Gaius Oppius was an intimate friend of

Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, ...

. He managed the dictator's private affairs during his absence from Rome, and, together with Lucius 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 were published as the works of Caesar himself. It is now generally held that he may possibly have written the account of the Alexandrian war (although the claims of

Hirtius Aulus Hirtius (; – 43 BC) was consul of the Roman Republic in 43 BC and a writer on military subjects. He was killed during his consulship in battle against Mark Antony at the Battle of Mutina. Biography He was a legate of Julius Caesar's sta ...

are considered stronger), but certainly not those of the Spanish and the African wars, although Niebuhr (the Danish-German Romantic era historian) confidently assigned the ''Bellum Africanum'' to him. The writer of these latter accounts took an actual part in the wars they described, whereas Oppius was in Rome at the time. Oppius also wrote a life of Caesar and the elder Scipio.

Martin Schanz Martin Schanz (12 June 1842 – 15 December 1914) was a German classicist and Plato scholar. He was a Dozent and Professor at the University of Würzburg from 1867 to 1912, and is especially known for his history of Roman literature and his grou ...

, ''Geschichte der römischen Literatur'', i. p. 210 (2nd ed., 1898); Teuffel-Schwabe, ''History of Roman Literature'' (Eng. trans.), 197; see also Cicero, ''Letters'', ed. R. Y. Tyrrell and L. C. Purser, iv. introd. p. 69. After Caesar's death Oppius apparently wrote a pamphlet attempting to prove that

Caesarion Ptolemy XV Caesar). (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος ; 23 June 47 BC – August 30 BC), nicknamed Caesarion (, "Little Caesar"), was the last pharaoh of Ptolemaic Egypt, reigning with his mother Cleopatra from 2 September 44 BC until her d ...

, Cleopatra's son, was not actually fathered by Caesar as she claimed.Duane W. Roller, ''Cleopatra: A Biography'', Oxford University Press US, 2010, pp.70-3

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oppius, Gaius Ancient Roman politicians 1st-century BC Romans