Was Julius Caesar a Good Leader?

Julius Caesar was without a doubt a remarkable leader. He was not only an excellent commander and orator but also a kind and merciful ruler when it came to the Romans. He was a skilled public speaker who could motivate his soldiers with succinct yet well-organized speeches. Caesar was well liked by them, and he would try to be acquainted with most of his centurions and the best warriors.

As a leader, Julius Caesar stood out for his tenacity, prudence, and endurance. He was the leader of the Roman army during the Gallic Wars, and he emerged victorious in a civil war to become dictator of Rome in 49 BC. That’s why he is still recognized today as one of the most successful military leaders.

I had rather be first in a village than second at Rome.

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar’s Relationship with His Soldiers

Caesar highly esteemed his soldiers, a fact evident in numerous well-known stories. To keep the legionnaires happy, Caesar raised their pay all the time and even gave them precious slaves as gifts. With this same fervor, he won over kings and provinces to his cause. He gifted thousands of captives to some of them while also sending his soldiers to their aid in battle. He did this all without the consent of the Senate or the people.

Julius Caesar was used to leading armies numbering in the tens of thousands. When he heard that a small group of his soldiers were under siege, he immediately rode to the battleground to rescue them. A storm had forced a fleet carrying 300 legionnaires to go aground on the shore during the war in Gaul. And they were quickly encircled by a considerably larger band of Gauls. Caesar rode up at the head of his cavalry and launched a surprise assault from behind the enemy lines to rescue his men who took defensive positions, trying to survive.

Caesar was both a brilliant and a charismatic leader. He led his army to triumphs while also rescuing them from impending losses on several occasions. As the trait of a good leader, Caesar cared about his troops and their safety. While promising his soldiers great prizes in the event of success in a battle, he was also seen at the front lines during these battles.

This has resulted in soldiers who were devoted to Julius Caesar. They were prepared to follow him on any campaign and obeyed his commands even when death looked imminent. A brief speech from Caesar once put an end to at least two mutinies that were occurring during the Civil War.

In 47 BC, his Gallic legions in Campania mutinied, demanding back pay and bonuses. They marched to Rome, refusing to move to Africa to fight the Pompeian army. Caesar addressed them as “citizens” instead of “fellow soldiers,” which created a psychological impact on the men. The soldiers begged for forgiveness, followed Caesar to Africa, and secured victory in the Civil War.

Caesar Was a Good Strategist and Tactician

In 45 BC, at the height of his power, Caesar had unified the Mediterranean under his dominion and consolidated his hold over Rome. Julius Caesar was a good leader for many reasons. He was a brilliant tactician. He constantly worked to accomplish a strategic goal. Caesar knew that his acts against one populace would elicit a reaction from another. Therefore, he often used this reaction to conquer an area at the right time.

Caesar was in command of between four and seven conflicts during his lifetime. And in every one of them, Caesar consistently made progress toward an obvious “end goal.”

• Caesar oversaw an operation to repel the Germanic Usipetes and Tencteri tribes’ invasion of Gaul. These actions had little military purpose but impressed the Senate. Caesar’s strategic goal was to demonstrate Rome’s power and to alleviate the anxieties of the Germans. To divert attention from a controversial massacre of these tribes, Caesar also crossed the Rhine into Germania and even invaded Britain.
• He led a campaign against a number of Gallic tribes with the express purpose of capturing Gaul. A comprehensive triumph over Gaul occurred in the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC. Gallic troops were as powerful as Roman forces, but Gallic tribes’ internal conflicts helped Caesar win with ease.
• Caesar led a fight against the Roman Senate in order to accomplish his strategic objectives. This included the conquest of Italy, the triumph in Spain, and the invasion of Greece. When the Senate called Caesar home to ease his rising population among Romans, Caesar sparked a large civil war and named himself a “dictator”.
• Caesar oversaw a conflict with the Egyptians and took part in a civil war while still establishing and attaining strategic objectives. He became lovers with Cleopatra to defeat King Ptolemy XIII and secure his authority in Egypt while defeating Pompey’s army in Greece at the Battle of Pharsalus, all for his grand plans for conquering the neighboring regions.

• Caesar’s combat strategy at the Battle of Pharsalus (48 BC) against Pompey was ingenious, and flawless. Despite being outnumbered, Caesar ordered his soldiers to stay in position, forcing Pompey’s men to charge far and tire them before contact which was a decisive victory.
• In the Battle of Alesia, his tactical strategy was flawless and helped him triumph over difficulty. Caesar built fortifications around the city of Alesia to contain Vercingetorix and his men. This first set, called circumvallation, kept the Gauls inside. A second wall, contravallation, protected the Romans from external attacks and reinforcements.
• He had an unusual tactical strategy against the Celts in Britannia. While marching a weak army with few supplies to a distant area, Caesar’s main aim was to catch the Britons off-guard. Before invading their territories, Caesar often sabotaged their morale with propaganda and subversion to balance the odds.

Julius Caesar Often Pardoned His Enemies

Even his Roman opponents could feel Julius Caesar’s sympathy. During the civil war with Pompey, Caesar pardoned many of his adversaries, mostly because he was sympathetic to the Romans. Even as dictator, he still showed great kindness to his detractors, even the Pompey supporter Marcus Junius Brutus.

However, his pardons of Gaius Cassius Longinus, Decimus Brutus, and Marcus Junius Brutus show that he underestimated their personalities. On the Ides of March in 44 BC, they ended Caesar forever.

Caesar was well-liked by the people of Rome due to his successes in Gaul and his effective use of propaganda. Despite having a son, Caesarion, he still chose his great-nephew Octavian as his heir. This wise decision was to avoid making Cleopatra, Caesarion’s mother, queen-regent of the Roman republic. She could potentially establish an autocracy that Caesar did not desire.

He Was a Beloved Dictator for His People

During his reign as dictator from 49-44 BC, he even went on to implement policies that mostly benefited the poor citizens among the Romans. Policies like this included debt relief, rent-free periods of up to a year, and restrictions on individuals possessing more than 60,000 sesterces in cash. The government even gave the unemployed impoverished Romans a chance at a fresh life in one of Rome’s distant colonies.

For better representation, he expanded the Senate’s membership, and he made citizenship available to previously ineligible foreigners.

By creating a new harbor in Ostia and a new canal from Terracina, he ensured greater control over the city’s grain supply and easier access to grain from abroad. During his leadership as dictator, the city’s unemployment rate was lowered in part because of the construction of new public facilities. Caesar saw how uninteresting Rome was in contrast to Alexandria and decided to make improvements to the city’s look as well.

The Worst Sides of Julius Caesar as a Leader

Those familiar with Caesar or who documented his life emphasized his one significant flaw: self-interest. Caesar was hardly a miser, but he had little interest in selfless giving and spent generously only when it served his personal interests.

His military acumen was well known, but he was also criticized for being excessively preoccupied with personal power and expansion. According to Suetonius, Caesar cared more about furthering his own career than the well-being of the Roman people. The tensions that culminated in Caesar’s death were exacerbated by this characterization of his personality.

Many of Caesar’s feats were accomplished through bribery. Near the Forum Romanum in Rome in 46 BC Caesar constructed a forum on his property that cost more than 100,000,000 denarii in an effort to win over the Roman populace. It was called Forum of Caesar, also known as Forum Iulium or Forum Julium and some of the land Caesar bought for its construction was unreasonably pricey. Caesar and Venus Genetrix both had shrines there and the forum’s opulence was presumably designed to appease the Roman population.

Caesar was exceptional as a military leader and his Gallic Wars, notably his siege of Alecia, are evidence of this. He also excelled as a writer of considerable renown. Most students who study Latin today eventually read Caesar’s “Gallic Wars.” As a politician, he possessed political depth. He ran for and was elected to many posts in the Roman Republic, including consul (the highest office).

However, Julius Caesar was likewise vicious in his own way. Caesar may have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Gauls during his Gallic Wars. During the war from 59 to 51 BC, nearly a million Gauls were kidnapped as slaves which were sold by Caesar in the slave markets where he amassed a fortune.

Caesar had a great monetary obligation to Crassus before the Gallic Wars. Therefore, Caesar hoped that by eliminating and enslaving Rome’s foes, he wouldn’t lose favor with the Roman people while earning a great sum of money. After the victories in the Gallic Wars, he was among the wealthiest Romans.

Julius Caesar’s leadership was not without controversy. He was too ambitious and just wanted power for himself. His murder in 44 BC was the direct result of his lust for power.

It was when Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 BC that the Roman Civil War began, thereby ending the Roman Republic. However, between 49 and 44 BC, during his dictatorship, Julius Caesar had already begun adopting a series of constitutional changes and he could have started to restructure the Republic if he hadn’t been killed. But Caesar’s actions only bolstered his dictatorship. He increased the Senate’s membership to 900 and gave himself tribunician and censorship powers.

Legacy of Julius Caesar’s Leadership

Julius Caesar’s leadership—notwithstanding these problems—and his military victories and political reforms laid the groundwork for the development and prosperity of the Roman Empire. Julius Caesar was overall a good leader when it came to his own people. He knew how to effectively communicate with his soldiers and prepare them for battle. Many military triumphs and the expansion of the Roman Empire can be attributed to Caesar’s willingness to take risks and make bold choices.

He was also renowned for his skill in handing off duties to his staff. He was not an overly controlling person. Instead, he put his faith in his advisers and generals to handle the nuts and bolts of his campaigns so he could always concentrate on the big picture.

For centuries after his death, the Roman Empire, which was greatly enlarged and cemented under his leadership, remained a global power. His military victories and campaigns left a mark on Roman military doctrine and practice. His writings, especially his accounts of the Gallic Wars and other events, influenced the domains of history and warfare.