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4.28 AVERAGE
4.28 AVERAGE
Fascinating man and period. The accounts of battles and military descriptions of legions moving around are a bit dull. I would like to hear more on Roman politics. 'Definitive' biography on Caesar? I think not.
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
informative
slow-paced
This book took me forever because I mainly read it during slow times at work or before I went to bed. The focus is on Caesar's military and political career. Anything else with his affairs and marriages were barely explored.
Goldsworthy is an amazing author. He writes with clear authority on a personal hero of mine, IGC. For anyone interested in the man of all men, I would recommended this substantial and rewarding book.
Almost everything I know about Rome and Cæsar, I know from reading Asterix as a kid. Earlier this year I decided to read [b:SPQR|28789711|SPQR A History of Ancient Rome|Mary Beard|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1470421195s/28789711.jpg|44684882] 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.
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.
This biography may start out mundane, but once Caesar travels to Gaul as proconsul it becomes exciting and enthralling. Adrian Goldsworthy begins Part I with an introduction to the world and the Republic that Caius Julius Caesar was born into and his early political career. For me, it was the most difficult section of the book to read through, and the amount and unfamiliarity of the names and terms definitely played a part. But, as I said, when Caesar becomes proconsul and begins his military campaigns in Gaul in Part II, the story becomes infinitely more interesting. There are battles everywhere - legions are marching in every direction, crossing the Rhine, landing in Britain, quashing rebellions here and there. The action is non-stop and it's glorious. And it doesn't end there. Part III starts with the Civil War and so now there's fighting in Italy, Spain, Macedonia, Egypt and Africa. Caesar demonstrates his great, but not infallible, martial ability throughout these campaigns as well as his leadership ability, his ruthlessness, but also clemency. After achieving victory in the Civil War and returning to Rome, Caesar is regaled with triumphs, accolades, and awarded dictator perpetuo (essentially, dictator for life). Of course so much power in the hands of one man never sits well with those who once had their share and who felt they were losing their Republic. And so senators turned assassins and the rest, as they say, is history. To write the life of such a man as Julius Caesar is no easy task and Goldsworthy has here a wonderful accomplishment.
challenging
informative
slow-paced
Okay yeah whatever it's a good book. Well-written. Well-researched. Whatever. I'll admit that much. I still don't like the eponymous Caesar, but whatever. It's fine.
Loved this book, it's gripping but firmly places the action within the cultural and political context of Ancient Rome. I have not read a bad book by this author yet