His writing became the textbook of generals in posterity providing a tool for success for figures who further changed history, and we can think of Napoleon. He had to know what was right for her as she did fall deeply in love with Pompey, her magnificent husband. He was a loving father to his dear Julia even if he married her with political aims to someone twice her age. Married or not, he was also a gallant philanderer who chose well, as his penchant for the women of other senators or his picking of a legendary beauty indicates. He was a worthy husband but also expected a worthy wife, becoming a determined divorcee as his wife had to be above suspicion.

As a resourceful engineer he built bridges across the Rhine that held the footsteps of his soldiers but shook the minds of the Germanic tribes. He was a devoted son, a courageous soldier and astute commander. Gaius Julius Caesar was a solid personality. And that is of course without counting the image that emerges from his own Memoirs, the Comentarii, and possibly from a collection of poems by him. From Plutarch, to Suetonius, to Shakespeare, to Gérôme, to the Hollywood or TV studios, to the Asterix cartoons…, we have a whole array of possible accounts to choose the version that better suits our imagination. The man who died at the hands of many but whose life has been revived repeatedly by numerous pens and brushes. This is not an easy book to write, the biography of Caesar. as well as husband, father, lover and adulterer.” In this landmark biography, Goldsworthy examines Caesar as military leader, all of these roles and places his subject firmly within the context of Roman society in the first century B.C. In the introduction to his biography of the great Roman emperor, Adrian Goldsworthy writes, “Caesar was at times many things, including a fugitive, prisoner, rising politician, army leader, legal advocate, rebel, dictator. Ultimately, Goldsworthy realizes the full complexity of Caesar’s character and shows why his political and military leadership continues to resonate some two thousand years later. Tracing the extraordinary trajectory of the great Roman emperor’s life, Goldsworthy covers not only the great Roman emperor’s accomplishments as charismatic orator, conquering general, and powerful dictator but also lesser-known chapters during which he was high priest of an exotic cult, captive of pirates, seducer not only of Cleopatra but also of the wives of his two main political rivals, and rebel condemned by his own country.

Julius caesar adrian goldsworthy