After 2,000 Years

Extract

To all philhellenes, anti-militarists, tyrant-haters, lovers of poetry, and dislikers of prose; to all who feel a distaste for politics, and especially the politics of the Roman Republic in its declining years; to all who in their youth wrestled with those famous (or infamous?) Commentaries until the iron entered their souls; to all, in short, whose interest in Julius Caesar is less than enthusiastic, we would offer an apology—and a consolation. An apology, because this number of Greece & Rome is largely concerned with their bête noire: this year is the 2,000th anniversary of Caesar's death, and it seemed a fitting occasion for attempting to take stock of a man who, for good or ill, had so great an impact on the Roman world. And a consolation, simply because it is a Caesarian millenary that we commemorate in this number: they can rest assured that we shall not do it again.