The Lives and Assassination of Abram Lincoln and Julius Caesar

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There are several men all over the world who are considered great due to the immense contributions they made towards making the world a better place or to improve the lives of their fellow countrymen. There some who gained fame and popularity in fighting for the rights of their people whom they felt were being oppressed by fellow countrymen. There are some who are considered great due to the style of leadership. There are some who are considered great for fighting for the independence of their countries regardless of the methods they used to fight for the freedom whether civil or armed combats.

Research Methods and design

Two of such people who have gained places as one of the great men in the world are Abram Lincoln and Julius Caesar. Even though the two great men came from two different countries and continents, they did share a lot in common from their style of leadership, how they interacted with the people, and even sadly the way and the reasons behind their deaths can be compared. This paper will look at the different aspects of their leadership of the two great leaders. To aid in the research I had to look for books with the history of the two great leaders so as to be able to ascertain their difference and similarity of character style of leadership, reasons for assassination and death of the two great leaders.

Julius Caesar and Abram Lincoln were born in different periods and countries thus their lives were a little different. According to some researchers Julius Caesar was born in the 100 BC in the city of Rome, at the time when Caesar was born Rome was an independent republic. The life of Julius Caesar was not smooth as he lost one parent at a very young age. Julius grew up and enlisted in the army he soon rose through the ranks and became a commander of his own troops. With the assistance of his great army Julius was able to conquer territories; the reason that pushed Julius to conquer more territories was the fact that he knew his name would be remembered forever. Within a few years the power that Julius wielded grew and by the 62 BC he had found his way to finally join the Praetor ship even though many of the senators did not like him as they considered him over ambitious and extremely dangerous (Jeffrey, 2005).

Just as Lincoln, the more Julius gained more power the more enemies he made even though the reasons might not have been the same. The senators saw Julius as a threat to them because of the changes that Julius was making in the country; Julius had the desire to control as much land as possible. He even introduced a very unique law that gave him power to have command of Gaul and Illyricum for a period of five years; on the other hand Lincoln was not power hungry as Julius was. Julius made much of his policies to favor him and not the country this can be proven from some of his quotes “It is more important for Rome than for myself that I should survive. I have long been sated with power and glory; but should anything happen to me, Rome will enjoy no peace. A new civil war will break out under far worse conditions then the last (Jeffrey, 2005).”

Julius death finally came and more surprising is that Julius was murdered by the senators and another similarity of the death of Julius and Lincoln was that both were murdered in a theatre. Due to his method of rule and his power hungry nature, about 60 senators finally conspired to murder Julius which they finally did by stabbing him in the back while he was at the theatre known as the Theatre of Pompey (Jeffrey, 2005).

Abram Lincoln was born on the 12th of February in the year 1809 in Kentucky, just like Julius Abram also lost a parent at a very tender age. Lincoln enlisted in the army just as Julius and rose through the ranks. Lincoln was elected as captain of his company who had enlisted to fight in the Black Hawk War. Unlike Julius who ascended to power by the use of the army, Lincoln had to fight it out in a debate with Stephen Douglas. In the seven consecutive debates both Douglas and Lincoln were able to agree on much of the issue but the issue they disagreed with being the morality of slavery. Lincoln was against slavery while Douglas was in support of slavery (Henderson, 2008).

Findings

Just like Julius, Lincoln also made enemies when he rose to power. Reasons for having enemies were because of some decisions that Lincoln made such as the release of all slaves that were in all the southern states. Most of Lincoln enemies were some people from the south who did not want to let go of the slaves. Just like Julius the people of America looked up to Lincoln to make vital decisions and for leadership. Lincoln finally died on the 15th of April 1865 this was after being shot a day earlier by John Wilkes Booth who was an actor while watching a play at the Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Unlike Julius who was stabbed severally by a many people Lincoln was killed by a single shot fired by one person. Both Lincoln and Julius had a child each at the time of their death (Henderson, 2008).

Conclusion

Even though both Lincoln lived at different times their policies were almost the same, even though the mode of application might have been different. The two leaders wanted change in their country but the changes they wanted might have been different and caused discomfort to a particular group of people. Some of the changes the two leaders wanted might have been responsible for their deaths but their legacy still lives on depending on some of the positive changes that they were able to bring.

Reference

Henderson, H. (2008). The Abraham Lincoln companion: a celebration of his life and times through a selection of remembrances, poems, songs, and tributes by relatives, friends, colleagues, and citizens, including important speeches and writings by Lincoln, along with a chronolo. New York: Omnigraphics.

Jeffrey, G., Petty, K., & Hadley, S. (2005). Julius Caesar: the life of a Roman general. New York: Rosen Central.