Julius Caesar | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Freeman
Publisher: Simon Schuster
Category: Book
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 63299
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 416
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.5
ISBN: 0743289536
Dewey Decimal Number: 937.05092
EAN: 9780743289535
ASIN: 0743289536
Publication Date: May 13, 2008
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Product Description
More than two thousand years after his death, Julius Caesar remains one of the great figures of history. He shaped Rome for generations, and his name became a synonym for "emperor" -- not only in Rome but as far away as Germany and Russia. He is best known as the general who defeated the Gauls and doubled the size of Rome's territories. But, as Philip Freeman describes in this fascinating new biography, Caesar was also a brilliant orator, an accomplished writer, a skilled politician, and much more.PJulius Caesar was a complex man, both hero and villain. He possessed great courage, ambition, honor, and vanity. Born into a noble family that had long been in decline, he advanced his career cunningly, beginning as a priest and eventually becoming Rome's leading general. He made alliances with his rivals and then discarded them when it suited him. He was a spokesman for the ordinary people of Rome, who rallied around him time and again, but he profited enormously from his conquests and lived opulently. Eventually he was murdered in one of the most famous assassinations in history.PCaesar's contemporaries included some of Rome's most famous figures, from the generals Marius, Sulla, and Pompey to the orator and legislator Cicero as well as the young politicians Mark Antony and Octavius (later Caesar Augustus). Caesar's legendary romance with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra still fascinates us today.PIn this splendid biography, Freeman presents Caesar in all his dimensions and contradictions. With remarkable clarity and brevity, Freeman shows how Caesar dominated a newly powerful Rome and shaped its destiny. This book will captivate readers discovering Caesar and ancient Rome for the first time as well as those who have a deep interest in the classical world.
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Julius Caesar: An Immortal Name Stamped in the Annals of Humanity November 14, 2008
Serge J. Van Steenkiste (Atlanta, GA)
Philip Freeman chronologically walks through the life and legacy of Julius Caesar. Freeman usually provides enough background information to help his audience better understand the environment in which Caesar was operating. Readers progressively discover a complex leader who was intelligent, bold, fearless, ambitious, visionary, charming, and sensitive but also possessed ruthless and autocratic traits. To summarize, "Julius Caesar" by Freeman is a compelling invitation to (re) discover an exceptional individual who has left an indelible mark on the history of mankind.
 Julius Caesar by Freeman September 13, 2008
Wordsman (Michigan)
Readers beware! Philip Freeman's "Julius Caesar" is addictive. Once you start, you won't be able to stop turning the pages. br / br /I was drawn to this book having recently returned from Italy on a family vacation that included tours of the Forum, subura (suburbia), and other locations in ancient Rome. I wanted to know just how much of what we had seen, and what I remembered about that era from high school and college history classes, was covered in this book. I was not disappointed. br / br /Like any great story teller, and that Freeman is, you're hooked with page after page of stories about Julius Caesar that are insightful, compelling, and even funny at times. br / br /The thread that runs through all of Freeman's narratives is one of a legendary figure of epic dimensions who constantly did the unconventional or the unexpected, was calculating, innovative, and had a knack for turning what seemed to be a hopeless situation into one that seemed to work...that is, until the end. br / br /Early on you can't help but chuckle when you read, and visualize in your mind's eye, about Caesar being captured by a group of pirates when he was just 25 and then mocking his captors when he tells them their ransom demand of just twenty talents was too low. Insulted, Caesar told them to raise the amount to fifty talents. br / br /Additional details Freeman provides -- how Caesar adapted to his captors by joining them in their athletic events and reading poetry to them, for example -- seemed to have turned the modern-day Stockholm Syndrome upside down. Little did the captors realize they would pay a price when Caesar would later seize the ransom and punish his captors by having them crucified. br / br /For those suffering from midlife crisis, it's especially interesting to consider how Caesar, only in his late twenties or early thirties, while at the Temple of Hercules and seeing a statue of Alexander the Great, laments how he had not achieved what Alexander did at about the same age. br / br /Freeman's book takes the reader on numerous journeys highlighting Caesar's military exploits. Fighting was such a part of life that, in one instance, Freeman takes a phrase from today's sports about "the boys of summer" (baseball), modifies it, and coins his own phrase as he writes about "the summer fighting season" (p. 153). br / br /Throughout his book, Freeman describes Caesar the religious leader, the military leader, and the politican. But there's more. Freeman also gives readers examples of Caesar they may not know about -- engineer, motivator, marketer, and, yes, occasional humorist. br / br /As an engineer, Caesar had a 19-mile long wall constructed near Geneva during one of his military adventures, built the first bridge across the Rhine in just ten days, and dug protective trenches so Belgic troops could only attack from one direction. br / br /As motivator, Freeman conveys how Caesar would address his troops, one time as "fellow soldiers," and as "citizens" years later. br / br /As a marketer, Caesar's "Gallic War" and crossing the water "to the mythic island of Britain" captured the imagination of the public in ways, I suspect, that were similar to the way the U.S. space program did more than forty years ago. Of course, Caesar was marketing...Caesar. br / br /Caesar also comes across as an occasional comedian when, in one instance, after landing in modern Tunisia, he stumbles out of his ship and falls on his face. Freeman recounts how Caesar was able to turn this bumbling episode into his favor by grabbing a handful of sand and telling his troops, "I hold you now, Africa!" br / br /Freeman portrays Caesar as, to borrow a frequently-used phrase today, "a lifelong learner," who adapted his military campaigns to new situations and even geography he encountered, such as designing new vessels to face stormy seas off the coast of France or developing battering rams for house-to-house combat. br / br /Ironically, it was Caesar's failure to adapt to a new world, one he himself largely made, where "he began to act more like a king than a leader of a republic," as Freeman writes, along with excessive hubris that led to his eventual demise. br / br /There too, the reader may be surprised that Caesar's final words were not the ones Shakespeare wrote. I won't spoil and note here what Freeman wrote. You'll have to read those to learn what they were. br / br /"Julius Caesar" is a classic, ranking right up there with books written by David McCullough, such as "1776" and "John Adams." Once you start reading, you won't stop.
Freeman's Caesar Combines Ancient Sources with Modern Scholarship August 22, 2008
Mary Harrsch (Springfield, OR USA)
br /by Mary Harrsch br / br /Philip Freeman's "Julius Caesar" is a comprehensive biography of the Roman conqueror that is as straightforward and readable as the general's own "Gallic Wars". Freeman not only stitches together the various ancient accounts of Caesar's exploits but adds context to his activities by including helpful background information about his various adversaries pulled from a wealth of modern scholarship. He recounts Caesar's conquest of the Celtic tribes of Gaul against a vivid tapestry of the Celtic culture gleaned from such works as Rankin's "Celts and the Classical World, Cunliff's "The Ancient Celts", and Green's "The World of the Druids". I especially found the defeats or near-defeats suffered at the hands of the Celts as fascinating as Caesar's famous victory at Alesia. br / br /The details of a surprise attack by Belgic tribes was particularly intense and sadly ironic because Caesar was essentially saved by his future Civil War opponent, Labienus. br / br /"He [Caesar] had been caught unprepared for a surprise assault of such force and speed. His army would surely have been overwhelmed had it not been for the training and experience they had gained during the past year. There was no time to call his officers together and form a plan , so each organized whatever men were nearest and struck back at the Belgae. With a herculean effort, the Roman troops on the eastern side of the battlefield were able to push the Atrebates and then the Vironmandui back across the river with heavy losses on both sides, but the Nervii on the western end would not yield and pressed the Romans until they fell back in a hopeless struggle to save their camp. The Nervii stormed over the uncompleted walls of the Roman stronghold, killing many of the legionaries and threatening to outflank the Roman forces who had already crossed the river. Caesar had been rushing madly to every corner of the battlefield, but when he saw the dire threat at the camp, he leapt from his horse, grabbed a sword, and joined the fray." br / br /Although Caesar's men rallied with their commander beside them calling them by name, their plight was dire. They managed to stop the encirclement and were presently reinforced by the the arrival of the two legions that had escorted the baggage train. But the real turning point of the battle hinged on the counterattack led by Labienus who, seeing Caesar's desperate struggle, dashed back across the river. br / br /"His arrival brought such hope to the beleaguered men around Caesar that even those who had been seriously wounded propped themselves against their shields for support to continue to fight." br / br /With the tide of battle now turned the Belgic warriors demonstrated their own ferocity and determination to remain an unconquered people. br / br /"As the hours passed, the Romans slowly tightened the circle on them, hacking and killing as each Belgic warrior fought with all his might. In the end, the few Nervii who were left stood on a mound formed by their fallen comrades and - pulling the Roman spears from the dead bodies of their friends - threw them back down at the legions." br / br /These images brought echoes of Thermopylae to mind. br / br /Many critics of Caesar's activities in Gaul have portrayed Caesar and his commanders as ruthless perpetrators of genocide without significant provocation but Freeman, using the details of engagements retold in Caesar's Gallic Wars, recounts numerous incidents of Gallic duplicity after peace agreements were concluded. But Freeman also points out that Caesar did not delude himself with proclamations that he was bringing "civilization" to the Gauls. Instead he said Caesar candidly observed, "Human nature everywhere yearns for freedom and hates submitting to domination by another." br / br /"The Romans never pretended that they were bringing freedom or a better way of life to the peoples they conquered." Freeman states. "They frankly admitted that they were only interested in increasing their own power, wealth, and security through conquest." br / br /I have previously only read isolated passages of accounts of Caesar's Alexandrian Wars so I also found that portion of Freeman's book particularly fascinating. Many books and films about this period seem to omit most references to intervention by Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe and her commander Ganymedes. Many accounts of the confrontation between the Alexandrians and Caesar seem to focus on the activities of the Egyptian general Achillas and the spoiled child-pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. But Freeman recounts how Achillas was actually murdered by Ganymedes and most of the near disasters suffered by Caesar's forces, beseiged in the palace, were masterminded by this militarily astute courtier. Freeman also details the urban warfare that Caesar was forced to conduct in Alexandria that sounded eerily familiar to anyone who watches CNN regularly. I was also surprised to read that the often-portrayed luxurious "honeymoon" cruise up the Nile was a deliberate show of military force since the royal barge was accompanied by over 400 ships crammed with Roman troops. I am now more convinced than ever that Caesar's effort to father a child with Cleopatra was a deliberate act to obtain a client king related by blood to secure Egypt without annexing it and risking its plunder by a corrupt proconsular governor in the future. br / br /Freeman mentioned Caesar's epilepsy only in passing early on in the text. This surprised me since I have long suspected that a head wound Caesar sustained on campaign was actually the cause of the increased frequency of seizures Caesar suffered toward the end of his life and perhaps one of the reasons for the apparent lack of political judgment he exercised at the time of the Africa triumph when he included unpopular tableaus depicting the deaths of Scipio and Cato. Freeman only observed that Caesar showed particularly bad taste in celebrating a triumph over his Roman opponents and how this had upset his normally adoring crowd. There were at least four significant seizures documented by the ancient sources (Plutarch, Suetonius, Appian, and Pliny) that modern experts conclude, according to J. R. Hughes, Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, "were probably complex partial seizures: (1) while listening to an oration by Cicero, (2) in the Senate while being offered the Emperor's Crown, and in military campaigns, (3) near Thapsus (North Africa) and (4) Corduba (Spain)." br / br /Drs. J.G Gomez, J.A. Kotler, and J.B. Long, Division of Neurological Surgery, Holy Cross Hospital, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, conducted a pathological analysis of Caesar's reported symptoms and behavioral changes in 1995 and suggested he may have been suffering from a brain tumor. "The patient had late onset of seizures in the last two years of his life, headaches, personality changes. Upon reexamination of existing Julius Caesar iconography, busts, statues and minted coins no skull deformities have been noted. Identification of a skull deformity as described by Suetonius would have confirmed the suspicion of meningioma involving the convexity of the cerebral hemispheres. Meningioma or slow-growing supratentorial glioma may well have been responsible for this man's illness." br / br /In any event, I think a man who had demonstrated such a superior grasp of Roman politics in the past would not have committed such blunders on purpose or because success had simply "gone to his head". br / br /Freeman included a wonderful compedium at the end of the book that listed his sources for various sections within the text that is a valuable reference for readers wishing to learn more about specific events in Caesar's life. A comprehensive bibliography and index rounded out the text's impressive list of source materials. There were only two things contained in the book that gave me pause. One was a reference to a pilum not being designed as a throwing weapon but rather a thrusting weapon. I think this must have been a lapse in editing as Freeman was comparing Roman weapons with other weapons of the ancient world. Alexander's Macedonians carried sarissas, that, unlike commonly used Greek spears, were not designed for throwing but for thrusting. Likewise, the Roman gladius was designed for thrusting rather than slashing. But a Roman pilum was designed to bend on impact to make it difficult to remove and Freeman pointed this out. So, I would think a weapon so designed was obviously intended primarily for throwing. The other error was the inclusion of an image of a sculptured head of Lucius Cornelius Sulla labeled as Gaius Marius in the photo insert section. It was provided by the Bridgeman Art Library and perhaps the labeling error was theirs. The head is in the permanent collection of the Glyptotek in Munich, Germany as indicated but according to an overwhelming majority of people on the web, including the scholars who maintain Vroma.org, the head belongs to Marius' arch enemy, Sulla. See http://www.vroma.org/~bmcmanus/optimates.html.
Caesar Redux August 11, 2008
William G. Parsons (Lowell, MA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Julius Caesar has been making a comeback in the last decade. Michael Parenti's The Assassination of Julius Caesar and Adrian Goldsworthy's Caesar; Life of a Colossus are just two of the recent treatments of this larger than life figure, almost legendary in his own day, mythic in ours. Philip Freeman's stated purpose was to parse out the myths from the facts and his Julius Caesar is a brilliant and compelling narrative which will help the general reader realize just how important Caesar was to the way western civilization evolved. br / br /While the current trend in historical studies is to minimize the role of the "great men," it is hard to ignore the fact that at times some people do change their world, for the better or worse, and without them, that change would not come. Caesar was one of those men. But Caesar knew, as Freeman points out, that his power was not cut from the whole cloth of his charisma. Caesar was dependent on the Roman lower classes for his political and military successes. Bertolt Brecht asks the question in his Questions from a Studious Worker, "Caesar conquered Gaul- Did he not even have a cook with him?" As Freeman shows, Caesar knew his cooks and his men. Growing up in a gritty working class neighborhood, Caesar saw better than his richer contemporaries the problems of the lower classes in late Republican Rome. br / br /The inability of the Roman nobility and their "business leader" allies to deal with the social and political problems created by the rapid expansion of the state created an instability that was to prove as fatal to the Roman Republic as it did to Caesar himself. A century of civil war, of which Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon was but a small blip, left the state as little more than a resource to be exploited for the personal gain of the various contenders for power. The entrenched interests of the nobility left any notion of reform unacceptable and the increasing violence of the reaction left little room for compromise. br / br /Freeman's Caesar is neither a hero nor a villain, to use the author's own definition of the extremes. But his treatment of his subject is sympathetic, and justifiably so. There is little doubt that Caesar's motives were self serving, but that does not take away from the effect of what he tried to do. The land reform question, which claimed the lives of many reformers before Caesar, was not solved by the time of Caesar's death, but one does have to ask the question of how Roman society would have evolved had he been successful. Much like how Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal reforms were designed to ameliorate the worst problems of the working classes, Caesar's land and debt reforms did not radically change the Roman system, but strengthened it. Caesar was a product of that Roman political system, a system in which he was just the most successful manifestation of what competence and charisma could accomplish. To destroy the system would have been to destroy his own place in his society. br / br /Freeman's Julius Caesar is a good read and well worth the effort of the general and specialized reader. I highly recommend it. br /
Pro-Caesar, for the most part August 2, 2008
Dave Schwinghammer (Little Falls, Minnesota USA)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
According to Philip Freeman's account, Julius Caesar may have been the most misunderstood man in history. He owed his military and political career to the plebians, the lower class Romans with whom he sided. By doing this he won the never-ending antipathy of the patrician families who controlled the Roman senate. br / br /As a general Caesar led from the front. When he was in danger of losing a battle to the patrician forces in Spain, he charged the opposing line single-handedly, embarrassing his men into redoubling their efforts, snatching victory from defeat. We know as much as we do about Caesar thanks to his own account of the GALLIC WARS, which has survived, and Freeman quotes from it extensively. Perhaps Caesar's most impressive victory was the BATTLE OF ALESIA, where he fought a two front battle against the Gauls under Vercingetorix whom he'd cornered in the city, only to be confronted by 100,000 Gaulish soldiers in his rear. br / br /We see Caesar rise from a poor patrician family living in the slums of Rome to work his way up from military tribune, to sequester, to aedile, to preaetor and eventually consul of Rome. One of his first official acts was to redistribute land to the plebians and the Roman soldiers, some of which was taken from the rich patrician families who controlled the Senate. On his way to becoming consul, Caesar was in charge of keeping the Appian Way in good repair. Caesar was not only a great general and politician, he was also an engineer, a great public speaker, and a lawyer. br / br /We also get a good look at the Roman Civil Wars. At first, Caesar gained power through a triumvirate with the great general Pompey and Crassus a rich Roman senator. But because of his successes in Gaul, Pompey became jealous and eventually went to war with Caesar after Caesar crossed the Rubicon, a sort of demilitarized zone most generals knew not to cross. Pompey had a large army, more than twice as large as Caesars. When Caesar confronted him in Greece, it looked like the jig was up once again. It was only because of his supreme confidence and superior tactical skills that Caesar was able to defeat the great Pompey. br / br /As you read this biography, you will be amazed at the number of times, Caesar snatched victory from defeat. He should've lost in Gaul, he should've lost to the patrician forces in Spain, he should've been decimated in Egypt. Pompey had him defeated but was too cautious to move in for the kill. Caesar's undoing came when he had defeated the patrician forces and come home to accept his laurels. He was given four triumphs (victory parades) and was made dictator for ten years. During one of the triumphs his soldiers complained that Caesar was spending too much money that should've rightfully gone to his old soldiers. Caesar had two of them put to death and sacrificed to the god Mars. He let the laurels go to his head, and the conspirators were worried he wanted to be king. br / br /My one complaint about the book is that we don't get a real good look at the plot to assassinate Caesar. We don't really know who these people were, other than that Brutus was a former favorite. It's hard to understand why Caesar's former supporters were part of the plot, other than that they were worried Caesar was about to bring down the five hundred-year-old Republic. But as Caesar always said, "The Republic has been dead for years." br / br /I was a history major in college but I never had a firm grip on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey until I read this book, and I never really knew what a great man Caesar was. There's certainly evidence to support Alexander Hamilton's contention that Julius Caesar was the greatest man who ever lived. br /
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