Caesar

ebook / ISBN-13: 9780297864004

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The story of one of the most brilliant, flamboyant and historically important men who ever lived.

‘A superb achievement’ LITERARY REVIEW

‘Combines scholarship with storytelling to bring the ancient world to life: in his masterly new CAESAR he shows us the greatest Roman as man, statesman, soldier and lover’ Simon Sebag Montefiore

‘Magnificent’ DAILY TELEGRAPH

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.

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Reviews

Goldsworthy's magnificent biography places Caesar in the context of the Roman world and shows why we return to the great man.
Toby Clements, Telegraph
Goldsworthy's magnificent biography places Caesar in the context of the Roman world and shows why we return to the great man
DAILY TELEGRAPH
Goldsworthy is renowned as a military historian, but his coverage here of messy late Republican politics is also authoritative and clear. He gives us a colourful sense of the wider world and Roman society at this time, and above all, the commanding, unmistakeable presence of the timelessly fascinating man himself
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
Adrian Goldsworthy's account of this extraordinary period is a superb achievement. He writes at length and in detail, but with a light touch, never allowing the complexities to obscure the sharpness of the story line...It is a model of the way ancient biographies should be written
LITERARY REVIEW
Goldsworthy is the one of the new generation of young classicists who combine scholarship with storytelling to bring the ancient world to life: in his masterly new CAESAR he shows us the greatest Roman as man, statesman, soldier and lover
Simon Sebag Montefiore
The analysis of Caesar's generalship is predictably excellent, the account of the Gallic wars, in particular, has rarely been bettered
SPECTATOR
This admirable biography... is so lucid, so comprehensive and so balanced
Allan Massie, DAILY TELEGRAPH
A compelling biography of Julius Caesar, charting his fantastically eventful life
FINANCIAL TIMES
Goldsworthy is a fine military historian and his account of the Gallic Wars is exemplary
INDEPENDENT
[Goldsworthy] is careful and judicious in his analyses, seeking to integrate the man of action, the scholar, the showman, the lover, legal reformer, town planner
THE TABLET
Adrian Goldsworthy's 519-page work certainly does justice to the scale of his subject, and the evidence is masterfully assembled
Boris Johnson, MAIL ON SUNDAY
Richness of detail illuminates to great effect the risk-taking, self-promotion and sheer force of will that fuelled Caesar's extraordinary career
BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE
A thorough and wide-ranging biography of a legendary figure
DAILY EXPRESS
Highly enjoyable... [Goldsworthy] writes well, and with real authority
Simon Heffer, COUNTRY LIFE