Customer Reviews

Caesar: A Biography

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Meier considers his book a "scholarly biography," but it's intended for a general audience -- in omitting footnotes and even a bibliography, for example, he already sets his book apart from the usual scholarly studies. Meier has clearly done a great deal of research and thinking on the subject over a long period of time, and he readily presents the conflicting theories behind many events in and facets of Caesar's life. If you're looking for a detailed military analysis of "Caesar the General" and his campaigns specifically, this isn't it. The book is part biography, part character analysis; while the latter is always dangerous when dealing with a titanic historical figure like Caesar, Meier never stoops to the kind of superficial psychoanalysis that too often plagues biographies dealing with great figures from antiquity (such as Alexander the Great). He bases his ideas on the ancient sources and the work of prominent scholars throughout history. Meier's many questions and hypotheses are always considered and balanced, and often more than intriguing -- particularly interesting to me is the way in which he contrasts Caesar as a mover of events and as one being moved along by them at various times in this turbulent period. I often got the impression that I was reading the work of a scholar who was happy to free himself from the usual academic restraints and was simply letting all of his ideas and questions out of the bag, and that's refreshing. Meier does a fine job of synthesizing the life and career of a complicated, restless man and the development of a very complex era into a readable and fascinating book -- he covers all the various aspects of Caesar's life in a balanced way (the brilliant general, the ambitious politician, the shrewd diplomat, the writer, etc.). It's a bit plodding in spots, and it would help the reader to know the basic outline of the period before delving into the book, but overall it's a great read. This is one of the best biographies of Caesar available. My only gripes are the total absence of ANY references and the sloppy editing of this edition: the former was Meier's choice, the latter the oversight of the publisher of this edition.

Meier's biography of Julius Caesar is admirable more for its exploration of historic transformation than for its nuts-and-bolts summary of Caesar's life. Meier's thesis, which is hard to contest, is that the ruling class which Caesar replaced was so inneffectual that it essentially committed suicide. Julius Caesar was the man who drove the sword through.

Like all pivotal figures in history, Caesar was faciliated by the tenor of his time, but it's difficult to imagine any of his comtemporaries equalling his accomplishments had he not existed. Meier describes both these external and internal forces well in his portrait of the man.

Unfortunately, this biography doesn't work as an introduction to Caesar. It's verbose, assumes a decent working knowledge of Roman history, and is too often tangential for the average reader. Better to start with Michael Grant's "History of Rome" before concentrating on more specific studies such as Meier's.

Nonetheless, "Caesar" is particularly recommended for students of political history. Meier strives, without being preachy or contentious, to highlight patterns in Caesar's rise (and the Roman Republic's fall) that continue to operate in our time - not the least of which is the inability of an elite to realize it is no longer relevant.

Give it a go.

I read this book to try to get an idea of who Caeser was, what his accomplishments were, and how the Roman Republic was transformed into an Empire. While this book did fulfill those goals, it was difficult to finish. To his credit, Meier drives home important points about his subject: the influence of Sulla, the importance of the achievement ethic, the paradox of the reactionary regime, so forth. But much of the book is not very understandable or interesting to a reader who is not avidly versed in Roman Republican history. In this sense, while I thought the book too long and drawn out, I would almost need to read it again to get most of the authors points! So, this is a good second book on Caesar, not the introduction I was hoping for. Finally, the end is quite abrupt, as only a few pages are dedicated to explaining the adoption of Augustus and Caesar's assasination, and Meier does not summarize well the lasting effect Caesar's legacy had on the Empire to be.

Meier's Julius Caeser biography (first published in Germany in 1982)is a fine introduction to the life and times of Caesar. I found the description of aristocratic competition in provision of public works and entertainments to be most interesting, and useful in understanding the political process of the period.

As some other reviewers have noted, general familiarity of 1st century BCE Roman history would be helpful to readers. I'd add that more maps would improve the presentation.

This was a comprehensive and well written biography of Gaius Julius Caesar. It was an introduction to Roman Society for me, and details that others found needless, I found helpful and interesting. It is an excellent guide to Caesar and the events of his life. Admidittly, it was a long read and could have done with a little less straying from the main topic to the author's musings. Also, I found several event missing, such as Caesar's marraiges, children's births, and far less personal infromation about Caesar the Man. But, overall, I enjoyed it, and place it among my favorite books.

Meier's analysis of the world on which Caesar worked his will while a balanced study of the man is more a survey of his milieu. Perhaps more than one would wish to know is taught on the politics and peculiar institutions of the later Roman republic. The breakdown of the Roman order is portrayed as the failure of its institutions to respond to a rapidly evolving Rome; both as a city and an empire. Caesar's career is presented as but the most successful example of the "Man on Horseback" during the Republic's decline. His opportunism and defense of his protean self is ameliorated by the inability of the body politic to respond effectively to him in defense of its supposedly commonly held virtues of senatorial order and republican tradition. The books flaws are its strengths, in many ways; its penetrating analysis of structure renders a maelstrom of events almost insignificant by comparison. Meier's Caesar comes across almost as an inevitable by-product of a process rather than as a lead actor in what

Fully in keeping with modern historical outlooks, Meier's Caesar is a man embedded in his times. As a result much of this otherwise excellent work is devoted to describing and analyzing those times. For readers familiar with the Republic, he has some interesting observations to make on the nature of the Republic and its ruling elite, but these digressions can become distracting and frustrating. Increasingly, I found myself wanting to know more about what Caesar was doing, not Cato or Cicero or Pompey. Also, I found his notion of the "two realities" (one for the Republic, one for Caesar) a bit trendy and unconvincing. Despite these criticisms, it is a good book and a very useful overview not just of Caesar but the entire Late Republic.

I have read many many history books in three different languages. This book never got me going. The author knows about her subject, but lacks a persuasive style of writing to keep you focus on the story. Too slow and too much unnessuary details.

Few biographies place their protagonist so carefully within his world, the Roman Republic during its transition to a despotism. This book is beautifully written but, like most translations, it is difficult to know whether to credit the author or translator. If, like me, you are not necessarily well read on Rome generally and the institutions of the Republic and early empire, it would, it seems to me, be difficult to find a better guide to the historical period than this book which examines so far as the record allows the life of the most prominent citizen of the era.

While the book appears to be for a lay audience, it presumes a reservoir of knowledge about Rome and Caesar. I caution you that the next reviews will have you buy the book. Read beyond them because there is a conflict of expectation and reality.

It seems that Meier is building a thesis that Caesar, as an outsider, was politically and psychologically disposed to take on an intractable Rome although he had no agenda other than advancing himself.

I am sure there are many issues covered in this book that brew among scholars, but for the lay person, a book with the title "Caesar. A Biography" suggests something entirely different.

This is the first Amazon review I have written for a book I have not read in its entirety, but as a lay person, a lot of this was falling on deaf ears so I stopped about 1/3 through and browsed the rest. This could be a 5 star book, but someone wanting to read a biography of Caesar is not in a position to know.