The Gallic War: Seven Commentaries on The Gallic War with an Eighth Commentary by Aulus Hirtius (Oxford World's Classics)

While I have not read this edition, and the factual errors that Mark Snegg pointed out in his review are inexcusable, Mr. Snegg should check his facts before criticizing the error of others. A catapult is a fieldpiece that uses counterweight, pulleys and lever action to hurl a large rock of pot of greek fire at the enemy. A weapon which hurls a large bolt or arrow with pulley action is a ballista.


A poor translation of a famous book   March 25, 2002
 41 out of 48 found this review helpful

This is an unexpectedly poor translation of Caesar's great work, especially for an Oxford Classics edition. I found several obvious mistranslations, including at least one major error. The English is often awkward and unnatural, and fails to convey the lucid elegance of Caesar's Latin. Strangely enough, the book doesn't have a map of the whole of Gaul. There are a few larger scale maps, but it's not particularly clear how they fit together or even which parts of Gaul are being shown. The notes are at the back of the book, rather than in footnotes, so that the reader has to constantly flip back and forth to read them.

The worst error I came across was in the translation of the well-known incident in 2.25 where Caesar grabs a shield and personally runs forward into the front line of battle, saving a critical situation. Hammond's translation has the chief centurion Baculus doing this, rather than Caesar. Since Baculus is described only two lines earlier as being so seriously wounded that he is unable to stand, this reading defies not only Latin grammar, but also common sense. No justification is offered for this weird interpretation.

Throughout the book there is a certain lack of insight in translating military words. For example, in 4.25 Hammond twice translates 'tormenta' as 'missiles', although in fact it means 'catapults' (that is, bolt-firing machines like large crossbows). In the next paragraph 'speculatoria navigia' is translated as 'spy vessels', when 'scout ships' would be both more accurate and more natural English.

These examples are just the very tip of the iceberg. In general this translation is feeble and riddled with inaccuracies. Most of it is is very stilted English. The publisher's blurb about how it reflects the purity of Caesar's Latin is completely untrue.