Ethnography

How interested was Caesar in ethnography? As Harmand (1973) showed in his discussion of Caesar’s knowledge of Gaul and its peoples, the commentarii contain a wide range of such material: this can be broken down into eleven categories of which the military practices of the diverse tribes constitute 31%, their political life, such as the role played by noble leaders and their clients,14.5%; next come comments on their economy and technology, 9%, and then roughly equal concern with natural landscape (8.5%) and its use by the Gauls as habitat (8.5.%). Caesar could have used Posidonius’ ethnographic study of southern Gaul, but this was probably limited to the regions accessible up the Rhone from Massilia; there are also a number of places where he seems to be writing not so much post-Posidonius as anti-Posidonius. There is a series of ethnographic excursuses, from BG 2.15-16 on the warlike lifestyle of the Nervii, to 3.22 on soldurii, to his account of the rotation of agricultural and military duties among the Suebi, and their reliance on hunting (4.1f), before we come to his major excursus (6.11-24) on the customs of the Gauls - including precious information on the training and privileges of the Druids - which he contrasts with those of the Germans, described in the following four chapters (6.25-8). Caesar makes it clear that he used both native spies and foreign merchants to obtain information, and distinguishes between tribes which welcomed merchants and those that excluded them. While the Suebi welcome merchants so that they can sell their spoils, he notes on other occasions that warlike tribes exclude merchants and prohibit import of wine (Nervii, Suebi). Alongside sharp observation on, for example, mixed use of (imported) coin and bullion as currency in Britain, because of the shortage of local metal ores, or the British taboo on eating hares, ducks, and geese, which they actually reared as pets (BG 5.12 haec tamen alunt animi voluptatisque causa), Caesar includes more hackneyed assumptions implying the limited judgment of barbarians: that the Gauls are eager for political change (res novae), easily deceived by lying informers, excitable primitive people precipitate to foment conflict, but lacking endurance or courage in the face of danger (3.8, 3.18.6, 19.6; 4.5).

Alongside the physical landscape of hills and rivers, lakes and woods, Caesar shows a real interest both in the outer Ocean, whose tides require ships with less draft and sturdier materials like tough oak and sails of skin, and in topics we might class under meteorology: the relationship of Ocean tides to the full moon (BG 4.29.1) and the equinox (4.36.2, 5.23.5), and the length of northern winter nights, according to ‘‘some writers’’ and his own unsuccessful inquiries. Indeed some scholars have commented on Caesar’s concern to make enquiries; he went to Illyria because he wanted to visit those tribes too and know their habitats (eas quoque nationes adire et regiones cognoscere volebat, 3.7), but this seems to be pragmatic; in 4.20 he explains that he thought it would be most advantageous to him to visit the island of Britain and see for himself the nature of the inhabitants, getting to know the sites, harbors, and points of access, all of which were virtually unknown to the Gauls. He mentions as problems that the traders he had consulted did not know the size of the island, the number of tribes or their mode of warfare or customs, or even which harbors were suitable for accommodating a large fleet. These questions are clearly focused on prospective invasion and conquest.

This leads us to a more indirect tradition, concerning Caesar’s curiosity about Egypt, most explicit in Lucan’s imaginative account of Caesar’s conversation at Cleopatra’s banquet. Before reading this as a genuine reflection of Caesar’s own intellectual interests we must make allowances both for the epic tradition itself, and for Lucan’s delight in displaying his own erudition. Meeting the priest Acoreus, Caesar asks him about the origins of the Pharian race (Egyptians rather than Ptolemaic Macedonians), ‘‘the lie of the land and customs of the common people, the rituals and appearances oftheir gods, and the inscriptions on ancient shrines, since the gods wish to be made known’’ (terrarumque situs vulgique edissere mores/ et ritus formasque deum quodcunque vetustis/ insculptum est adytis, profer, noscique volentes/ prode deos, Lucan 10.178-81). In a reference that we shall follow up, Lucan’s Caesar adds somewhat prematurely that even in the thick ofbattle he has always found leisure to contemplate the regions of the stars and heaven, and ‘‘my year will not be surpassed by the calendar of Eudoxus.’’ Stressing his great love of the truth (amor veri) Lucan’s Caesar declares that there is nothing he would rather discover (noscere again) than the causes of the great river that has so long kept hidden and its unknown source; if he could but see the sources of the Nile he would abandon civil war. Ironically, of course, both the poet Lucan and the author Caesar did break off their ‘‘Civil War’’ narratives very soon after this point. Some of Lucan’s portrait may be a fair representation. Surely if he had had the time, the author of the Gallic War would have wanted to write even more about the lands and peoples of Egypt and their customs than we have seen him reporting about the Gauls? But there was only minimal time. Caesar supposedly traveled up the Nile with the Queen, and certainly brought back from Egypt the refinements that enabled him to legislate an accurate solar calendar for Rome.