Recommendations
Books Like Julius Caesar
Best books to read after Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
Readers who love Julius Caesar are drawn to its combination of Shakespeare's political tragedy, Brutus's idealism and its fatal consequences, Antony's rhetorical mastery, and the play's sustained examination of how political violence is justified and contested. They want works that deal with political assassination, the rhetoric of power, Roman history, and the long tradition of writers who have returned to Caesar and Brutus as political archetypes.
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Buy on AmazonAntony and Cleopatra
by William Shakespeare
The direct sequel in the Shakespeare canon — Mark Antony reappears as the protagonist destroyed by his passion for Cleopatra; the contrast between young Antony of Julius Caesar and middle-aged Antony of Antony and Cleopatra is one of the great character arcs across two plays.
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Buy on AmazonAll the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
The American political novel most directly in the Julius Caesar tradition — Warren's portrait of the rise and assassination of Willie Stark (based on Huey Long) asks the same questions as Julius Caesar about whether killing a tyrant is an act of principle or a crime.
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Buy on AmazonThe Death of Caesar
by Barry Strauss
The modern historical account of the assassination — a classicist's meticulous reconstruction of the conspiracy, the assassination, and its aftermath; the best modern account of the historical events Shakespeare dramatized and what he invented.
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Buy on AmazonRoman Blood
by Steven Saylor
The Roman mystery series set in the late Republic — Saylor's Gordianus the Finder series is set in exactly the world of Julius Caesar's Rome, involving the same political figures (Cicero, Crassus, Caesar himself); the most vivid reconstruction of the world the play inhabits.
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Buy on AmazonI, Claudius
by Robert Graves
The novel narrating the history of the Julio-Claudian dynasty — Graves's account of Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius begins where Julius Caesar ends; the most important historical fiction set in the world of Shakespeare's Roman plays.
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Buy on AmazonRubicon
by Tom Holland
The popular history of the fall of the Roman Republic — Holland's account of the crisis of the Republic, Caesar's crossing of the Rubicon, and the civil wars is the best modern popular history of the period Shakespeare dramatizes; essential context for the play's political stakes.
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Buy on AmazonLincoln
by Gore Vidal
The historical novel about the American president whose assassination most directly echoes Caesar's — Vidal's Lincoln inhabits the same world of political principle and violent death; the comparison between Lincoln and Caesar has been made since April 1865.
- 8Buy on Amazon
The Aeneid
by Virgil
The Roman epic that follows the same trajectory as Julius Caesar's aftermath — Aeneas's founding of Rome is the mythological origin of the Republic whose destruction Shakespeare dramatizes; the two works together trace the arc of Roman civilization from founding to fall.
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