For the first time ever, Napoleon's "Chronicles of Caesar's Wars" ("Pr�cis des guerres de C�sar") is available in English.Dictated by Napoleon to Count Marchand, his valet, while in exile on St. Helena, Chronicles of Caesar's Wars explores Caesar's rise, his campaigns in Europe and North Africa, and the plot that killed him. Napoleon, who had a lifelong obsession with Caesar, wrote this book in one of his last acts. The work relaxed him, "tossing a few flowers on the path that was leading to the tomb," as Count Marchand's preface recalls.Napoleon passionately explores Caesar's battles in Gaul and during the Civil War. He concludes each chapter with observations, sometimes providing details, sometimes veering away from praise towards criticism, applying the insights of a military career and a healthy ego to explain what he would have done better. Napoleon ends the book with a remarkable defense of Caesar's dictatorship. He takes apart his assassins' justifications and the fault-finding of "good Plutarch the libeler" with such fervor that one can scarcely believe a gulf of two millennia stood between the two eminent men. In a sense, though, it was also a defense of his own government.Attached to the book are previously untranslated essays in which Napoleon takes on the role of literary critic and philosopher. He criticizes Virgil's Aeneid for butchering Homer's Iliad, and Voltaire for unflatteringly depicting Mohammad, another of Napoleon's heroes. He explores in another essay whether a man has the right to kill himself, an act we now know he had personally attempted.

While in exile on St Helena, Napoleon dictated a commentary on the wars of Julius Caesar, later published in 1836. In each chapter he summarized the events of one campaign, then added comments from the standpoint of his own military knowledge. Over the nearly two millennia between Caesar and Napoleon some aspects of warfare had changed, notably the introduction of firearms. But much remained the same: the rate of movement of armies (at the foot pace of horse or man); human muscle power as the main source of energy for construction work; some military techniques, notably bridge construction; as well as the actual territory fought over by Caesar and later by Napoleon. Napoleons commentary thus provides a fascinating and highly authoritative insight into Caesars wars, as well as providing a window into Napoleons own thinking and attitudes. Napoleon in places detects mistakes on the part of Caesar and his enemies, and says what they should have done differently. Remarkably, this is thought to be the first full English translation of Napoleon's work.Napoleon Bonaparte was born to an obscure Corsican family but rose through the ranks of the French army to become Emperor of France, conqueror of most of Europe and acknowledged military genius. He wrote this book while in exile on St Helena.The translator. RA Maguire, is a former civil engineer with a long-standing interest in military and ancient history.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The enemy were overpowered and took to flight. The Romans pursued as far as their strength enabled them to run' Between 58 and 50 BC Julius Caesar conquered most of the area now covered by France, Belgium and Switzerland, and invaded Britain twice, and The Conquest of Gaul is his record of these campaigns. Caesar’s narrative offers insights into his military strategy and paints a fascinating picture of his encounters with the inhabitants of Gaul and Britain, as well as lively portraits of the rebel leader Vercingetorix and other Gallic chieftains. The Conquest of Gaulcan also be read as a piece of political propaganda, as Caesar sets down his version of events for the Roman public, knowing he faces civil war on his return to Rome. Revised and updated by Jane Gardner, S. A. Handford’s translation brings Caesar’s lucid and exciting account to life for modern readers. This volume includes a glossary of persons and places, maps, appendices and suggestions for further reading.

An account, both factual and fictional, of the Gallic War of 58 to 51 B.C., narrated by a fictitious soldier in Caesar's army, which provides a somewhat more vivid and readable companion to Caesar's "Commentaries on the Gallic War."

"Imagine a book about an unnecessary war written by the ruthless general of an occupying army - a vivid and dramatic propaganda piece that forces the reader to identify with the conquerors and that is designed, like the war itself, to fuel the limitless political ambitions of the author. Could such a campaign autobiography ever be a great work of literature - perhaps even one of the greatest? It would be easy to think not, but such a book exists -and it helped transform Julius Caesar from a politician on the make into the Caesar of legend. This remarkable new translation of Caesar's famous but underappreciated War for Gaul captures, like never before in English, the gripping and powerfully concise style of the future emperor's dispatches from the front lines in what are today France, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. While letting Caesar tell his battle stories in his own way, distinguished classicist James O'Donnell also fills in the rest of the story in a substantial introduction and notes that together explain why Gaul is the "best bad man's book ever written"--A great book in which a genuinely bad person offers a bald-faced, amoral description of just how bad he has been. Complete with a chronology, a map of Gaul, suggestions for further reading, and an index, this feature-rich edition captures the forceful austerity of a troubling yet magnificent classic - a book that, as O'Donnell says, 'gets war exactly right and morals exactly wrong.'" -- Front jacket flap

This edition of the Civil War replaces the earlier Loeb Classical Library edition by A.G. Peskett (1914) with new text, translation, introduction, and bibliography.

Julius Caesar and Pompey the Great were two of the greatest generals Rome had ever produced. Together they had brought vast stretches of territory under Roman dominion. In 49 BC they turned against each other and plunged Rome into civil war. Legion was pitched against legion in a vicious battle for political domination of the vast Roman world. Based on original sources, Adrian Goldsworthy provides a gripping account of this desperate power struggle. The armies were evenly matched but in the end Caesar's genius as a commander and his great good luck brought him victory in 45 BC.

The Great Roman Civil War (49-45 BC), also known as Caesar's Civil War, was one of the last politico-military conflicts in the Roman Republic before the establishment of the Roman Empire. It began as a series of political and military confrontations, between Julius Caesar (100-44 BC), his political supporters (broadly known as Populares), and his legions, against the Optimates (or Boni), the politically conservative and socially traditionalist faction of the Roman Senate, who were supported by Pompey (106-48 BC) and his legions