Oppius, Gaius
OPPIUS, GAIUS, an intimate friend of Juhus Caesar. He managed the dictator's private affairs during his absence from Rome, and, together with L. 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 are printed among the works of Caesar. It is now generally held that he may possibly be the author of the last (although the claims of Hirtius are considered stronger), but certainly not of the tv.'o first, although Niebuhr confidently assigned the Bcllum Africanum to him; the writer of these took an actual part in the wars they described, whereas Oppius was in Rome at the time. He also wrote a life of Caesar and the elder Scipio.
For a discussion of the whole question, see M. Schanz, Geschichle der romischen Literalur, pt. i. p. 210 (2nd ed., 1898}; TeuffelSchwabe, Hist, of Roman Literature (Eng. trans.), § 197; see also Cicero, Letters, ed. Tyrrell and Purser, iv. introd. p. 69.
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
