Caesar: A History Of The Art Of War By T. A. Dodge

Another review has been completed for our Roman Books section, thanks to community member P.Clodius.

It is with some reserve I approach this review, for how can one do justice to a 780+ page book that inhabits every library in every military academy, and what surely must be as mandatory a read as the Commentaries themselves for future commanders. T. A. Dodge was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Union army during the American Civil War. He fought at Gettysburg where he lost a leg, following which, he moved to Europe and proceeded to write. He wrote detailed accounts of campaigns as varied as Alexander

He also wrote books on Hannibal and Alexander. He walked many of the battle fields he discusses and illustrates what he speaks of. They are not difficult reads.

Nice review Clodius.

Why the claim that Dodge is not a partisan of Caesar though? If calling Caesar "the greatest man in antiquity" (p. 767) and "the greatest man of action who ever lived" (p. 691) isn't partisan, is anything?

That said, Dodge doesn't pull his punches when he finally sees fit, and you might have been referring to his more clear-eyed views. My favorite observation of his (and to my mind this utterly puts the lie to the Caesar legend): "If the months be counted, it will be seen that more than half of Caesar's campaigns were consumed in extricating himself from the results of his own mistakes" (p. 692).

On this point, JFC Fuller ('the Clausewitz of the 20th century') aptly observed, "To have to spend half of a long war in extricating oneself from difficulties created by the enemy may or may not be good generalship; but to have to do so because they are due to one's own mistakes is incontestably bad generalship, even when the extrications are brilliant."

Nice review Clodius.

 

Why the claim that Dodge is not a partisan of Caesar though? If calling Caesar "the greatest man in antiquity" (p. 767) and "the greatest man of action who ever lived" (p. 691) isn't partisan, is anything?

He's clearly not a partisan of Caesar if you've read it, which you clearly have judging from the page quotes. IMHO he's a neutral, always judging from a text book, war college, experience perspective. He judges the 3 greats based on certain merits of which he happens to deem Caesar the best of the 3.

Because an author makes a favorable judgement on a subject, it does not follow that the author is a partisan of the subject. If this were the case with Dodge, his work surely would be tainted.

BTW, one can probably get the book cheaper in a neighborhood book store.

MP Cato: Is JFC Fuller the author who maintained that Scipio was the greatest captain of history?

MP Cato: Is JFC Fuller the author who maintained that Scipio was the greatest captain of history?

Yes Fuller wrote "Scipio Aficanus: Greater than Napoleon". Itself an excellent work. I don't think Fuller was trying to say the Scipio WAS the greatest, but he was saying to his contemporaries, "Look here, you talk about and study Napoleon, while here in Scipio we have someone who is not only a great tactician and strategist, but accomplished more against greater odds".

MP Cato: Is JFC Fuller the author who maintained that Scipio was the greatest captain of history?

Yes Fuller wrote "Scipio Aficanus: Greater than Napoleon". Itself an excellent work. I don't think Fuller was trying to say the Scipio WAS the greatest, but he was saying to his contemporaries, "Look here, you talk about and study Napoleon, while here in Scipio we have someone who is not only a great tactician and strategist, but accomplished more against greater odds".

Liddell Hart--easily confused with Fuller--wrote it.

MP Cato: Is JFC Fuller the author who maintained that Scipio was the greatest captain of history?

Yes Fuller wrote "Scipio Aficanus: Greater than Napoleon". Itself an excellent work. I don't think Fuller was trying to say the Scipio WAS the greatest, but he was saying to his contemporaries, "Look here, you talk about and study Napoleon, while here in Scipio we have someone who is not only a great tactician and strategist, but accomplished more against greater odds".

 

Liddell Hart--easily confused with Fuller--wrote it.

Doh!!!

Capt. Liddell-Hart; British Army.

Thanks