Julius Caesar : A Life

Resumen del libro

Julius Caesar is part historical figure and part legend. He was a complex individual, a brilliant politician, a successful general, an accomplished psychologist. He grew up in a world where political and military careers were inextricably intertwined, and he excelled at both.

In his youth he was considered vain and a little foppish, but showed nerves of steel when he defied the Dictator Sulla - and survived. Bending to someone's will was not in Caesar's make-up. He came late to a position of supreme power, and though his policies embraced pragmatic, sensible measures designed to solve the problems that beset the Republic, it was his dictatorial methods rather than his ideas which caused resentment.

Unfortunately, when his assassins killed him, hoping to liberate the state from what they saw as his tyranny, they had formulated no plans for the government of the Roman world. By murdering Caesar, the assassins provoked a prolonged series of civil wars, and the rise of Augustus, the all-powerful first Emperor, who took up where Caesar left off. In this new appraisal of his life, Patricia Southern sheds light on the man behind the legend.

Biografía del autor

Patricia Southern es una historiadora inglesa especializada en el estudio de la Roma clásica. Southern ha sido bibliotecaria del Departamento de Arqueología y en la biblioteca de la Sociedad Literaria y Filosófica de la Universidad de Newcastle upon Tyne. Ha publicado trece libros sobre historia romana y arqueología, entre ellos El Ejército romano del Bajo Imperio en coautoría junto a Karen R. Dixon, y Julio César, y es autora de numerosos artículos sobre historia romana en la página web de la BBC History y en la revista académica Roman studies journal Britannia.