Caesar

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Summary: Meier's Caesar is a creature of his time and place
Review: 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

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Summary: A verbose but brilliant biography of Julius Caesar.
Review: 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.

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Summary: Fine Biography
Review: 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.

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Summary: good, but no banana!
Review: Repeated and windy analyses are replete in this otherwise complete work on Caesar's life. The Author's unfortunate proclivitity to digress upon his own interpretations on Caesar's thoughts, motivations, and times consume a good quarter of this work, which otherwise would well be as outstanding as many critics claim. I found it annoying. If you want a thorough history of Caesar's life in succinct form, turn elsewhere. It you don't mind consuming a large helping of philosphical musings (a weakness of historian's well admitted), then you've found a find combo meal!! Overall, I'm glad I read the work, sorry the editor(s) didn't make it more of a romp than a task. You'll find it's quite popular, has undergone MANY printings in its original german, and is pending for publication by the Folio Society in London (a publisher of 'good' books in collector's editions). If you've read this far, your interest in this work could well be rewarded by its purchase. It's made it to the Folio Society's print list (a printer that specializes in "good" books for collector printings). I believe that it's deservedly made it to the paperback stands and could have

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Summary: The best work on Caesar
Review: Since the general content and merits of Meier's biography of the Great Julius Caesar have already been more than adequatley examined by previous reviewers, I shall only say that of the several recent works available, this is the finest.

Of particular interest to the reader may be Meier's musings on the existance and nature of historical greatness in the early chapters.

One of my few reservations is that the prose seems to have lost something in translation, rendering the early parts somewhat lacking in elegance.

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Summary: Portrayal of Roman Republic and its fall were excellent
Review: The book was a little difficult to read at times, probably due to its originally being written in German & then translated into English. The portrayal of Caesar was thorough and interesting, but at times I found it hard to relate to him personnally...probably because it's a 2 thousand year old story. The best part of the book was the portrayal of the Roman Republic and its fall. I found very interesting Meier's descriptions of the paradoxes existing in the republic.

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Summary: A petty, disjointed perspective
Review: The work is disjointed in sequence, petty in perspective, and is more interested in 'debunking' Julius Caesar than with delivering an informative and accurate account of events. A waste of money.

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Summary: Praise for Meier's Caesar
Review: 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.