Other
Plutarch, Life of Caesar 17 (Perrin translation, Perseus Digital Library)
Plutarch, Perseus Digital Library, Tufts University, c. 100
Read the originalRead on October 16, 2026
- What it is
- Plutarch's Life of Caesar, section 17, in Bernadotte Perrin's English translation. It describes Caesar dictating letters on horseback while keeping two or more scribes busy at once during the Gallic campaigns.
- How much weight it carries
- An ancient text, written about a century after Caesar. The Perseus edition is a scholarly text with a standard translation, but Plutarch relies on other reports, which he names, so the detail is his account and not a contemporary record.
Facts taken from this source
- Plutarch reports that Caesar practiced dictating letters on horseback while keeping two scribes busy at once, or more.
“And in the Gallic campaigns he practiced dictating letters on horseback and keeping two scribes at once busy, or, as Oppius says, even more.” (Section 17 of the Life of Caesar, Perrin translation)