GREAT CAESAR

Fry's is the first new juvenile biography of Caesar in some years but as the author would be the first to admit, it offers no distinctly contemporary perspective. Even the mildly revisionist portrait of Michael Grant's adult Julius Caesar is passed over here; Fry gives us Caesar the great man par excellence, not only supremely in control of every event but motivated by the highest civic principles. Compared to him Brutus and Cato the Younger stand as obstinate and selfish fools, and Cicero as a hopeless romantic. Though the hero worship may be a bit thick, Fry's enthusiasm informs his view of the Roman world--party politics, military campaigns, personalities--and will no doubt ease young people's disappointment at the discovery that some of the best known episodes in Caesar's life--e.g. his affair with Cleopatra--are probably mythical or greatly exaggerated. Well provided with color plates and maps, this is a comprehensive and eminently readable tribute.