Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power

by Ernle Bradford

A new portrait of the conqueror and leader of the Roman empire details Caesar's humble origins, his rise to power, his physical, military, amorous, and political exploits, and his family circumstances

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography

312 pages

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Ernle Dusgate Selby Bradford was a noted British historian specializing in the Mediterranean world and naval topics. Bradford was an enthusiastic sailor himself and spent almost thirty years sailing the Mediterranean, where many of his books are set. He served in the Royal Navy during World War II, finishing as the first Lieutenant of a destroyer. He did occasional broadcast work for the BBC, was a magazine editor, and wrote many books.

Reviews

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ernie Bradford writes directly without any flimflam. In so doing, he gives us a history that lives up to its title. In this case, we learn about the beginnings of Julius Caesar's life and background. We learn about what makes him into a great general and leader. As we read, we learn about his context and what other people in his world thought of him. And then we learned about how he was taken down.

All of this is quite interesting, especially the beginning and the end.

I really admire Bradford's reductionism and how he is able to educate in such a concise and fascinating way.

[Gary Pointon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Veni Vidi Vici

[David Stewart · Rating 2 out of 5]

OK general history but full of typos. Needs proofreading and editing. It's obvious the publisher (Endeavour Media) has just slapped it through an OCR scan and done no quality control at all.

[Colin]

I think the book, "Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power," was a good book, packed with good and interesting information. The story begins with Caesar's younger years, teaching the reader about Caesar's birth, education, and parents. I also learned about his early influence, Marius, who was the first to introduce him to the idea of war and battle. Early on I learned that Caesar was born into a well-to-do family, with a good income, and good ideals. "The family was neither rich nore poor, well-born but comparatively undistinguished, and conservative in the real sense of being moderate, cautious and averse to change (Bradford 19)." Education came first to the Caesars. As the book goes on, you learn about how Caesar began to take control, when he became part of the First Triumvirate, and how the death of two of the men left him in charge of the entire Roman Empire. After he takes control of the government, Caesar began taking control of other regions, with his brilliant military campaigns. Caesar was best known for his campaigns, against different regions such as Gaul. Then the book starts looking towards the end of Caesar's life. It begins talking about the men involved and why they actually murdered him. It also goes into great detail of the actual assassination. "At this, Casca, who was standing behind him, struck the first blow at the victim's neck but, missing, pierced only his shoulder... He was moving away when another stabbed him in the side and Cassius pierced him full in the face with his dagger. Now they were all on to him like a a pack of wolves, one striking him in the thigh, another in the back. Caesar, says Appian, fought for his life like a wild animal. Inflamed with hatred and bloodlust, the conspirators were like madmen, striking out so wildly that they wounded several of their own number (Bradford 289)."

In my opinion, "Julius Caesar: The Pursuit of Power" was very well written. I enjoyed reading it, since it was easy to follow and was full of good information about Caesar. Before I read the book, I knew very little information about Julius Caesar, but after I read it, I had very good knowledge of his life and death. All in all, I would recommend this book if you are looking for an informative and enjoyable story about Julius Caesar. Although, I would not recommend this book for younger children, since it can be difficult to read at times. I also would like to make notice that it is not a thrilling book about war, conspiracy and murder. Yes, there are some exciting parts of this book, but a large majority of this book is factual information, and can get pretty boring.

If I were to rate this book on a scale of 1-5, I would give it a 2. It was a good book if you were looking for factual information, but it can get really boring.