Caesar, Julius The Commentaries Translated into English. To which is prefixed a Discourse concerning the Roman Art of War. By William Duncan. Illustrated with Cuts. London: J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper, and R. Dodsley, 1753. Folio (43 x 26cm), civ 335 [20] pp., modern panelled calf to style, richly gilt spine, marbled endpapers, edges sprinkled red, 79 engraved plates including frontispiece (plates '3' and '4' in fact one plate), most double-page and 3 (nos. 41, 75 and 78) also folding, 6 folding maps, frontispiece offset onto title-page, title-page additionally somewhat marked, signatures 2A-2B with short closed tear to head, plate 41 (buffalo) with repairs and short closed tears along bottom edge, plate 59 (folding map of Italy) with small repair, plate 75 (elephant) with small tear to intersection of folds and short closed tear to foot [ESTC T136453] Qty: (1) Note: First Duncan edition. William Duncan (1717-1760) was professor of philosopher at Marischal College, Aberdeen. The plates, many by Cornelis Huyberts, include depictions of Picts, Britons, and 'Germans', battles including the famous 'Battle with the Elephants' scene, military formations and encampments, aerial city views, and a suite of nine plates after Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar. Remaining in print well into the 19th century, Duncan's translation was influential the 18th-century revival of interest in Britain's Celtic past and helped inspire his pupil James Macpherson in his creation of Ossian, the mythical Scottish bard. Publishing the work a few years after 1745 Jacobite rebellion, Duncan was evidently concerned to present Caesar as a model of leadership, advising his dedicatee the future George III: 'It is likewise well known, that in dangerous domestic seditions ... nothing tends more to confirm the well-affected in their duty, and to check the machinations of the factious, than when a king every was qualified to command, appears in person at the head of his troops'.