Sara’s Reviews > The Ides of March > Status Update

He contemplates the kind of man who might want to kill him. Hopes it will be someone with Rome at heart. Examines how love and hate are two sides of the same coin; people are grateful to have someone take the responsibility from them but resent the loss of freedom.
"the central movement of the mind is the desire for unrestricted liberty..invariably accompanied by its opposite, a dread of the consequences of liberty."

This is a very interesting view of Caesar, a man who knows he will be assassinated and yet is able to look in an almost removed way.

"I am often called 'Destiny's Favorite'. If the Gods exist they placed me where I am. They placed every man where he is, but the man who fills my seat is among the more conspicuous of Their appointments. The man who plays me would perhaps offer us some light upon their nature."

Wilder does a good job of allowing us to see the man behind the title of dictator. It occurs to me that Julius Caesar had no precedent to build his position upon. Perhaps he thought of Alexander as that.

I enjoy epistolary novels when well done. This one is quite good, but I do not think it rivals Williams' Augustus.