Barry S. Strauss
Barry S. Strauss is a renowned historian and author, specializing in ancient history. He is a professor of history and classics at Cornell University and has written extensively on military history and leadership in the ancient world.
Books
This list of books are ONLY the books that have been ranked on the lists that are aggregated on this site. This is not a comprehensive list of all books by this author.
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1. Masters Of Command
Alexander, Hannibal, Caesar, and the Genius of Leadership
This insightful work delves into the strategic minds of three of history's most renowned military leaders: Alexander the Great, Hannibal, and Julius Caesar. By examining their campaigns, tactics, and leadership styles, the book explores the timeless principles of command and the art of war. It highlights how these commanders overcame immense challenges, adapted to changing circumstances, and left indelible marks on the world. Through comparative analysis, the narrative reveals the common threads and unique approaches that defined their successes and failures, offering valuable lessons for both historical enthusiasts and modern strategists.
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3. The Death Of Caesar
The Story of History's Most Famous Assassination
A vivid reconstruction of the events, motives, and personalities surrounding the Ides of March assassination, following the senators—most famously Brutus and Cassius—who conspired against a leader whose reforms and accumulation of power alarmed Rome; it narrates the plot, the stabbing in the Senate, the immediate chaos and Mark Antony’s fateful funeral oration, and how Caesar’s will and the rise of his heir Octavian transformed public reaction into civil war, arguing that the conspirators’ attempt to save the Republic instead set in motion the forces that made imperial rule inevitable.
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4. The Spartacus War
A brisk, narrative account of the large-scale slave rebellion that challenged the Roman Republic in the 70s BCE, tracing how a band of gladiators and runaway slaves coalesced under charismatic leaders into a mobile army that repeatedly defeated Roman forces. The book reconstructs the personalities, tactics, and decisions—from desperate survival to political brinkmanship—of both the insurgents and their opponents, following campaigns across Italy, the increasing brutality on both sides, and the eventual military response that crushed the revolt. It also assesses the rebellion’s social roots, its impact on Roman politics and military practice, and the way memory and myth transformed the event into a lasting emblem of resistance.
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