More  than two thousand years after his death, Julius Caesar remains one of  the great figures of history. He shaped Rome for generations, and his  name became a synonym for “emperor”—not only in Rome but as far away as  Germany and Russia. He is best known as the general who defeated the  Gauls and doubled the size of Rome’s territories. But, as Philip Freeman  describes in this fascinating new biography, Caesar was also a  brilliant orator, an accomplished writer, a skilled politician, and much  more.

Julius Caesar was a complex man, both hero and villain.  He possessed great courage, ambition, honor, and vanity. Born into a  noble family that had long been in decline, he advanced his career  cunningly, beginning as a priest and eventually becoming Rome’s leading  general. He made alliances with his rivals and then discarded them when  it suited him. He was a spokesman for the ordinary people of Rome, who  rallied around him time and again, but he profited enormously from his  conquests and lived opulently. Eventually he was murdered in one of the  most famous assassinations in history.

Caesar’s contemporaries  included some of Rome’s most famous figures, from the generals Marius,  Sulla, and Pompey to the orator and legislator Cicero as well as the  young politicians Mark Antony and Octavius (later Caesar Augustus).  Caesar’s legendary romance with the Egyptian queen Cleopatra still  fascinates us today.

In this splendid biography, Freeman  presents Caesar in all his dimensions and contradictions. With  remarkable clarity and brevity, Freeman shows how Caesar dominated a  newly powerful Rome and shaped its destiny. This book will captivate  readers discovering Caesar and ancient Rome for the first time as well  as those who have a deep interest in the classical world.