Report an issue
Tell us what's wrong and we'll take a look.
Thanks – we got it. We'll review and follow up if needed.
Plutarch's Life of Caesar deals with the best known Roman of them all, Julius Caesar, and his vivid narrative covers most of the major events of the last generation of the Republic, as well as painting an insightful picture of this man who sacrificed everything for power. Pelling's volume gives a new translation of the Life together with a full introduction and running commentary on the events it describes. Culminating in the crossing of the Rubicon, Caesar's victory in the Civil War, and finally his assassination on the Ides of March, 44 BC, it goes on to trace the first stages of the new phase of civil war which followed and, in its turn, led to the establishment of the principate. The volume also discusses both the historical and the literary aspects of the Life, relating it both to the broader history of the Republic and to Plutarch's other works, especially the Life of Alexander with which it forms a pair of Parallel Lives. A separate section of the Introduction also discusses Shakespeare's adaptation of Plutarch in Julius Caesar, and points out ways in which the subtle remoulding of Plutarch's material can illuminate the techniques and interests of both authors.
Christopher Pelling
CHRISTOPHER PELLING is Emeritus Regius Professor of Greek at the University of Oxford. His books include, most recently, Herodotus and the Question Why (2019) and, earlier, Literary Texts and the Greek Historian (2000); Plutarch and History (2002); and Twelve Voices from Ancient Greece and Rome (with Maria Wyke, 2014). He has also written commentaries on Plutarch's Caesar (2011) and, in the Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics series, Plutarch's Life of Antony (1988) and, with Simon Hornblower, Herodotus Book 6 (2017). His edited or co-edited volumes include Characterization and Individuality in Greek Literature (1990), Ethics and Rhetoric (1995), Greek Tragedy and the Historian (1997), Ancient Historiography and its Contexts (2011), and Rediscovering E. R. Dodds (2019). He is a Fellow of the British Academy and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.
More by Christopher Pelling
Why Readwise Books?
Readwise Books is an ebook & audiobook platform that automatically logs how much you and your friends read, making it fun and easy to read more. Learn more →