Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism | Julius Caesar - Zwi Yavetz (essay date 1979)

Zwi Yavetz (essay date 1979)

SOURCE: “Caesar and Caesarism in the Historical Writing of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries,” in Julius Caesar and His Public Image, Cornell University Press, 1983, pp. 10-57.

[In the following excerpt, originally published in German in 1979, Yavetz surveys modern interpretations of Caesar, focusing on the question of whether he should be considered a dictator.]

THE PROBLEM¹

In 1953 Hermann Strasburger startled a group of German teachers when he stated briefly and persuasively,² that Julius Caesar, despite his image of great popularity,³ was nothing more than a lonely dictator: not a single Roman senator supported his fateful decision to cross the Rubicon.

Before he took this risk, Caesar addressed his companions, ‘My friends, if I do not cross this stream, there will be manifold distress for me; if I do cross it, it will be for all...

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