The Cambridge Companion To The Writings Of Julius Caesar

Well-known as a brilliant general and politician, Caesar also played a fundamental role in the formation of the Latin literary language and history of Latin Literature. This volume provides both a clear introduction to Caesar as a man of letters and a fresh re-assessment of his literary achievements.

A Companion to Julius Caesar comprises 30 essays fromleading scholars examining the life and after life of this greatpolarizing figure. Explores Caesar from a variety of perspectives: militarygenius, ruthless tyrant, brilliant politician, first class orator,sophisticated man of letters, and more Utilizes Caesar’s own extant writings Examines the viewpoints of Caesar’s contemporaries andexplores Caesar’s portrayals by artists and writers throughthe ages

Participating in a new wave of Caesar studies, this book examines the Bellum Civile as a piece of literature written by a recognized intellectual and not simply a successful politician and general. Focusing on the peculiarities of Caesar's art, this reading explores the work's style, rhetoric, ideology and architecture.

This second edition examines all aspects of Roman history, and contains a new introduction, three new chapters and updated bibliographies.

Captures the dynamics and richness of this era by examining important aspects of the period.

"Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army - a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature - perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists -and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar's famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor's dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O'Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the "best bad man's book ever written"--A great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been. Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic - a book that, as O'Donnell says, 'gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.'" -- Front jacket flap

Reinterprets Julius Caesar not as an autocrat seeking to overthrow the Roman Republic, but as an unusually successful political leader.

A highly accessible survey of life in the capital of the Roman Empire, the largest metropolis of its day.