Why Was Julius Caesar A Good Leader

Why Julius Caesar was a great leader

Julius Caesar was a great leader because of his charisma, military tactician skills, and ambition. All of which enabled him to transform the modest Roman republic into the vast, sprawling Roman empire; and has immortalized him as a legendary historical figure.

Julius Caesar’s impeccable charisma is a key component to why he is widely considered to be one of the greatest historical leaders of all time. His charisma is what enabled him to effectively command his troops, acquire alliances, and maintain the support of the Roman people. When Julius was conquering Gaul and fighting the ensuing civil war with Pompey, he managed to keep his troops fiercely devoted towards him, and maintained a steady supply

of fresh recruits and soldiers who changed sides. Had it not been for the personality and propaganda of Julius Caesar, this would be impossible as convincing individuals to likely die for your sake is no easy task to undergo. The gradual political ascension of Caesar from a meagre government prosecutor to the Roman emperor was largely due to his charismatic abilities, his cleverly cultivated friendships with Pompey(Toynbee) and Crassus is why he was capable of ascending the Roman political food chain at all, as he relied on them for financial and institutional assistance in order to enter Roman political life, and eventually became one of the 3 de facto rulers of the country because of this friendship. Caesar understood that in order to accomplish what he wanted, he needed to have political connections and a reliable source of income, something that required the support of rich and influential individuals, so Caesar took up the task and cultivated friendships with Crassus and
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Pompey in order to accomplish his goals. Caesar’s charisma on a personal level is best demonstrated through the time he was kidnapped by pirates who ransomed him, when he was captured he constantly threatened to kill them at a later date, but managed to make it resemblant of a joke, and could still maintain an excellent friendship with them, this serves as a testimonial to how effectively Julius Caesar could deal with his enemies and have them on friendly terms, as the pirates would most likely have killed any other individual who made such a threat to them.

Julius Caesar was an excellent military leader who succeeded at or surpassed his initial goals in each of his military campaigns.

In the conquest of Gaul, Julius Caesar had to fight against an enemy with significantly more manpower, and technology on par with or superior to Roman technology, but managed to obliterate the Gauls through strict discipline, logistical and numeric organization, utilising any and all information about the enemy they could acquire(Rozen), and consistently discussing the strategies for battle they will use with top veterans and Roman generals. This way in which Julius organized his military established a precedent for Roman military organization, logistics and planning and serves as a testimony to his military ingenuity. In Caesar’s civil war, Caesar’s forces did not have to shed a single drop of blood, as the fear invoked by Caesar crossing the Rubicon river resulted in Pompey fleeing Rome to Egypt and enabling Caesar to take Rome without any loss of life, demonstrating how much fear Julius elicited in the field due to stories of his military prowess. And, Caesar could easily withhold all the land he invaded, as there were multiple wide-scale revolts in the provinces Rome captured whilst Julius Caesar reigned, and all of them were suppressed quickly and efficiently. The largest of which was the Gaul-wide revolt lead by Vercingetorix, whose army had more men and was better suited to

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terrain(Vercingetorix) than Juliuses was; nonetheless, the revolt was promptly obliterated through Juliuses military maneuvering, once again serving as a demonstration of Julius's military capabilities.

The reason Julius Caesar was capable of undergoing the herculean task of rising to power in Rome is almost entirely due to the exorbitant amount of charisma which he had.

For instance, Juliuses conquest of Gaul was initially intended to merely serve as a preventative war in order to avert German and Frankish tribes making expeditions into Rome, but when Caesar realized how much more himself and Rome could attain through the conquests, he decided to conquer all of Gaul and a significant portion of southern Britain, dramatically surpassing the initial goals of the conquest. Ensuing the Gallic conquests, the Roman Senate demanded Julius to abdicate all his titles, and to return to Rome for prosecution; Julius could have done this and watched his career end, but instead he decided to take the capital of the Roman empire and force Pompey to flee the country. Less ambitious leaders would not likely have done such a bold and perilous move, but danger would not impede Juliuses ambitions. After Julius had made Rome into a vast empire and consolidated his power, he still desired to see more done. In the single year in which Julius was the emperor of Rome, he overhauled the tax system to be less burdensome on the impoverished, commenced the rebuilding of cities destroyed hundreds of years ago, overhauled the Roman constitution and commenced an unprecedented construction campaign, demonstrating Juliuses ambition to see the Roman empire administered in the way which he felt it ought to

be administered.

Julius Caesar is undisputedly one of the greatest rulers of human history, whose greatness derives from his charisma, military tactician skills, and ambition.Thanks to Juliuses skills, Rome went from a small, insignificant republic into a vast empire, forever embedding him into the minds of mankind.