Destiny not only favors young geniuses, but also favors late-blooming heroes.
This is my comment on Caesar at the end of the Gallic War at the end of the last historical salon. Caesar's life is a perfect example of a late bloomer. Compared to Alexander the Great three hundred years before him, his success came too late. But in the longer dimension of history, the Roman Empire he founded had a far more profound and lasting influence than Alexander the Great's Macedonian Empire. This seems to coincide with the differences between the two civilizations of ancient Rome and ancient Greece in the fate of the two people. The rise of ancient Greece was as favored by God as Alexander the Great, turning the world upside down in one day and falling apart in the same day. However, the growth of ancient Rome was like that of Caesar. It relied on the accumulation of small steps to reach thousands of miles, creating a century-old stable and prosperous era.
Therefore, whether Caesar is studied in terms of his character, luck or military characteristics, he has many common characteristics of the Roman nation. To understand Caesar is to find the most representative cultural gene of the Roman nation.
Desire for attention is the most typical character of Caesar. The origin of this character is difficult to study in detail due to limited historical data. I personally speculate that a man's thirst for attention is usually due to a lack of adequate attention from his parents in his early years of growth and insufficient response to his own needs, which will ultimately affect the child's psychological deficiencies. In adulthood, the person is extremely fond of gaining attention through novelty or career achievements to make up for his psychological deficiencies, and at the same time develops strong narcissism.
Caesar lost his father when he was young, and his mother Olya was mainly responsible for raising him when he was growing up. Perhaps Olya was a standard model of Roman moral women, who gave Caesar a good aristocratic spiritual education and cultivated Caesar's sufficient aristocratic self-esteem, but she did not pay attention to the spiritual needs of her children and did not like to take the initiative to express her feelings to her children. As a result, Caesar lacked enough attention from his mother.
A similar psychological state can be seen in many of Caesar's early actions. Caesar liked to wear gorgeous and strange clothes, was fond of flirting with many women, and was generous and undemanding to his friends. Even beyond your own personal conditions to meet the above needs. This behavior is an external manifestation of narcissism that lacks attention and hopes to gain the attention and recognition of others through exaggerated dressing up, surprising encounters and generosity in response to requests.
If Caesar had stopped there, his life would have been unworthy of praise. This desire for attention and narcissism was by no means unique to Caesar, but most people also failed to live up to his exploits. What makes Caesar different from ordinary narcissists is that he invested this narcissism and desire for attention in political and military conquests, and his talents and opportunities coincided perfectly with the development of the Roman era, ultimately making him transcend the individual. limitations and reach the pinnacle of the times.
In addition to being narcissistic, Caesar is good at introspection, communication and management. Before the age of thirty, Caesar wasted a lot of time, but also had bad luck and failed to find an opportunity to show his talent. When he came to the Strait of Gibraltar (Pillars of Hercules) as a treasurer at the age of thirty-one, he saw the place that the legendary heroes of ancient Greece had conquered, and it was also the place that Alexander the Great expected to conquer. However, Alexander the Great's final age stagnated at thirty-three years old, and he failed to complete his ambition of conquering the Pillars of Hercules and encompassing the Mediterranean. Caesar burst into tears. At his age, Alexander the Great had conquered most of the known world. Looking at the land beneath his feet, it was a pity that time passed by. And he has already passed the age and still accomplished nothing. If he died at the age of Alexander the Great, he would be just a little person who would be forgotten at any time. What’s the point of spending so much effort on dressing up in fancy clothes, picking up beautiful women, and pretending to be generous to gain the attention and favor of others?
From then on, Caesar began to change. Although the change did not happen overnight, it would be soaring into the sky, but the changes step by step eventually allowed him to leave the vulgar life of his early years along another path.
Communication and management are qualities that transcend ordinary people. Caesar is a natural social master. He can win the favor of others, see and affirm the shining points of others, and through communication with others, make them work harder to be perfect. This kind of character has already shown Caesar's qualities as a genius manager. Even middle-class people who are considered by the public to have mediocre talents can make extraordinary achievements under Caesar's command. This is fully proved by Crassus the Younger, Cicero's brother, Antony and Agrippa.
Crassus’ eldest son, Crassus Jr., was Caesar’s most valued young general in the early days of the Gallic War. He joined Caesar’s staff as a treasurer, and his status was superior to that of the generals (the treasurer was theoretically only responsible The financial supervision work of the legion, but because he has special rights such as disciplinary inspection and political commissar, his status is different from other generals appointed by the governor, and his status is second only to the governor). He has been appointed by Caesar many times to lead more than one legion of troops independently. Perform tasks. Despite his young age, he is fully capable of acting on his own. But when he went to the east with his father, he soon died in the battle of Kalai with Parthia.
Cicero's brother was in poor health, neither brave nor talented as his brother. He and his brother were regarded as wise brothers and foolish brothers by the people of the time. Cicero's brother served as Caesar's legion commander. In Cicero's view, it was just sending his foolish brother to Caesar's side to be gilded.
But under Caesar, Quintus Cicero, who was sick, held on to the surprise attack of tens of thousands of Narvi people with a legion, and waited until Caesar's reinforcements arrived, without causing the collapse of the entire Roman army. Not only did Caesar He was greatly appreciated, and Cicero was even more surprised.
Antony was a young nobleman who joined Caesar as a financial officer like Crassus the Younger in the late Gallic War. Because he later inherited a considerable part of Caesar's political legacy and participated in the civil war with Octavian, he was regarded as Caesar's best military successor. In fact, Antony is just a relatively good general at the level of legion commander. In terms of his ability to command independently, he may not be as good as Crassus the Younger. But even such a young man has grown up in a short period of time under Caesar and is basically able to perform special tasks independently. But after Caesar's death, the shortcomings of his command were exposed. The expedition to Parthia was only a complete retreat, and he did not repeat the mistakes of Crassus' Caly, but he also returned with a tragic victory and failed to achieve the great cause of conquest and revenge. In the naval battle of Actium, he was defeated at the hands of Agrippa because of his inability to cheer up his low morale, and he was defeated and died in the civil war.
Relatively speaking, Agrippa was the last young general that Caesar found worthy of training, and he was also the one who had the least chance to be cultivated by Caesar's side. When Caesar discovered him, he was already in his old age, and Agrippa was just an ordinary soldier. But Caesar recommended it to his adopted son Octavian. After Caesar's death, Agrippa relied on his own training to slowly grow into a world-famous general who could compete with Antony, and finally defeated Antony at Actium. This shows that Caesar knows people well.
Why can these people make extraordinary achievements when they are around Caesar, but once they leave Caesar, they disappear from everyone and lose their aura? This is actually what we often say: "Within seven steps, there must be grass." Most people in this world have talents in some aspect and are more or less capable of making extraordinary achievements. The key is whether there are enough environmental conditions to stimulate their talents and encourage them to actively strengthen their strengths and achieve perfection in their work. Excellent managers are precisely the people who can best discover the talents of those around them, and are also the ones who can best affirm their talents and encourage them to use their talents, and try their best to create conditions for them to use their talents. Therefore, if you look at history, you will find that certain people always have a large number of excellent people following them. You think that they are lucky to have excellent people to help them create great achievements. Little do they know that it is actually because they have excellent managers who make the people around them better, that they create the miracle of stars and moons.
For example, Liu Bang had the best logistics manager Xiao He, who was just a petty official at first. Han Xin, the best strategic commander, turned out to be just a halberd wielder. No matter how outstanding a person is, when he fails to display his talents, he is just an ordinary person in the eyes of outsiders. Even before Liu Bang and Caesar became prosperous, they appeared to the world as ordinary mortals. So Cicero would say: "I never thought that the man who liked to push his hair aside at any time would subvert Japan and the country in the future."
In addition to the characteristics of knowing people and being kind, Caesar He is also good at summarizing the basic laws of things and finding solutions to problems. This can be seen from Caesar's "Gaul Wars". Caesar initially went to Gaul and was only appointed to serve as the governor of the three provinces of Alpine Gaul (Northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (Southern France) and Illyria, and controlled the military power of the four legions. If it were anyone else, the most likely option would be to visit cities in northern Italy and southern France such as Milan and Marseille, process official documents, meet with upper-class people from various tribes and Rome, and maintain stable security within the three provinces, at most from time to time. Let some of the tribes in Gaul sing and pay tribute to the Roman hegemony. If there is a large-scale migration of tribes such as Helvetia that may affect the security of the province, then lead troops to resist. When the term is over, make enough money and save a little reputation to return to Rome to retire. As for whether to conquer the entire Gaul, and how to resist the Germanic invasion, which would cause turmoil in Gaul and thus affect the security of Roman provincial governance, these problems are too far away and too big to be solved, so we simply avoid talking about them.
But Caesar was not satisfied with this. He naturally wanted to gain the attention of the world and was not willing to be an ordinary person. Even if he had served as a consul or provincial governor, he was still not satisfied with just staying. The reputation of the next mediocre consul and governor. What he wants is to leave a mark in history that surpasses Pompey and even surpasses Alexander the Great.
Caesar’s approach is to fully investigate, summarize, and then formulate countermeasures. He carefully studied the ethnic groups, tribes and cultural customs throughout Gaul, divided Gaul into three parts, and introduced in detail the internal faction relations and cultural customs of Gaul. He also specifically studied the Germanic factions and cultural customs, and then analyzed why the Germans invaded Gaul and what impact this would have on Gaul. As well as the relationship between Britain and Gaul, the geography, customs and culture of Britain.
Thus, Caesar came to a conclusion. Helvetia's migration affects the security of the province, so it must be attacked. But why did the Helvetia and other Gallic tribes migrate? It was because the Germans crossed the Rhine and occupied their living space. Therefore, in order to protect the security of the Roman provinces, we must solve the Germanic problem. So the Germanic tribes across the Rhine were defeated. Who is the closest relationship between the Germanic tribes and Gaul? The Belgae Gauls, so if you want the Germans to never threaten Gaul, you must defeat the Belgae people, the most ferocious and closely related to the Germans in Gaul.
Then during the Gallic rebellion, some Gauls fled to Britain. If Britain did not surrender, the Gallic rebellion could not be completely quelled. So Caesar took the initiative to attack Britain and gain their obedience. Then he went deep into the German territory, but also analyzed the German geography and culture, proving the differences between Germany and Gaul, and why the same rule as Gaul could not be established in Germany. If they cannot directly conquer and rule, then the Germans will not dare to cross the Rhine again for a short time. Finally, the political structure of Gaul was reshaped and Rome's rule over the entire Gaul was established.
The above is the whole process of Caesar analyzing problems, summarizing the rules, and solving problems. From this perspective, every act of conquest by Caesar was not random, but had an inherent logic. This ability to discover and solve problems is also an essential ability for a pioneering leader.