am._ ix. 16, 4, 'audio Caesarem, cum volumina iam
confecerit +apophthegmaton+, si quod afferatur ad eum pro meo, quod
meum non sit, reicere solere.'

5. _Letters._--In the time of Suetonius, Caesar's official despatches
to the Senate were extant, and also private letters to Cicero and
other friends, _e.g._ his confidants Balbus and Oppius. In these a
cypher was, where necessary, employed. Cf. Sueton. _Iul._ 56, and
Gell. xvii. 9, 1.

6. _Speeches._--About a dozen titles of speeches are known, but only a
few detached words and phrases survive. As an orator, Caesar stood in
the front rank (Sueton. _Iul._ 55). For encomiums on his style see
Cic. _Brut._ 252, and Quintilian, x. 1, 114, who considered him second
only to Cicero, and remarkable for _vis_, _acumen_, _concitatio_, and
_elegantia_. The language of Tac. _Dial._ 21 is less complimentary,
'Nisi forte quisquam aut Caesaris pro Decio Samnite aut Bruti pro
Deiotaro rege ceterosque eiusdem lentitudinis ac teporis libros legit,
nisi qui et carmina eorumdem miratur.'

7. _Poems._--Caesar in his youth composed a poem in praise of
Hercules, and a tragedy, _Oedipus_. Plutarch (_Caes._ 2) speaks of him
as reciting poems of his own composition to the pirates who took him
prisoner. On his journey from Rome to Spain, B.C. 46, he wrote a
descriptive poem with the title of _Iter_.

Sueton. _Iul._ 56, 'Reliquit ... poema quod inscribitur Iter ...
[fecit] dum ab urbe in Hispaniam ulteriorem quarto et vicensimo die
pervenit ... Feruntur et a puero et ab adulescentulo quaedam scripta,
ut Laudes Herculis, tragoedia Oedipus, item Dicta Collectanea: quos
omnes libellos vetuit Augustus publicari, in epistula quam brevem
admodum ac simplicem ad Pompeium Macrum, cui ordinandas bibliothecas
delegaverat, misit.'

Pliny the younger mentions Caesar as a love poet (_Ep._ v. 3, 5). His
poetry is spoken of by Tacitus in no flattering terms, _Dial._ 21,
'fecerunt enim [Caesar et Brutus] et carmina et in bibliothecas
rettulerunt, non melius quam Cicero, sed felicius, quia illos fecisse
pauciores sciunt.'

The only extant lines are those on Terence (_q.v._).

C. ASINIUS POLLIO.

C. Asinius Pollio (B.C. 76-A.D. 5), governor of Farther Spain B.C.
44, consul B.C. 40, retired from public life after his Dalmatian
triumph, B.C. 39. He was famous as an orator, and was the author of
(1) A history of the civil wars from B.C. 60 (Hor. _Od._ ii. 1, 1
_sqq._). (2) Tragedies (Verg. _Ecl._ 8, 10;