Similarities Between Julius Caesar And Napoleon Bonaparte

The month:September. The year:52 BCE. In the rolling hills of present day central France, near the town of Alesia, one of the greatest minds in history prepares for the battle that will change the fate of his country. The man is a Roman general named Julius Caesar. Almost 2000 years later in 1815 CE, near the flat town of Waterloo in modern day Belgium, another titan of battle fights the battle that will determine the fate of his country. The man is a former French emperor named Napoleon Bonaparte. Indeed Napoleon and Caesar were incredibly similar as a result of being genius military minds, powerful politicians, and both having a violent demise, which left huge impacts on the world after their deaths,but were different in all three respects.

Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte were both titans of battle. With brilliant tactics including the usage of cannons to eliminate the front lines of the opposing force or the use of the mirror to project light to communicate with other commanders secretly, both were able to win battle after battle. They also lead by example,connected with soldiers on a personal level, and gave stirring speeches. By doing this they both had fiercely loyal troops. In addition, both started out their careers by being generals and were able to conquer vast areas. Caesar was able to conquer modern day France, Greece, parts of Spain, and parts of North Africa. Napoleon was able to conquer present day France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium and The Netherlands, and was able to defeat the Russian army. However there were a few

differences between the two militaries. Napoleon was far less open to using cavalry in battle using them only when the enemy was retreating, but Caesar used his signature German horses as an opening strategy. Another difference was the usage of offense as opposed to defense. Napoleon would almost always use attack as his strategy of preference, however Caesar would often construct a fortress to fortify his troops in and force surrender when the opposing army slowly starved. The most notable example of Caesar's trademark fortress strategy was during one of the most important battles of his career. While fighting the Gallic tribes of modern day France, Caesar constructed a fortress to win a decisive battle for his empire.The generals were similar in the fact that they were excellent generals, but different in the way that they fought and conquered. Being excellent generals was a massive part of both men leaving their large marks on the world, because in addition to conquering land for their empires and gaining the loyalty of their troops it gave them the skills and experience that would be necessary for political leadership.
Another way Caesar and Napoleon can be compared was their political strategy. Caesar as well as Napoleon were both able to achieve vast political power as a result of being very politically savvy. Both realized that in order to take complete control of the government, one must have the support of the army which they had as a result of being generals. With the support of the army both future dictators enacted coup de tats. In the case of Caesar, after being fired from his position of governor of Gaul(modern day France), he took the army which had been loyal to him, entered the Roman Senate building and took control of the Roman Republic. Almost the exact same thing happened to Napoleon. After both leaders took power they immediately eliminated their country's democratic governments, and replaced them with empires which they controlled as emperors. As emperors they both made several changes for the better and for the worse for their nations. In Caesar’s case, he realized that Rome needed an economic overhaul because the nobles owned all the land, and the slaves did all the work so the people in the middle class and lower class had no jobs. Caesar made laws that would redistribute land from the nobles and give it to poor and middle class. In addition, he also created the Gregorian month system and the names that he gave for the months are still the months we use today. In the case of Napoleon, he formed the French banking system that is still used in 2015, rebuilt Paris after the French Revolution, created a fair justice system, and created stability and order in France after the revolution. They were both similar in the way they ruled, because they did many good things that helped their nations grow, and be politically stable. However they were different because Caesar's work was built around propping up the middle class, while Napoleon's work was centred around not redistributing the economy but building it up. Their work as emperors had a major influence on the world today. They both rescued their empires from the brink of disaster and put into place several reforms still used today.
In addition to the beginning of their dictatorships starting out with violence, their downfalls also ends with violence. In the case of Caesar, after ruling for five years and having just been given the position of dictator for life, he was stabbed 23 times by Climber his chief political enemy. His assassination brought about a time of uncertainty and instability to Rome for the coming years. In the case of Napoleon, while conquering Russia he was able to defeat the Russian army but not the Russian winter. As a result of this, the bulk of Napoleon's army was eliminated and the remaining minority were sick and wounded. After Napoleon returned to France, a coalition of his European enemies including Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Austria began closing in on Paris. Eventually a settlement was reached where Napoleon would live on the small island of Elba and rule it as a sovereign nation. But switching from ruling half of Europe to living on an 18 mile long island was too difficult. After spending 300 days on Elba, he sailed in a ship that looked like a British ship to France. When the allies of nations against Napoleon found out they sent troops to kill him. However due to his deep bond with ex-troops, Napoleon in three weeks retook control of France and amassed an army with 135 thousand soldiers. Eventually the allies army and Napoleon's army met near the town of Waterloo, Belgium where he fought one of the most epic and violent battles in history and lost most of his army again. He was eventually exiled to the island of St.Helena where he lived in solitary confinement for seven years. Napolean’s death not only left France without a strong leader, but a string of weak leaders.The end of Napoleon and Caesar were very similar in that both endings were very bloody and violent. However Napoleon died naturally, and Caesar died because of an assassination. That being said, Julius Caesar's demise left no where near as many casualties as Napoleon's where close to 450,000 troops were killed. Their deaths had a major effect on Euroupe, because in both cases it left the super power of the day in turmoil.
As a result of Julius Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte both being brilliant generals, excellent dictators, and losing power in ways that can only be described as violent, both men’s death left huge impacts on Europe and the rest of the world.

They represented strength, resilience, and power that their nations rallied behind. However, despite both being symbols of nationalism, both men differed in many

respects.