Essay About Julius Caesar And Great Leader

Caesar And Naopoleon
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Napoleon
Bonapartes success as a military leader and conqueror can also be seen in
another
great leader, Julius Caesar. Both Napoleon and Caesar achieved great glory
bringing their countries out of turmoil. It was Caesar, that Napoleon
modeled himself
after, he wanted to be as great, if not greater than Caesar.
Looking to the past, Napoleon
knew what steps to take in order to achieve
success
Napoleon devoured books on the art of war. Volume after volume of
military
theory was read, analyzed and criticized. He studied the campaigns
of historys most
famous commanders; Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Frederick
the Great and his favorite
and most influential, Julius Caesar (Marrin 17).
Julius
Caesar was the strong leader for the Romans who changed the course of
history
of the Greco – Roman world decisively and irreversibly. Caesar was able to
create
the Roman Empire because of his strength and his strong war strategies
(Duggan 117).
Julius Caesar was to become one of the greatest generals,
conquering the whole of Gaul.
In 58 BC, Caesar became governor and military
commander of Gaul, which included
modern France, Belgium, and portions of
Switzerland, Holland, and Germany west of the
Rhine. For the next eight years,
Caesar led military campaigns involving both the Roman
legions and tribes
in Gaul who were often competing among themselves. Julius Caesar
was a Roman
general and statesman whose dictatorship was pivotal in Romes transition
from
republic to empire (Duggan 84).
Caesars principles were to keep his forces
united; to be vulnerable at no point, to
strike speedily at critical points;
to rely on moral factors, such as his reputation and the
fear he inspired,
as well as political means in order to insure the loyalty of his allies and
submissiveness of the conquered nations. He made use of every possible
opportunity to
increase his chances of victory on the battlefield and, in
order to accomplish this, he
needed unity of all his troops (Duggan 117).
From the time that he had first faced battle in Gaul and discovered his
own military
genius, Caesar was evidently fascinated and obsessed by military
and imperial problems.
He gave them an absolute priority over the more delicate
by no less fundamental task of
revising the Roman constitution. The need
in the latter sphere was a solution which would
introduce such elements of
authoritarianism, which were necessary to check corruption
and administrative
weakness (Grant, Caesar 61).
The story of all his battles and wars has been
preserved in Caesars written
account, Commentaries on the Gallic Wars, originally
published in 50 B.C. For this
period, Caesar is the only existent source
providing first-hand descriptions of Britain.
While no doubt self-serving
in a political sense when written, Caesars account is
nevertheless regarded
as basically accurate and historically reliable (Frere 68).
Caesar was
appointed dictator for a year starting in 49 B.C., for two years in 48
B.C.,
for ten years in 46 B.C. and finally dictator for life in 44 B.C. Taking over
Dictator for life, enabled Caesar to gain unrestricted power. He was
able to run a strong
military and even though he was considered only a dictator
he wrote laws that actually
made him have the same powers as a king. The
conspirators saw the problem that had
arised and so they planned the murder
of Caesar on the Ides of March. Caesar was killed
and there was another triumvirate
(government ruled by three) formed. Caesar was a
strong military leader that
had showed strength and courage to take over the town and he