Conclusion

As a military commander, Caesar was both conventional and unique. Roman generals were diplomats and empire-builders as well as leaders of armies. In the former roles Caesar’s actions were entirely in keeping with the ethos of conquest and the need to project an image of strength, protect the Republic’s friends, and punish those who injured its majesty - all required for the preservation of Rome’s empire. The strategy he pursued, while remarkable in the rapidity and boldness of its execution, was not unusual in its aggressiveness or its reliance on the offensive. His use of fortifications to control the field of battle and to force the enemy to fight on his terms had its origins in the innovations of a group of commanders a generation earlier. Without question, however, Caesar was a brilliant battlefield commander and a charismatic leader of men. But it must be remembered that Caesar also enjoyed an extraordinarily long tenure in command. Most promagistrates in the late Republic only spent a year or two in their provinces, and the majority never saw military action. Even a century or more earlier, republican generals’ tenures at the head of armies were similarly brief. Caesar’s eight years in Gaul, doing battle every year, gave him an opportunity to hone his skills as a commander that few of his contemporaries enjoyed. It would have been much more surprising if Caesar’s driving ambition had not enabled his exceptional natural gifts to manifest themselves, given that amount of time, in an extraordinary ability to lead armies. Certainly, if victories and conquest are the measure of a great general, Caesar richly deserves that epithet, for few of his contemporaries - and few subsequently - could equal him on that score.