Caesar - Hardcover

Wyke, Maria

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1862076626 ISBN 13: 9781862076624

Publisher: Granta Books, 2007

Synopsis

From a Caesarian birth, via his conquest of Gaul and the decisive crossing of the Rubicon, to his love affair with Cleopatra and the fateful Ides of March ...Even the cliches of his life reveal the extent to which Julius Caesar has become an enduring part of the fabric of western culture. In this book Maria Wyke explores the ways in which Caesar's life has provided inexhaustible inspiration for two thousand years. In the Middle Ages he was held to be a 'pagan saint' whose conduct exemplified Christian virtues, and popes and emperors clamoured to establish a founding place for him in their family trees.Artists such as Shakespeare and Handel found in 'great Caesar's' life the stuff of dramatic plots which focus on supremacy and conspiracy, while Napoleon, Mussolini (to his enemies a 'sawdust Caesar') and Cesare Borgia looked to him for more practical lessons in how to seize and hold on to power. The love triangle of Caesar, Mark Antony and Cleopatra provides the archetypal story of the interplay of sex, luxury and power, and the story of his assassination, too, has been a fertile source in later centuries for explorations of tyranny, liberty and betrayal. Maria Wyke's book is a timely and highly readable exploration of a life - and afterlife - of almost unparalleled potency in the western imagination.

About this title

About the Author

Maria Wyke studied Classics at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. She has taught at the University of Reading and currently holds the chair in Latin at University College London.

Review

"Ms. Wyke's concern is how we have created and adapted Caesar's image and historical importance over the past 2,000 years—from Caesar's camp at Arles to Caesars Palace, Las Vegas; from Mussolini, seeking a Caesarian mandate for his own grand ambitions, to Asterix, using the Roman dictator for satirical purposes in comic-book form; from the Caesar coins minted in tribute by Brutus (before he revised his opinion) to the taunts leveled at George W. Bush as an empire-seeker in recent years."—Peter Stothard, Wall Street Journal (Peter Stothard Wall Street Journal 2008-08-18)

 “Wyke has gathered together a splendid array of Caesarian traditions, reminiscences, and arguments in Western culture, high and low. . . . The material assembled in Caesar will warm the hearts of many students of the ancient world, with its repeated demonstration that Caesar’s career has made such an impact in so many different media over the last two millennia.”

(Mary Beard New York Review of Books)

"Wyke, a witty and ingenious professor of Latin at University College London, examines the blossoming of the Caesarian reputation in her superb new book. . . .Her account of how writers have used him explains why he's achieved what he most wanted when he was alive: to be acknowledged forever as the greatest Roman.: (Robert Fulford National Post)

"The author demonstrates how different people at various times have held constrasting viewpoints on a man who continues to fascinate each successive generation. Clearly and engagingly written." (Choice)

Edition details

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1862076626
• ISBN 13: 9781862076624
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 278