The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination

By Barry Strauss

Categories: History

The Death of Caesar: The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination (2015) is a book by classicist Barry Strauss. Strauss reconstructs the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar in 44 BC, its leading participants and its aftermath for the Roman Republic. Drawing on ancient sources, he shows how the liberators' plot unfolded on the Ides of March and why it failed to restore republican liberty.

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• Fareed Zakaria: “This week's book is a new history of that episode, "The Death of Caesar, the Story of History's Most Famous Assassination." The author, Barry Strauss, is the classics professor at Cornell and knows his stuff, but he presents the story in simple elusive prose. There's too much set up. So, stay with it for the first 50 pages, and then it turns into a fascinating murder mystery with some nice twists and turns and sheds light on one of history's great tragedies, the fall of the Roman republic.”