Julius Caesar: Rome's Greatest Warlord

by Simon Elliott

Julius Caesar has been the inspiration to countless military commanders over the last two millennia. Born into an aristocratic family, his early military campaigns, part of his progression along the cursus honorium, included campaigning in the east, Spain and in the early Roman civil wars. His participation in the Gallic Wars is known mainly through the commentary on the wars that he wrote and published, along with his incursions into Britain. This concise history details his military life, and how it impacted with his political career, from his youth through the civil wars that resulted in his becoming the dictator of Rome, and his legacy.

Genres: History

160 pages, Hardcover

First published November 13, 2019

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reads like a dissertation/thesis. Not for the layman who is interested in learning about Caesar’s life. Plenty of errors (punctuation and grammar) throughout.

[Robert Neil Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Elliott’s biography of Julius Caesar in Casemate’s Short History series focuses on the great Roman’s political and military life. He begins by tracing the evolution of Rome’s legions to the point when Caesar took command, raising some of own in the process. Elliott also describes the legionary life under Caesar. He then establishes the wider context of the Roman Republic as it rose into an empire before almost collapsing partly because of men like Caesar. After all that background, Elliott starts his biography, one-third of the way into his book. He follows Caesar’s rise to the Consulship, hitting the highlights of his career along the way. Caesar in Gaul forms a significant part of Elliott’s narrative, including his armed reconnaissance forays into Britain, and ending in the siege of Alesia. Civil war ensued against Caesar’s political rivals with Caesar emerging victorious only to meet his violent end at the hands of assassins. Elliott concludes with sections on Caesar’s legacy and his argument for why Caesar was Rome’s greatest warlord.
It is difficult to position Elliott’s biography of Caesar within the considerable canon of work on him. There is nothing new or startling in this account, nor is it particularly well or badly written. Reading this, I was reminded of the old-fashioned primers I read as a boy in the 1970s, so my evaluation of this is that it is a useful primer. If that is all you need then Elliott’s biography will work but look elsewhere, probably Adrian Goldsworthy’s Caesar, for more depth of analysis.

[Gonçalo Paradinha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante, mas com alguns erros ortográficos