Adrian Goldsworthy introduces the subject of his book in a lengthy introduction which is almost an essay in itself and begins thus:
The story of Julius Caesar is an intensely dramatic one, which has fascinated generation after generation, attracting the attention of Shakespeare and Shaw, not to mention numerous novelists and screenwriters. Caesar was one of the ablest generals of any era, who left accounts of his own campaigns that have rarely -- perhaps never -- been surpassed in literary quality. At the same time he was a politician and statesman who eventually took supreme power in the Roman Republic and made himself a monarch in every practical respect, although he never took the name of king. Caesar was not a cruel ruler and paraded his clemency to his defeated enemies, but in the end he was stabbed to death as a result of a conspiracy led by two pardoned men, which also included many of his own supporters. Later his adopted son Octavian -- fully Caius Julius Caesar Octavianus -- became Rome's first emperor. The family line perished with Nero in AD 68, but all later emperors still took the name of Caesar, even though there was no link by blood or adoption. What had simply been the name of one aristocratic family -- and a fairly obscure one at that -- became effectively a title symbolising supreme and legitimate power. So strong was the association that when the twentieth century opened, two of the world's great powers were still led by a kaiser and a tsar, each name a rendering of Caesar. Today the Classics have lost their central position in Western education, but even so Julius Caesar remains one of a handful of figures from the ancient world whose name commands instant recognition.
The author concludes with this paragraph:
Part of the fascination with Caesar is because he is so difficult to pin down and because mysteries remain, for instance, as to what he really intended in the last months of his life. In his fifty-six years he was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator -- perhaps even a god -- as well as a husband, father, lover and adulterer. Few fictional heroes have ever done as much as Caius Julius Caesar.
Mr. Goldsworthy explores all this with a full and detailed biography, which is divided into three sections:
Part One: The Rise to Consulship 100-59 B.C.
Part Two: Proconsul 58-50 B.C.
Part Three: Civil War and Dictatorship 49-44 B.C.
The book is aimed at a general audience rather than an academic one, and has some catchy chapter titles. "Rise to Consulship" starts with the chapter "Caesar's World," which provides a concise introduction to Roman history, political, military, and social, prior to the adult life of Caesar (although the author left me totally confused as to what being an equestrian meant), thus setting the stage for the life of Julius Caesar. We are treated to a straightforward narrative, where "the focus is always on Caesar, and no more description is provided for the events in which he was not involved than is essential." However, where he is involved, no essentials are spared.
Caesar's known story here really begins with Marius, Cinna, and their nomination of young Caesar as flamen dialis, and Part One concludes with the year of Caesar's first consulship. Much of what we know of the pre-Gallic-war Caesar by necessity comes from often tendentious ancient historians. On the whole Mr. Goldsworthy carefully weighs this evidence against modern research and tries to give a balanced portrait of his subject and the events of the day. Occasionally, some absolutes creep in, such as with the bona dea scandal, where he writes, "Pompeia had a lover, the thirty-year old quaestor-elect Publius Clodius Pulcher, and the couple had decided that the celebrations offered a perfect cover for an assignation." That is pure Plutarch, and a closer study of Cicero's letters might have led to a more cautious statement. (Jeffrey Tatum, in The Patrician Tribune: Publius Clodius Pulcher, has carefully explored this particular issue.) Such lapses notwithstanding, Mr. Goldsworthy presents well the complexities of Caesar's personality and ambitions and their effect on his contemporaries and rivals, and what he calls the "changed circumstances of public life," which greatly influence the career of Caesar. There is also a balanced piece on Caesar's philandering and relationship with women.
It is in Part Two, covering the war in Gaul, where Mr. Goldsworthy really shines: the military historian in him can take over. Before he goes into more detail, he discusses the Commentaries (with great enthusiasm) and Caesar's army and his staff; he then concentrates on the major events of the war. This section concludes with "The Road to Rubicon," a fairly extensive treatment of the relationship between Caesar, the Senate, and Pompey. Mr. Goldsworthy is in the camp of historians who do believe that civil war was not necessarily inevitable, and he makes his point well. Then he says, "Resorting to his army was a mark of Caesar's failure to get what he wanted by political means. The die had been rolled, but so far, no one knew what number it would show when it came to rest," and thus we are led into Part Three, civil war and eventual dictatorship.
Again, we are treated to a good weighing of the evidence and analysis of the civil war, and excellent battle descriptions in the various campaigns, concluding with the battle of Thapsus. Mr. Goldsworthy discusses the possible effect of Pompey's death on Caesar and then goes on to the Egyptian interlude, giving Cleopatra a fair hearing.
