Caesar, Julius; Rome -- History -- Republic, 265-30 B.C.
successes were due to the rapidity of his movements, which brought him
on the enemy before they heard of his approach. He travelled sometimes
a hundred miles a day, reading or writing in his carriage, through
countries without roads, and crossing rivers without bridges. No
obstacles stopped him when he had a definite end in view. In battle he
sometimes rode; but he was more often on foot, bareheaded, and in a
conspicuous dress, that he might be seen and recognized. Again and
again by his own efforts he recovered a day that was half lost. He once
seized a panic-stricken standard-bearer, turned him round, and told him
that he had mistaken the direction of the enemy. He never misled his
army as to an enemy's strength, or if he mis-stated their numbers it
was only to exaggerate. In Africa, before Thapsus, when his officers
were nervous at the reported approach of Juba, he called them together
and said briefly, "You will understand that within a day King Juba will
be here with the legions, thirty thousand horse, a hundred thousand
skirmishers, and three hundred elephants. You are not to think or ask
questions. I tell you the truth, and you must prepare for it. If any of
you are alarmed, I shall send you home."
Yet he was singularly careful of his soldiers. He allowed his legions
rest, though he allowed none to himself. He rarely fought a battle at a
disadvantage. He never exposed his men to unnecessary danger, and the
loss by wear and tear in the campaigns in Gaul was exceptionally and
even astonishingly slight. When a gallant action was performed, he knew
by whom it had been done, and every soldier, however humble, might feel
assured that if he deserved praise he would have it. The army was
Caesar's family. When Sabinus was cut off, he allowed his beard to
grow, and he did not shave it till the disaster was avenged. If Quintus
Cicero had been his own child, he could not have run greater personal
risk to save him when shut up at Charleroy. In discipline he was
lenient to ordinary faults, and not careful to make curious inquiries
into such things. He liked his men to enjoy themselves. Military
mistakes in his officers too he always endeavored to excuse, never
blaming them for misfortunes, unless there had been a defect of courage
as well as judgment. Mutiny and desertion only he never overlooked. And
thus no general was ever more loved by, or had greater power over, the
army which served under him. He brought the insurgent 10th legion into
submission by a single word. When the civil war began and Labienus left
him, he told all his officers who had served under Pompey that they
were free to follow if they wished. Not another man forsook him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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