Sic Semper Tyrannis

Wyke’s book, broadly chronological from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first century, follows two main lines, those of education (the mostly textual Caesar of schools, universities, and broadly academic readerships) and of popular culture (the Caesar of the stage, of television and film, and of journalism). Crucially, her Roman Caesar is inseparable from Shakespeare’s Caesar, and her structure and agenda are in part set by following those twin and intertwined lines, which both additionally highlight the complex relationship of America with a canon of classics, be they ancient or, in Shakespeare’s case, modern.