Death of Caesar (Strauss) - Book Reviews

Book Reviews
[A] page-turner.... Detail after detail clothes the familiar facts of Caesar’s seemingly inevitable murder with fresh images.... The last bloody day of the Republic has never been painted so brilliantly.
Greg Woolf - Wall Street Journal


This history of Caesar by the American academic Barry Strauss is a romp, yes, but a glorious one, through the final months of Rome’s most famous ruler.... One of the most riveting hour-by-hour accounts of Caesar’s final day I have read.... An absolutely marvelous read.
Catherine Nixey - Times (UK)


A classics thriller.... The Death of Caesar teases apart this paramilitary operation of 60 or more conspirators and, in reporting the facts, revokes much of Shakespeare’s poetic license in Julius Caesar.
Katharine Whittemore - Boston Globe


The superb storytelling of Barry Strauss shows that the details of history's most famous assassination are just as fascinating as why it happened.... The Death of Caesar provides a fresh look at a well-trodden event, with storytelling sure to inspire awe.
Scott Manning - Philadelphia Inquirer


A fresh, accessible account of the archetypal assassination.... Strauss underscores [the conspirators'] dilemma with an urgency that makes each page crackle with suspense.... The Death of Caesar serves us both as an entertaining, vital act of preservation for those details and figures glossed over by other historians and as a reminder of a plot so daring it would be unthinkable today.
Nick Ochwar - Los Angeles Review of Books


[A] compelling, clarifying account of one of history's most dramatic assassinations.... [Strauss] conveys the complexity of late republican Roman politics while keeping up a lively pace.
Lev Grossman -Time


With a keen focus on the conspiracy itself, Strauss examines Caesar's rise to power while looking closely at his colleagues.... Strauss's writing is stilted and the material may be most accessible to those with some knowledge of ancient Rome, but most readers will find this an informative and dramatic tale.
Publishers Weekly


(Starred review.) [A] riveting portrayal of Caesar's assassination on the Ides of March, 44 BCE. The author explains successfully very complicated political situations in laymen's terms, propelling the reader through Caesar's dramatic rise to his shocking murder.... [E]nriching and exciting .—Jeffrey Meyer, Mt. Pleasant P.L., IA
Library Journal


(Starred review.) wMaster historian Strauss zeroes in on the few years surrounding Julius Caesar's assassination and delves into the strengths of the characters involved.... Once again, Strauss takes us deep into the psyche of ancient history in an exciting, twisted tale that is sure to please.
Kirkus Reviews