Commentarii

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Commentarii is the plural of the Latin word commentarius (German record , Greek hypomnema ) and initially referred to notes or records that were kept by Roman officials, statesmen or private individuals in the form of a diary or journal. Later they also referred to a literary genre , the best-known examples of which are Gaius Iulius Caesar's works on the Gallic War ( commentarii de bello Gallico ) and the civil war ( commentarii de bello civili ).

The commentarii in this original usage were the oldest pre-literary genos in Latin. The liber commentarius was a private household book that Romans kept for the administration of their personal affairs. In contrast, the earliest public prose records were the commentarii of various state offices and administrations (e.g. commentarii consulares , commentarii censorii and the commentarii of the governors ); These texts, which were drafted as annual reports, recorded not only income and expenditure but also important events or occurrences.

The commentarii sacerdotum were the records of the Roman colleges of priests. These included the commentarii pontificum and commentarii augurum . The commentarii pontificum contained, for example, reports on religious activities, the state of the temples, religious laws and the like.

During the imperial era there were the commentarii principum , which included the decrees and edicts of the empire and also contained reports on criminal and civil trials that were heard personally by the emperor. They also included the commentarii beneficiorum , which recorded the privileges granted by the emperor. The officials charged with creating and managing the records were referred to as a commentariis .

From these private and official records, the commentarii later developed into a literary genos. They then constituted a type of autobiography that was seen as an appropriate means of political self-expression. The best-known example of this are Gaius Iulius Caesar's works on the Gallic War ( commentarii de bello Gallico ) and the civil war ( commentarii de bello civili ).

literature