Leadership of Julius Caesar and MacBeth

The portrait of Caesar that emerges from Plutarch is multidimensional, not merely a tyrant intent on imposing his will on the citizens of Rome, nor a beneficent ruler whose charity could be mistaken for weakness by his enemies. Instead, Plutarch portrays Caesar as ambitious and arrogant, but also capable of wisdom in his leadership and of providing a unifying force that, in his absence, became a void filled immediately by civil war.

As portrayed by Plutarch, Caesar was a charismatic leader who inspired his followers, particularly the military, through his personal characteristics. This type of leadership is often identified with kings and emperors as their absolute authority derives in part from their ability to convey personal magnetism. If their personal authority falters, so too does their rule, a situation which presidents and prime ministers do not face directly since they are elected to pre-defined terms and must govern as part of a coalition.

Caesar also recognized that his informal power needed to be translated into formal power if he is to become emperor, which is the office to which he aspires. The empire was in flux, and Caesar's popularity was quite strong due, in large part, to the communication skills of Caesar himself; however, most of the population cannot vote, and so Caesar must use this informal popularity as a fulcrum to develop support among the monied elite who have it within their power to support him. Despite this recognition of

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, on the other hand, prove that they were distrustful of one another, and the motivation of Cassius (in preferring Marc Anthony not to speak at Caesar's funeral, for example), suggest that his political ambitions may have known even fewer bounds than Caesar's himself. Caesar's leadership model failed both himself and his organization (the Roman empire) in the short-term. The civil war that followed his death and resulted in the suicides of Brutus and Cassius was, in turn, followed by the disintegration of the alliance between Marc Anthony and Octavius. Eventually (and portrayed in a different play by Shakespeare, as well), Octavius himself became emperor, defeating Marc Anthony, and establishing the model of leadership (as successive dictators eliminated all hope for a return to a republic) that would remain in the Roman empire for its duration. Holinshed puts forth in the Chronicles a portrait of Duncan as a benevolent ruler whose charity was taken for weakness on the part of his ambitious subjects. Recognizing that many small crimes and offenses would go unpunished, or would be punished only lightly, the peace of the kingdom gradually gave way to an unruliness which was troublesome to the common people, but not to the kin

Category: Literature - L