![]() ![]() ![]() This leads, as the book proceeds, to the sensation that one is on a long guided tour, uncertain precisely where the guide will turn next, or why. Many questions that have been subjects of recent scholarly debate are, of course, touched upon, but this is a biography, and so the narrative structure and pacing derive from Caesar’s life - from, that is, the most detailed of the ancient sources. ![]() But this is also to say that there is not much here that seems to be new. The book is friendly to both specialist and non-specialist, and those Roman historians who are inclined to sit down in a comfortable chair with a big book in their own field will find here a comprehensive and very readable review of Caesar’s life and times. This biography, while animated by a similar interest in studying human activity with a strong sense of cultural immediacy, is a more traditional sort of work, sketching an outline of Caesar, “a great man,” against his many contexts - Roman society, the politics of the senate, Gaul, the army. Goldsworthy’s extensive body of work on the Roman army has greatly advanced our understanding of Roman military behavior, particularly the interplay of physical and psychological factors, and his The Roman Army at War remains the most indispensable work on its subject. ![]() Adrian Goldsworthy’s recent biography of Caesar adds a large (519 pages) book to a formidable pile. ![]()
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