Commentarii de Bello Gallico (
English Commentaries on the Gallic War) is
Julius Caesar's firsthand account of the
Gallic Wars, written as a
third-person narrative. In it Caesar describes the battles and intrigues that took place in the nine years he spent fighting local armies in
Gaul that opposed
Roman domination.
The "Gaul" that Caesar refers to is sometimes all of Gaul except for the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis (modern day Provence), encompassing the rest of modern France, Belgium and some of Switzerland. On other occasions, he refers only to that territory inhabited by the Celtic peoples known to the Romans as Gauls, from the English Channel to Lugdunum (Lyon).
The account has often been used in teaching Latin. It begins with the common phrase "Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres" (sometimes quoted as "Omnia Gallia in tres partes divisa est" for "All Gaul is divided into three parts"). The full work is divided into 8 sections, Book&_160;1 to Book&_160;8, each varying in size from approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words. Book 8 was written by Aulus Hirtius after Caesar's death.
The Latin title, literally Commentaries about the Gallic War, is often retained in English translations of the book, and the title is also translated to About the Gallic War, Of the Gallic War, On the Gallic War, The Conquest of Gaul, and The Gallic War.
