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Summary: The Most Accessible but Substantive Introduction to Caesar
Review: With my own web site on Julius Caesar, I'm always looking for ways to introduce others to this remarkable man to others without clogging them with arcane details or insulting their intelligence by portraying Caesar as an Asterix character. Any book about Julius Caesar is also a book about the times he lived in; you can't understand one without the other. Since the average non-specialist reader has trouble absorbing all the ins and outs of the late Roman Republic, it's a remarkable challenge to present a clear, cogent biography of Caesar within that historical context. Anthony Kamm's book splendidly manages this difficult feat and I applaud it. I read the book in an evening and I found he put no foot wrong in both portraying the necessary complexities of Caesar and his times, as well as making the story understandable and sharply focused. Kamm includes substantial quotations from men of the times which illuminate his subjects. The book is thoroughly researched and three-dimensional in its portrayal of the great general and dictator and his good and less attractive sides. Kamm's book races ahead as if you do not know the end to the story of this remarkable man. You end by wanting to learn even more. I highly recommend this book for beginner or Caesarophile. It is the best short introduction to his life I have read. Suzanne Cross, web author
Julius Caesar: The Last Dictator
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