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SUMMARY:A British Army Officer and Caesar's Bridge across the Rhine - L.G.
  Kelly
DTSTART:20100202T131000Z
DTEND:20100202T140000Z
UID:TALK22225@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Hilary Powell
DESCRIPTION:In 1705 Captain Martin Bladen published _C. Julius Caesar's Co
 mmentaries of his Wars in Gaul and Civil War with Pompey_\, translations o
 f his _De Bello Gallico_ and _De Bello Civili_. He illustrated his book wi
 th engravings by the Italian architect\, Palladio. I have used the second 
 edition of 1712. Bladen graduated from St John's\, Cambridge\, in about 17
 00\, and was admitted to the Inner Temple. He then joined the Army and ser
 ved under the Duke of Marlborough in the Low Countries and Spain. In 1709 
 he was promoted to Lieutenant-colonel\, and sold his commission in 1710. I
 n 1714 he was appointed Comptroller of the Royal Mint\, and resigned the p
 ost in 1717 when he was appointed to the Board of Trade. He later became v
 ery powerful in the Colonial Office\, where he controlled the patronage. H
 e served several terms in Parliament\, and acquired a lucrative plantation
  in North Carolina. \n\nBooks 3 and 4 of Caesar's _De Bello Gallico_ are t
 aken up with his campaigns in eastern France. They were relatively success
 ful\, but by 55 BC some German tribes had allied themselves with Gaulish t
 ribes that were still holding out against the Romans\, and were sending ra
 iding parties across the Rhine. Most of the trouble was near the confluenc
 e of the Moselle and the Rhine. Caesar decided to cross the Rhine south of
  this point to teach the Germans a lesson. As the river was narrow and ver
 y rapid at the place he chose\, he decided to build a bridge so that his m
 en could cross the river in fighting order. \n\nCaesar describes the bridg
 e in _De Bello Gallico_ 4.17\, and most eighteenth-century editions and tr
 anslations of Caesar have a drawing of the bridge. Most of them are of Rom
 an legionaries marching across the bridge\, but the Palladio drawing that 
 Bladen uses is an architect's sketch showing how the bridge was constructe
 d. In the paper I intend to discuss how Bladen read Caesar\, and in partic
 ular what influence\, if any\, the Palladio drawing had over Bladen's visi
 on of this military operation. 
LOCATION:Entertaining Room\, Darwin College
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