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Caesar's Legacy: Civil War and the Emergence of the Roman Empire

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Caesar's Legacy recounts the rise to power of Rome's first emperor, Augustus, by focusing on how the bloody civil wars which he and his soldiers fought transformed the lives of men and women throughout the Mediterranean world and beyond. The volume demonstrates how, during this violent period, Romans came to accept a new form of government and found ways to celebrate it in their towns and cities. It also reveals how they mourned, in literary masterpieces and stories passed onto their children, the terrible losses that accompanied the long years of fighting.

452 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

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About the author

Josiah Osgood

13 books15 followers
Josiah Osgood is Professor of Classics at Georgetown University. His teaching and research cover many areas of Roman history and Latin literature, with a special focus on the fall of the Roman Republic.

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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
Profile Image for Efrain Pérez  Pinzón.
295 reviews1 follower
November 22, 2023
Otro punto de vista diferente a Roma Traicionada de Javier Negrete o Antonio y Cleopatra de Goldworthy, muy interesante porque lo busca en la poesía, arquitectura y transmite muy bien lo que se sentía mientras luchaba la ambición y la avaricia, interesante otro punto de vista pero más difícil de contar.
Profile Image for Socraticgadfly.
1,416 reviews458 followers
July 15, 2021
Good luck at the basics of the Second Triumvirite and the Civil War, including the extreme disruptions of trying to settle land on so many veterans and how this caused problems with the populace in Italy.

Also covers well the proscriptions, including how they were being used to find this land and enrich the triumvirs as well as punish foes.

Also covers the rise of Augustus and his use of psychology before the final showdown at Actium.

Beyond the big-picture new things, I did not know that Augustus' family had urged him to reject Julius Caesar's will, namely, to reject the adoption. A HUGE "what if" of history.
Profile Image for Saúl.
61 reviews1 follower
July 31, 2023
Tenia muchas ganas de leer el primer libro de Josiah Osgood después del gran sabor de boca que me dejó “La creación del estado mundo” y, sinceramente, no me ha decepcionado en absoluto.
El legado de César es una excepcional obra de una profundidad absoluta donde se nos presenta una historia sobre los últimos años de la República romana, la guerra civil, el ascenso del triunvirato, la nueva guerra civil y la formación de un nuevo sistema político: el Principado, encarnado en la figura de Octavio Augusto, un genio de la propaganda y la estrategia. Usando fuentes históricas y modernas con gran profusión, y sin abandonar la política y la guerra, Osgood se dedica a observar lo que supusieron tantos conflictos, penurias (proscripciones, expropiaciones de tierras…) y cambios en la península itálica y en su sociedad y como está fue paulatinamente uniéndose y creando una suerte de “nación” encabezada por Roma.
Aunque es cierto que la narración se detiene con la muerte de Marco Antonio y Cleopatra y nos da sólo leves pistas de los momentos inmediatamente posteriores a ello, por lo que, hasta cierto punto, echo un falta algo más de profundidad sobre el nuevo régimen que instauró Octaviano, lo cierto es que pocos reproches se le pueden poner a Osgood.
En fin, de esos libros que hay que tener sí o sí en la biblioteca de un aficionado a ese periodo histórico.
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