The Italian Alberto Angela describes Julius Caesar as “a great politician, cynical, fierce and corrupt” in his new book

The Italian writer and paleontologist Alberto Angela He presented his new book this Wednesday, October 28 ‘Cease. The conquest of eternity (The Sphere of Books) and has described the Roman emperor as a “great politician”, “cynical”, “fierce” and also “corrupt”.

The novel, number one in sales in Italy, reconstructs Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul, taking as a guide the book that the Roman emperor himself wrote about the battle, ‘De bello Gallico’, which he contrasts with archaeological and historical research.

“It’s like if you ask someone from Real Madrid or Barça what the classic was like. Each one is going to interpret the game in a different way, but the result is what is. “The story is what it is, Caesar tells it in a way that we have contrasted with an investigation,” the Italian joked about the veracity of the emperor’s words.

Angela has detailed that it was that event that is reported about the Gallic War that turned the military politician into the “eternal” man we know today. A person, he has pointed out, with the physique of “Clint Eastwood”, “vain”, “corrupt”, but a “great leader and politician”, that transformed a small Rome into a great empire with more than 40 million people.

“Caesar can of course be accused of crimes against humanity, of course, but at that time it was done that way (…) “This book teaches us how cruel and fierce Rome was at that time and how essential it is to be united in this moment in which we find ourselves,” highlighted the author, who compared the disunity of Europe at the time with today, and underlined the “importance” of protecting the continent and its “way of thinking.”

In this sense, the Italian author, who is promoting a book in Spain for the first time, has highlighted that this work, despite dealing with war, is a manifesto “against war”, which speaks of the present and the “fragility” of today’s world.

AI TO RECONSTRUCT THE FACE OF JULIUS CAESAR

The writer -author of other novels also published by La Esfera de los Libros such as ‘A day in ancient Rome’ y ‘Love and sex in ancient Rome’— has also detailed the process of incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the project for the reconstruction of the emperor’s face on the cover of the volume, as well as in scenes of the battle and moments of Caesar’s daily life, which have been included in the booktrailer and in the pages of the work itself.

“We have based our image on two busts of Caesar. One that was made when he was already dead and another that the Romans made in which they represented him younger than when he went to Gaul.. From there comes this 360º image of what Caesar was like. “He had a memorable face,” he explained.

The biography begins in the year 58 BC, when Julius Caesar undertook the invasion of Gaul, an event that the author has defined as an “unrepeatable journey to Antiquity” in which he addresses both “the military and political genius” and his “dark areas” through a “dynamic” style in the form of a novel.

A historical work that, the Italian has confessed, sometimes reminds him of “Game of Thrones” and even “Indiana Jones.”