Julius Caesar
... honeymoon on the Nile. When he finally said goodbye to his mistress he left for Syria when in fact he should have been heading to Italy. He had lost all contact with Italy and while away Italy was in bad disrepair. The government was insufficient , there were rivalries between the tribunes and insubordination by the troops. Fuller writes that Caesar tempted fate twice during the Civil war of Africa. Fuller gives an example of how Caesar’s army, at times had no semblance of order during the Ruspina operations.(264) The missile attacks from Labienus’s calvary caused Caesar to lose all order. He was able to regain order but Fuller thinks that Caesar only escaped annihilation by the skin of his teeth. The second time Caesar tempted fate was at the Thapsus operations. His opinion is that this battle was another example of Caesar believing that no one would oppose him. Forgetful of his escape in Ruspina he decided to intercept two legions the Scipio sent to Zeta. On his way his calvary was attacked three different times from behind causing Caesar to lose many of his men. Even though he should have realized what they were doing the first time it happened he would just turn around and keep going, believing they were not going to do it again, and be attacked. This shows that Caesar’s was confident that he was feared and no one would challenge him twice, but he was wrong. Fuller believes that the best that can be said of the African campaign is that it was fought a year to late because of Caesar’s squandering in Alexandria. He also believes it is strange that Caesar, who possessed by a fanatical faith in speed, failed to relate it to tactical locality.(282) In other words, Caesar should have come to Africa long before he did. Fuller wrote that Caesar’s one aim was power and that although he could win brilliant victories he would commit dismal blunders. I believe that he has somewhat proved his theory. I see Caesar as someone who was capable of having many victories but at times he did not think out what he was going to do, he just did it. This caused him to make many mistakes that cost him a lot of his men and a lot of valuable time. This theory is easily proved with his unnecessary Alexandrian War, his close call at Thapsus and his hastily planned expeditions to Britain. These examples were the examples that made me understand Fuller’s thesis. On the other hand, the other battles that Fuller explains show that Caesar was a brilliant General and that he achieved a lot. So overall I believe that Caesar was a good soldier, he just did made some mistakes that could have easily been avoided and this caused him to lose valuable time and a lot of his men. I can also see throughout this books that Caesar, at times, seems a little sure of himself and is more concerned with making himself look great than doing things correctly. This book is extremely hard to follow and I found it hard to pick out more significant mistakes made by Caesar. Fuller accounts of Caesar’s campaigns and at times he jumps around a lot and it causes you to be lost and not really understand the order in which things happened. Fuller tells what happened but at times does not does not go into great detail about Caesar's personality state, which makes it hard to pick out what mistakes were made causing certain problems during Caesar’s conquests. This made it hard for me to pick out more detailed and significant explanations of blunders made by Caesar. Many things have been said by historians about Julius Caesar in their works. Theodore Mommsens opinion of Caesar is that he was a perfect man, and that no army has ever been as perfect as his. James Anthony Froude states that “no commander who has ever lived has shown greater military genius.”(12) Others say he is the “greatest man of the world”, “the greatest man the world has ever produced” and his triumphs were so much the product of his personality that he left no single advance in the art of war.” Fuller believes that Caesar was “an unscrupulous demagogue whose aim was power, and a general who could not only win brilliant victories but also commit dismal blunders.” (12) Fuller uses the two expeditions to Britain during the pacification of Gaul as an example of one of the many blunders Caesar makes. Caesar’s reason for attacking Britain was because they gave support to the Gauls. Fuller does not think this is a convincing reason because Caesar’s command of the channel made this support improbable. He also believes the reason for this attack was the fame the victory would bring to Caesar. Fuller’s opinion of these expeditions Is that they were so hastily panned that no supplies or food were taken. There was no planning and when Caesar’s fleet reached Britain on the first campaign their landing was greatly opposed by the British and they hastily disembarked ready for battle without bothering to beach their transports. A storm came up and destroyed many of their ships. This caused them to have to return to Gaul and rebuild their ships. On their second campaign to Britain, to save time, Caesar once again did not bother to beach their ships and were once again destroyed by a storm. Fuller says this tragedy was preventable because the ships were to be built to prevent destruction. Fuller also says that Caesar’s negligence which wrecked these campaigns from the start is hard to explain. The probable explanation is that Caesar was a gambler, a man confident to chance his luck.(124) Caesar won his battles in Britain but Fuller calls these campaigns escapades because no garrison was left there, his compact with Cassivellanus was worthless and it was improbable that any tribute set forth by Caesar was never paid. (126) Fuller believes the Alexandria and Punic Wars were unnecessary. He thinks that after Pompey’s defeat the war could have come to an end had Caesar put his policy of moderation to its final test and declared a General amnesty. He believes that Caesar was more a soldier than a statesman and he didn’t think before he acted. When Pompey was killed the reason that Caesar was in Egypt was accomplished. Fuller writes that he should have set out for Italy to end the Civil War, but he did not. Instead, Caesar decided to stay in Eqypt to settle a dispute between Ptolemy and his sister, Cleopatra. Fuller’s opinion of why he did this is that he was infatuated by his own success and took for granted that no man would dare to oppose him. (253) Caesar fell in love with Cleopatra and Fuller believes that the Alexandrian war was not necessary, it was due to Caesar’s passion for Cleopatra and was full of peril for him. He says that almost a year of fighting was squandered on the execution of a foreign monarch instead of on the liquidation of the Civil War. Even after this wasted time fighting this unnecessary war Caesar did not set out at top speed to catch up with Civil war and extinguish it. He instead spent two months with is mistress on a honeymoon on the Nile...