The Men, The Myths, The Legends, Alexander The Great Versus Julius Caesar.
Throughout man’s history, numerous battles of conquests have been fought with counter effects on both the winning and losing sides. There are however those that stand out, with the generals or victors being immortalized through the ages into millennia after millennia after the wars. Such great strategists include just to mention a few Hannibal Barca of Carthage, Pyrrhus of the Greek wars and Sun Tzu, author of the infamous ‘Art of War’ book that is relevant to armies to this day. This essay is aimed at demystifying or giving a closer insight to two of the greatest men of all time, Julius Caesar and Alexander of Macedon.
Both men were born from affluent families with influence at the continental politics of the time. Julius Caesar was the son of Gaius Julius Caesar who at some point was the governor of Asia, his mother, Aurelia Cotta was from an influential Roman family with ties to the senate. The same is the case for Alexander since his father was Philip II of Macedon and his mother Olympias hailed from a royal family with ties to Neopotolemus, the King of Epirus. This therefore put them at higher chances of ascending to their respective thrones at much earlier ages.
Alexander and Caesar were both thrust into leadership and much younger ages, which as we see much later in their lives gave them some experience in leadership. Alexander’s father was often away waging war on other city states and by the age of sixteen, Alexander was often left regent to the throne to rule in the absence of his father. He also squashed a lot of revolts that arose while his father was away examples including one in Thrace all of which culminated with him finally marching into war alongside his father, Philip II in 38 BC towards Thermopylae. Caesar’s story is however different since its epoch is at 85 BC when his father died. He therefore had to be the man of the house and this coincided with the civil war between his Gaius Marius and his rival Lucius Cornellias Sulla. Sulla won the war and Caesar was forced to go into hiding because he supported his uncle, thus had to be stripped off of his inheritance due to his connections in the old republic. He left Rome and served in the army only to return after Sulla’s death.
They were great military men with an impeccable knack for strategies and each war they went into was a sure victory. As seen earlier, both men had experience in warfare having fought and won numerous wars throughout their lifetimes. Caesar was elected military tribune in Rome after returning from exile due to his pursuit and capture of pirates that had kidnapped him on his trip on the Aegean Sea. Alexander on the other hand had won battle after battle alongside his father which left him with years of experience he would use to conquer much of India and later Asia.
These men were however two sides of a coin in that while both were deified as gods, Alexander is noted as laying the foundation for the spread of Western civilization as we know it today. Philosophers at his time revered him that one Nicholas Martis states that “States that did not know Alexander were as though as they had never seen the sun.” Alexander in contrast abhorred dictatorship and mostly preferred democracy while Caesar on the other hand was a want it all. In his rule, he changed the constitution thus awarding himself more power, he wanted to centralize power to Rome and squash every army there was to bring order to the Roman republic. Caesar also saw to it that the Roman Empire was considered a unit with the prime power being stationed in Rome. Alexander on the other hand delegated duties for example he had Ptolemies rule Egypt in his stead.
The other difference is that Caesar really had to work his way up through the ranks albeit he came from an influential family. After his father’s death he sided with his uncle in a civil war that he lost, forcing him to relinquish his inheritance and go into exile, serving the army in Asia and coming to Rome to get appointed military tribunal while Alexander was the son of a king thus assured of the throne regardless.
These two great men of ancient history provided the template upon which modern governance, military conquests and western culture today are rated on. Alexander is notable for establishing cities in his honor in places he conquered while Caesar up until the dictatorship was the scion for democracy. Under these men, the apex of civilization was heightened, cultural interactions improved and provided quality against which leadership was measured up until recent human history where we have seen better cadres of leaders e.g. Margaret Thatcher, Barrack Obama, Nelson Mandela et al can be measured against. It is also vital to observe and learn from them since it said that those who fail to learn from history are bound to repeat it.