Caesar - Softcover

Goldsworthy, Adrian Keith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0753821583 ISBN 13: 9780753821589

Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ), 2007

Synopsis

Caius Julius Caesar remains the most famous Roman - and indeed one of the most famous people - ever to have lived. In this biography, Adrian Goldsworthy tells the story of a man who has inspired politicians, military leaders and philanderers throughout history.

About this title

From the Author:

A conversation with Adrian Goldsworthy
 
Q:  What is new about your book?
A:  The overall approach is new. As far as possible I have tried to write this as if it were the biography of a twentieth-century statesman, looking in as much detail as possible at every aspect of his life. One of the biggest differences with Meier—and also Gelzer, who wrote the most important biography of Caesar before Meier—is that I have tried to cover each stage of his life in equal detail. Their focus was always on the politics. Yet Caesar spent a very large part of his life at war—he was on campaign for no less than thirteen of the last fifteen years of his life. We need to understand Caesar the soldier as much as Caesar the politician because the two were so closely intertwined.
 
 
Q:  What are the parallels between Ancient Rome and our own times?
A:  It would be wrong to claim exact parallels between Rome in the first century B.C. and the modern world, but there are undeniable lessons to be learnt from the turbulent history of these years. One of the most important is to show the fragility of political systems. Caesar lived in the last decades of the Roman Republic, a system which was already three centuries old at the time of his birth. But less than twenty years after his death, his adopted son Octavian had turned Rome into what was a monarchy in all but name. There is perhaps a lesson for modern democracies in the danger of allowing entrenched lobby groups, political parties, and other interests to stifle real debate. 
 
 
Q:  Where was Caesar headed at the time of his assassination?
A:  Caesar was about to set out on a series of campaigns against the Dathians and Parcians, in what is modern Iraq.
 

About the Author:

Adrian Goldsworthy has a doctorate from Oxford University. His first book, THE ROMAN ARMY AT WAR was recognised by John Keegan as an exceptionally impressive work, original in treatment and impressive in style. He has gone on to write several other books, including THE FALL OF THE WEST, CAESAR, IN THE NAME OF ROME, CANNAE and ROMAN WARFARE, which have sold more than a quarter of a million copies and been translated into more than a dozen languages. A full-time author, he regularly contributes to TV documentaries on Roman themes.

Visitwww.adriangoldsworthy.comfor more information.

About this edition

• Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd )
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0753821583
• ISBN 13: 9780753821589
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 720