius, Caesar’s official despatches to the Senate were extant, and also private letters to Cicero and other friends, e.g. his confidants Balbus and Oppius. In these a cypher was, where necessary, employed. Cf. Sueton. Iul. 56, and Gell. xvii. 9, 1.
6. Speeches.—About a dozen titles of speeches are known, but only a few detached words and phrases survive. As an orator, Caesar stood in the front rank (Sueton. Iul. 55). For encomiums on his style see Cic. Brut. 252, and Quintilian, x. 1, 114, who considered him second only to Cicero, and remarkable for vis, acumen, concitatio, and elegantia. The language of Tac. Dial. 21 is less complimentary, ‘Nisi forte quisquam aut Caesaris pro Decio Samnite aut Bruti pro Deiotaro rege ceterosque eiusdem lentitudinis ac teporis libros legit, nisi qui et carmina eorumdem miratur.’
7. Poems.—Caesar in his youth composed a poem in praise of Hercules, and a tragedy, Oedipus. Plutarch (Caes. 2) speaks of him as reciting poems of his own composition to the pirates who took him prisoner. On his journey from Rome to Spain, B.C. 46, he wrote a descriptive poem with the title of Iter.
Sueton. Iul. 56, ‘Reliquit ... poema quod inscribitur Iter ... [fecit] dum ab urbe in Hispaniam ulteriorem quarto et vicensimo die pervenit ... Feruntur et a puero et ab adulescentulo quaedam scripta, ut Laudes Herculis, tragoedia Oedipus, item Dicta Collectanea: quos omnes libellos vetuit Augustus publicari, in epistula quam brevem admodum ac simplicem ad Pompeium Macrum, cui ordinandas bibliothecas delegaverat, misit.’
Pliny the younger mentions Caesar as a love poet (Ep. v. 3, 5). His poetry is spoken of by Tacitus in no flattering terms, Dial. 21, ‘fecerunt enim [Caesar et Brutus] et carmina et in bibliothecas rettulerunt, non melius quam Cicero, sed felicius, quia illos fecisse pauciores sciunt.’
The only extant lines are those on Terence (q.v.).
C. ASINIUS POLLIO.
C. Asinius Pollio (B.C. 76-A.D. 5), governor of Farther Spain B.C. 44, consul B.C. 40, retired from public life after his Dalmatian triumph, B.C. 39. He was famous as an orator, and was the author of (1) A history of the civil wars from B.C. 60 (Hor. Od. ii. 1, 1 sqq.). (2) Tragedies (Verg. Ecl. 8, 10; Hor. Sat. i. 10, 42; Od. ii. 1, 9 sqq.) and love poems (Plin. Ep. v. 3, 5). (3) A work in which the style of Sallust was criticized (Sueton. Gramm. 10). His remarks on Caesar, Cicero, and Livy may be from the same book (Sueton. Iul. 56; Quint. xii. 1, 22; i. 5, 56).
For Pollio’s style, cf. Quint. x. 1, 113, ‘A nitore et iucunditate Ciceronis ita longe abest ut videri possit saeculo prior.’ Pollio founded the first public library at Rome, in the Atrium Libertatis, B.C. 38 (Plin. N.H. xxxv. 10), For his intimacy with the poet Cinna, who wrote the Propempticon Pollionis in his honour, see [p. 142]; and for his patronage of Virgil and Horace, see Verg. Ecl. 3, 84; 8, 6-13; Hor. Sat. i. 10, 42. Pollio, of course, belongs to the Augustan Age, but is mentioned here because of his connexion with the Corpus Caesarianum.