Crossing the English Channel

Salvete,

Here is Liber Quartus in context.

Here, there are two groups, the Usipetes and Tenchtheri, who are driven out of Germany by the Suevi.  One thing not conveyed well by this chart is that the Usipetes and Tenchtheri figure prominently through the book, until they are defeated in Chapter 15.  These two groups are referred to as "they" in the text, so here is a good example of the kind of limitations one might expect from the use of just such a graph.  Although, one ought to wonder whether or not these two groups would surpass Caesar in relative frequency.  As such, however, they are the central enemy for almost 40% of this Liber. 

The Suevi are the central enemies at about the 75% mark, and are defeated by Caesar in Chapter 27.  As the book concludes, Caesar moves into Britain, where they have designs to fight the Romans on account of their lesser numbers.  The following chart will give greater context to the end of Quartus.

The following chart involves a conspiracy to surprise the Romans as they come back to the European mainland from Britain for winter quarters.  The Morini, seeing just some 300 Romans, surround and work to defeat them, but are scattered when the Roman cavalry comes to their aid.

It is worth noting that this chapter ends with 2 of the British clans giving captives to Caesar, the diplomatic currency of the day, and he received a special commendation from the Senate itself and the end here.

Again, as in previous chapters, the trend is for Caesar to be mentioned the least at the beginning, yet the most at the end.  In the middle he is mentioned some, but then, around the 3/4 mark, he is mentioned very little, only to fly into ascendance towards the end of the book.

The trend stands, and here would seem to be the highest point in the war for Caesar, given that he received a special commendation from the Senate.  Note, however, that this was the year in which Pompey Magnus and Marcus Lucinius Crassus, the other two parts of the "first triumvirate," were Consuls.  This might explain the particular triumph of Caesar at the end of this book.

Until next time, Valete,

Dominic Martyne

Riding High in Gaul

Salevete,

Continuing the visual representation of textual data as above, here is the chart for Book 2 of Caesar's Gallic War:

Like Book 1, the trend continues here that, as a chapter concludes, Caesar's name is mentioned more and more.  In particular, this chapter ends with the declaration that all of Gaul was subdued at the end of his second year in Gaul.  Here seems to be how Caesar approaches his texts when he succeeds, as he did early on in the war, but the question becomes: does this change when the war suddenly has several fronts?

Liber Tertius has many facets to it, and here is a chart of the beginning of it.  In context, Gaul seems pacified, but Galba and his legion is are surprised by the Veragri, Seduni, and Nantuates.  They hold out within a town, and only survive because of a surprise sally they made out of the town.  The Veneti hold prominently as agitators of this war, but the trend for Caesar still holds.  However, more charts are needed to show where Caesar is in relation with other foes in the book.

It is around Chapter 16 of this book that the Veneti are defeated.  The book only being 29 chapters in length, it makes sense that they disappear a short while after the halfway point of the book.  That this corresponds with the highest relative frequency of Caesar in the chapter can only be purposeful.  The following chart concerns another part of this war of many fronts.

Thus far, there has not been a single Roman mentioned more times than Caesar, but here Publius Crassus does very well to take over Aquitania, which is the area of southwestern France.  That the man features so prominently here might be worth looking into if the man not only survives the 8-year war, but also if he succeeds back in Rome with Caesar.  The final chart for Tertius concerns the end of the chapter, which again ends with the pacification of Gaul.

The chapter itself concludes with Caesar defeating these two groups of Gauls who, believing they are the last great hope for the Gallic people, attack the Romans, only to be defeated.  Like before, the pattern is for Caesar to be mentioned least in the beginning, but then most at the end.  Here, P. Crassus did so well fighting the Gauls that he was mentioned more times than Caesar himself, but so far the pattern holds.

So far my theory holds that there is something going on here stylistically, but there are still 4 books that were written by Caesar to be considered, and one not written by him.

There will shortly be more graphs about the following libris.

Valete,

Dominic Martyne

Divided into Three Parts

Fratres Sorores,

I had hopes for using TextArc as a way of representing De Bello Gallico, but the only version of it available through the program is in Latin.  That doesn't help, and I cannot for the life of me find out where on their website, textarc.org, one can launch the application and input a file of text for analysis.  Unless someone can give me the link to input data, then TextArc is a wash for me.

However, Voyant has turned up some interesting data for the first book of De Bello Gallico, as can be seen above. This might be interesting to look at over the course of each of the books, and see what the macroscopic trend is regarding the tribes that Caesar encounters, then how often that tribe is mentioned throughout the book. However, this chart lacks some context. In its simplest form, Caesar entered Transalpine Gaul on the invitation of the Aedui, because the Helvetii had left Germany with every person in the tribe. They burned their houses and crops behind them, so they had no choice but to move south and cause trouble to the Gauls. It is worth noting that Caesar's first year in Gaul was very successful, and the fact that he defeats the Helvetii around Chapter 30 in the first book. The fact that the uses of Caesar's name peaks at around the 3/5 point in the book, and also that the Helvetii practically disappear from there suggest that his name should most be associated with the defeat of the Helvetii, but also that his name be associated with the Aedui, given that he preserved the fraternal ties between them and Rome. It is worth noting also that both names were used the most when the Helvetii were defeated. However, by the end of the book, Caesar's name reigns supreme.

I think that it would be most prudent to separate the project into 8 links that analyze different parts of the text in a similar fashion, each with a chapter overview, as well as useful interpretive information from the secondary literature, possibly about how it affects Caesar's march on Rome and his diplomatic approach to both.

As for the project's focus on Caesar's use of diplomacy, with the graphs will be major decision points in De Bello Gallico, with an explanation about why such and such decision was important, as well as the context within which Caesar chose to not use the sword. With this data, I plan to have some simple maps made up of where peoples and armies are in Gaul, maybe a before map and an after map to show how the terrain of Gaul changed because of the events within the book.

I think that the tools made available via digital scholarship will help explain some of the trends in each book that cannot be visible without the data mining tools available through programs like Voyant.  These frequency maps take little time to make, so the only issue will be to go through each book, and then identifying which foes are worth frequency'ing.

Valete,

Dominic Martyne