The Return of Caesar

Editor’s note: This entry is the third in a series on Napoleon. BIH recommends reading the previous entries, A brand apart and Rise of the little corporal,  prior to this one. They review the origin story of the young Napoleon, and then explore his development as a leader and strategist.

In ancient times, conquerors like Julius Caesar made it a point to extract funds and treasure from conquered lands, sending them back home. Napoleon was no different, making sure to top off France's coffers with millions in funds (adjusted for modern USD), and seized art treasures for her cultural enrichment. This swelled his popularity, particularly in Paris. Add to that the coup he orchestrated in 1797, and Napoleon was the "it" guy in French republican politics. Interestingly, he still wasn't the head guy. But he was the hero of France.

Napoleon helped vanquish all but one of France's immediate adversaries—Great Britain—the one he knew France still wasn't quite ready to take on. That was because the British Royal Navy was formidable, not just in terms of fleet size, but also experience and leadership. He needed time cogitate on Britain. So, again emulating Caesar, Napoleon took a couple of months off to invade Egypt, although there was a hidden, British-related agenda.

Seizing Egypt would severely inhibit Britain's access to near-east trade interests. It would also give France a foothold in the Middle East, enabling France to cozy up to one of Britain's enemies. A Muslim sultan in India did not like the British crown, which he demonstrated by firing rockets at British forces. It's not hard to imagine that Napoleon was delighted with the idea of Englishmen on the run. Based on the adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, he concocted the plan to conquer Egypt. Once he did so, he would establish relations with Indian leaders in order to team up against Britain.

Battle of the Pyramids on 21 July 1798 by
Louis-François, Baron Lejeune, 1808

Britain was not ignorant of Napoleon's intentions. Consequently, ships of the Royal Navy were deployed to find Napoleon and stop him. Fortune favored Napoleon as he managed to elude the British and he arrived at Alexandria on the 1st of July, 1798. Immediately the French clashed with the Egyptians. At the start of hostilities, French and Egyptian forces were close in terms of strength—about 25,000 each. But losses would separate the two. The Egyptians lost around 2000 compared to a hair over two dozen for the French. This made the French a bit cocky, although not for long.

Right when things looked up for Napoleon and his Army, Lord Nelson commanded the fleet that obliterated all but two of Napoleon's ships. This suspended efforts to reinforce French strength in the Mediterranean. Yes, there was the French foothold in Egypt, but it wasn't firm. The Egyptians weren't particularly welcoming to occupation. Still, Napoleon had the bright idea of spreading the love. He led a 13,000-man element along the coasts of what are now Gaza, Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. Nearly half the army was lost to combat or disease. This whole endeavor was less than successful, so he retreated to Egypt. To speed things up, he ordered plague-stricken men poisoned with opium—a number estimated as high as 580.

Napoleon wasn't alone in failure. Throughout 1799, France suffered a series of defeats from a revived coalition of European monarchs. And it hastened his return. Although Napoleon hadn't received orders to come home, luckily, the Directory had sent them. They just never reached him. When Napoleon reached Paris in the fall of 1799, France's situation improved from a few late victories. Unfortunately the Republic was broke. Further, the Directory became pretty ineffective and lost the support of the French. There was only one place turn.

Napoleon surrounded by members of the Council of
Five Hundred during the Coup, by François Bouchot.

Despite his failures in Egypt, Napoleon returned a hero. It enabled him to cobble together an alliance that included leaders from the Directory and Napoleon's brother, Lucien, who was then speaker of the one house of the legislature, and others. They formed a cadre that overthrew the Directory and dissolved the legislature. As a result of the coup, Napoleon became one of three consuls, and he was designated "first consul" for ten years. This arrangement was very, very similar to the First Triumvirate, formed by the partnership of the three most powerful men in Rome—Caesar, Pompey, and Crassus. Only in the case of the consuls, Napoleon held all the power. The other two consuls, whom he appointed, had only advisory roles. It was then that the "Constitution of the Year VIII" (VIII indicating the year of the Revolution), was edited by Napoleon and ratified by popular vote. Any resemblance to a republic given by the constitution was an illusion. Napoleon's revisions established his dictatorship.

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SIDEBAR:

In 1798, Napoleon was granted membership into the French Academy of Sciences. During his excursion to Egypt in May of the same year, he was joined by a large group of 167 mathematicians, naturalists, chemists, and others. The most noted of their discoveries was the Rosetta Stone. It is inscribed with three versions of a decree issued in 196 BC on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The two upper groups of text contain ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs and using and Demotic script (a written evolution of hieroglyphs to script), and the lower version is ancient Greek. Since the decree is the same in each version, the stone is the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.