A. David Singh’s Caesar: Escapades in Rome, is a collection of ten short stories about a boy born in July 100 BC, in a small town on the banks of river Tiber whose inhabitants are described as having two attribute: their love for their town and their love for war. The town was Rome, and the boy’s name was Gaius Julius Caesar.
Among the numerous evocative scenes in the stories and perhaps the most memorable one, is that of Julius Caesar, slumped to the ground, clutching the leg of Alexander’s statue. Caesar weeps upon learning that Alexander had ‘conquered the world, from Greece to India, when he was but thirty’ and believes the statue’s steely gaze mocks Caesar’s paltry accomplishment as a ‘glorified book-keeper’. About a decade later, a determined Caesar would capture Gaul and go on to become the dictator of Rome. Had Caesar succumbed to that moment of insecurity, by Alexander’s statue, history would have indeed been written differently.
The stories will take you on a thrilling journey with Caesar, both within Rome and in the far off lands he conquered. The tales are sprinkled with humor as well as internet links that will whisk you away to the era before Christ. An exhilarating and informative read. Highly recommended.