Julius Caesar in Western Culture
1. Edition January 2006
384 Pages, Softcover
Wiley & Sons Ltd
This book explores the significance of Julius Caesar to different
periods, societies and people from the 50s BC through to the
twenty-first century.
* * This interdisciplinary volume explores the significance of
Julius Caesar to different periods, societies and people.
* Ranges over the fields of religious, military, and political
history, archaeology, architecture and urban planning, the visual
arts, and literary, film, theatre and cultural studies.
* Examines representations of Caesar in Italy, France, Germany,
Britain, and the United States in particular.
* Objects of analysis range from Caesar's own commentaries
on the Gallic wars, through Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, and
images of Caesar in Italian fascist popular culture, to
contemporary cinema and current debates about American
empire.
* Edited by a leading expert on the reception of ancient
Rome.
* Includes original contributions by international experts on
Caesar and his reception.
Notes on Comntributors.
Preface and Acknowledgements.
Part I Introduction.
1. Judging Julius Caesar.
Christopher Pelling.
Part II Literary Characterization.
2. The Earliest Depiction of Caesar and the Later Tradition.
Mark Toher.
3. Caesar, Lucan's Bellum Civile,and their Reception.
Christine Walde.
4. Julian Augustus' Julius Caesar.
Jacqueline Long.
Part III The City of Rome.
5. The Seat and Memory of Power: Caesar's Curia and Forum.
Riccardo Valenzani.
6. St Peter's Needle and the Ashes of Julius Caesar.
John Osborne.
7. Julius II as Second Caesar.
Nicholas Temple.
Part IV Nationalism and Statecraft.
8. Imitation Gone Wrong: The "Pestilentially Ambitious" Figure
of Julius Caesar in Montaigne's Essais.
Louisa Mackenzie.
9. Manifest Destiny and the Eclipse of Julius Caesar.
Margaret Malamud.
10. Caesar, Cinema, and National Identity in the 1910s.
Maria Wyke.
11. Caesar the Foe: Roman Conquest and National Resistance in
Freanch Popular Culture. in Fascist Italy.
Giuseppe Pucci.
Part V Theatrical Performance.
12. Julius Caesar and the Democracy to Come.
Nicholas Royle.
13. Shaw's Caesars.
Niall Slater.
14. The Rhetoric of Romanita: Representations of Caesar in
Fascist Theatre.
Jane Dunnett.
Part VI Warfare and Revolution.
15. From "Capitano" to "Great Commander": The Military Reception
of Caesar from the Sisteenth to the Twentieth Centuries.
Jorit Wintjes.
16. Crossing the Rubicon into Paris: Caesarian Comparisons from
Napoleon to de Gaulle.
Oliver Benjamin Hemmerle.
Afterword.
17. A Twenty-First-Century Caesar.
Maria Wyke.
Bibliography.
Index.
not invite but rather demands reaction and reflection, a demand
admirably met in this collection. Important, influential, and
timely deployments of Caesar's legacy are creatively analyzed
here, in essays none of which (I am pleased to say) is afraid of
speaking its mind."
W. Jeffrey Tatum, Florida State University
"An exciting collection of papers by a truly international
team of scholars. This richly illustrated and documented volume
explores the significance of Caesar's memory in the
discourses of art, literature, nationalism, and
empire."
Christina S. Kraus, Yale University
"A fascinating read which should appeal to a wide variety of
readers not just in the classics, but throughout the
humanities."
Bryn Mawr Classical Review
"There is a remarkable diversity of discipline and methodology
- not to mention nationality - on display here, and it
reflects well on (Wykes') choice of contributors and
unintrusive editorial style."
Llewelyn Morgan, Brasenose College, Oxford
"Appealing both to a reader possibly unfamiliar with the
material, but also being of much interest to fellow specialists in
this field." Scholia Reviews