ABSTRACT
Caesar entered his final confrontation with Pompey from a position of the greatest strength: he started as dictator and was currently the presiding consul, while Pompey was in fact bereft of any legal position of authority. Their positions had thus completely reversed. The changes in Caesar’s self-presentation are apparent through the Bellum Civile. While in BC I Caesar presented himself as the injured party, whose legal rights were trampled on by the Pompeians, in BC III he assumes a more official demeanour. He was no longer a private citizen acting seemingly against the republic’s institutions. He had become the republic’s legal representative. One of the main purposes of BC I was to allow Caesar to present his own side of the conflict and justify his deeds. Now he no longer needed any justification for them: all the reasons he needed were implicit in his titles of dictator and consul. Bellum Civile III serves as the founding narrative of Caesar’s ascent to sole rule in Rome.
