Julius Caesar

Michael Grant’s Julius Caesar is a concise yet incisive biography that chronicles the life of Rome’s transformative general and statesman, drawing heavily from Caesar’s own writings and those of his contemporaries. Grant portrays Caesar as a brilliant military strategist whose ruthless campaigns—particularly the brutal Gallic Wars that claimed over a million lives—fueled his political ascent through the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus, culminating in civil war victory at Pharsalus, his affair with Cleopatra, and appointment as perpetual dictator. The book highlights Caesar’s opportunism and the Republic’s gradual slide into despotism, ending with his assassination on the Ides of March, which paradoxically paved the way for the Empire’s cultural zenith. Praised for its critical edge, it offers a compact overview of Caesar’s era without romanticizing his ambition.