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Gaius Oppius

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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An intimate friend of Julius Caesar. He managed the dictator's private affairs during his absence from Rome, and, together with L. Cornelius Balbus, exercised considerable influence in the city. According to Suetonius (Caesar, 56), many authorities considered Oppius to have written the histories of the Spanish, African and Alexandrian wars which are printed among the works of Caesar. It is now generally held that he may possibly be the author of the last (although the claims of Hirtius are considered stronger), but certainly not of the two first, although Niebuhr confidently assigned the Bellum Africanum to him; the writer of these took an actual part in the wars they described, whereas Oppius was in Rome at the time. He also wrote a life of Caesar and the elder Scipio.

For a discussion of the whole question, see M. Schanz, Geschichte der romischen Literatur, pt. i. p. 210 (2nd ed., 1898); TeuffelSchwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 197; see also Cicero, Letters, ed. Tyrrell and Purser, iv. introd. p. 69.