Luca Fezzi— In the creative chaos of the reflections on the first election campaign won by Barack Hussein Obama in 2008, a daring parallel emerged between the newly elected president and the Roman orator and politician Marcus Tullius Cicero, for their status as well-learned politicians and excellent speakers. The article
Adrian Goldsworthy— Names and dates mattered a lot for the Romans, and so did legal formalities and appearances. On the 16th of January 2,042 years ago Rome’s Senate convened. The leader of the house, the princeps senatus was present, and three days ago he had shocked everyone by announcing that
Adrian Goldsworthy— Maybe sometimes a person can be too successful, or at least you are tempted to wonder this when you think about how Augustus is scarcely remembered these days. We have all heard of Julius Caesar, and we have all heard of Antony and Cleopatra—in each case their names
Adrian Goldsworthy, an award-winning biographer and historian, has brought ancient Rome to life through a trilogy of biographies of the leaders of the greatest empire of all time. In Caesar: Life of a Colossus and Antony and Cleopatra, Goldsworthy cut through the traditional stories told of these well-known figures, exposing the complexity
See all 20% off titles in our YUP Backlist History promotion! In a key moment of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the titular character famously declares: I could be well moved, if I were as you; If I could pray to move, prayers would move me; But I am constant as the
CAESAR Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, Cry ‘Caesar!’ Speak; Caesar is turn’d to hear. SOOTHSAYER Beware the ides of March. Some might say that the death of Caesar on this day in 44 BCE was the
Steve Coates reviewed Adrian Goldsworthy’s biography of Caesar in Sunday’s New York Times Book Review. Says Coates: The dramatic trajectory of [Caesar’s] life, with its bloody denouement, well suits Goldworthy’s vigorous and un-self-conscious style. The result is an authoritative and exciting portrait not only of Caesar but of the complex
We’re pleased to announce the launch of the Yale Press Podcast, a new show about arts, letters, ideas, history, and just about everything else on our authors’ minds. The premier episode of the Yale Press Podcast gets into the holiday spirit! Host Chris Gondek interviews Adrian Goldsworthy about Caesar, Ivan
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Mark Miller writes, “There are points of similarity between the political culture of late republican Rome and our own, but the differences reveal how far we have to go before we hit bottom — contrary to the dire warnings emanating from certain political quarters today.”
If you haven’t heard it already, tune in to Tom Ashbrook’s conversation with Adrian Goldsworthy on NPR’s On Point. From the On Point website: “Hail, Caesar!” they still cry in the movies as once they saluted in the heart of ancient Rome and on battlefields from Gaul to Syria. Julius