Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres. Caesar’s incipit, Sapir’s typology and different perspectives on totality

This chapter deals with the function of omnis in the incipit of Caesar’s Bellum Gallicum. I analyse occurrences of omnis and totus from Early to Classical Latin to ascertain the extent of their synonymy, which can be interpreted in the light of Sapir (1930), where great heed is paid to connotations and pragmatic uses of totalizers. As, seemingly, *Gallia est divisa in partes tres would not have modified the denotational content of the sentence, I argue that the specific semantic input given by omnis can be related to the notion of ‘aggregate’ (Sapir 1930: 10). The unusual syntactic sequence displayed in this passage also ap- pears to be relevant. Finally, the semantic function borne by omnis in Caesar’s incipit is connected with the political background to his Commentarii.