Caesar is critical in the way he views Pompey’s camp. In his opinion, Pompey is both dangerous and corrupt. However, in Caesar’s view, the lavish life manifested in Pompey’s camp seems to have been influenced by his initial travels to the eastern nations. Therefore, according to Caesar’s, Pompey’s way of life was corrupted by the foreignness of eastern nations. Furthermore, Pompey had a large foreign army integrated into his Roman troops ( Rossi, 2000) . This was a major concern for the Roman people who viewed this foreignness as corruption and lack of respect. However, Caesar chose to oppose Pompey so that he gets support from the Roman people to overthrow the common foe. In his view, the Romans will side with him to fight Pompey and his troops. However, it is important to note that Caesar’s records defer from other historical details. For instance, Caesar describes the luxuries exhibited in Pompey’s camp in details but other historians do not go into such details. According to Caesar, he wanted to paint Pompey’s camp as lazy and not motivated enough as a typical Roman army. Also, Caesar illustrates the poor conditions that his men undergo in the governance of Pompey. Furthermore, he depicts himself as someone who cannot be influenced by the foreignness brought in by Pompey.
However, Rossi illustrates that Caesar’s ideology is influenced politically. He depicts Caesar as an opportunist who seeks to paint a negative image on Pompey’s governance for his political mileage. According to Caesar, Pompey is the cause of the threat posed by eastern nations to the Romans. However, Rossi also illustrates Caesar’s view of Pompey as an “oriental king” which clearly evokes the concepts of Persian ethnicity ( Grillo, 2016) . With this comparison, Rossi wanted to uncover the irony in which Caesar likens Pompey to the defeated Persians. This brings out Caesar’s roman status since during that era more Romans were concerned with the foreignness that was brought into their lands. Therefore, Rossi meant that the assertions of Caesar were purely propaganda which served to justify Pompey as the “oriental king.” However, Rossi uses these assertions to build on his overall view of the imminent civil war in Rome.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
References
Grillo, L. (2016). Caesarian Intertextualities: Cotta and Sabinus in BG 5.26–37. The Classical Journal , 111 (3), 257-279.
Rossi, A. (2000). The Camp of Pompey: Strategy of Representation in Caesar's Bellum Ciuile. The Classical Journal , 95 (3), 239-256.
