Name: Caesar
Rating: 3.583333333333333 (6 reviews)

Adrian Keith Goldsworthy

Research Fellow Adrian Goldsworthy

The first major biography in decades examines the full complexity of Julius Caesar's character in an incisive portrait that shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate two thousand years following his death.

Life of a Colossus

Caesar

Adrian Goldsworthy

Tobias V. Langhoff

Almost everything I know about Rome and Cæsar, I know from reading Asterix as a kid. Earlier this year I decided to read SPQR to get a better understanding of Rome, and now I followed it up with this great read about an interesting man. It's not clear to me why Julius Cæsar has become the "face of Rome" in popular culture, though.

I'm going to listen to the "sequel" about the first emperor Augustus as an audiobook now, by the same author and with the same narrator, and I hope the narrator says "Transalpine Gaul" and "Cisalpine Gaul" as many times as he did in this book.

Another pleasant and easy to read biography from Goldsworthy, after finishing Augustus. 

I read parts of Caesars Commentaries years ago, without much context about the topic except general knowledge. But after reading this work I have a much clearer picture of the times and the person of Julius Caesar himself.

Caesar was ruthless, as it seems almost everyone of the politicians back then hase been,  in following his dreams to reach the military victory and highest dignaty/dignitas. Afraid to lose it all and when finally pressed hard by his fellow jealous senators he revolted against the Republic. 

The events that follow until his premature end are history, depicted in many books, plays and movies.

No wonder that his name is still known to almost everyone after more the 2000 years.

André 

Another pleasant and easy to read biography from Goldsworthy, after finishing Augustus. 

I read parts of Caesars Commentaries years ago, without much context about the topic except general knowledge. But after reading this work I have a much clearer picture of the times and the person of Julius Caesar himself.

Caesar was ruthless, as it seems almost everyone of the politicians back then hase been,  in following his dreams to reach the military victory and highest dignaty/dignitas. Afraid to lose it all and when finally pressed hard by his fellow jealous senators he revolted against the Republic. 

The events that follow until his premature end are history, depicted in many books, plays and movies.

No wonder that his name is still known to almost everyone after more the 2000 years.



Liam Holbrook

Alan

Eitan Hershkovitz

Mrigank

Haley Murray

Reidar Hagtvedt

From the very beginning, Caesar's story makes dazzling reading. In his late teens he narrowly avoided execution for opposing the military dictator Sulla. He was decorated for valour in battle, captured and held to ransom by pirates, and almost bankrupted himself by staging games for the masses. As a politician, he quickly gained a reputation as a dangerously ambitious maverick. By his early 30s he had risen to the position of Consul, and was already beginning to dominate the Senate. His affairs with noblewomen were both frequent and scandalous. His greatest skill, outside the bedroom, was as a military commander. In a string of spectacular victories he conquered all of Gaul, invaded Germany, and twice landed in Britain - an achievement which in 55BC was greeted with a public euphoria comparable to that generated by the moon landing in 1969. In just thirty years he had risen from a position of virtual obscurity to become one of the richest men in the world, with the power single-handedly to overthrow the Republic. By his death he was effectively emperor of most of the known world.

Caesar Life of a Colossus

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