Caesar and Naopoleon

Napoleon

Bonaparte's success as a military leader and conqueror can also be seen in

another

great leader, Julius Caesar. Both Napoleon and Caesar achieved great glory

by

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 history's 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 Rome's transition

from

republic to empire (Duggan 84).

Caesar's 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

the

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 Caesar's