essay julius caesar

ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY

Julius caesar.

Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, a rule that lasted less than one year before he was famously assassinated by political rivals in 44 B.C.

Anthropology, Archaeology, Social Studies, World History

Gaius Julius Caesar was a crafty military leader who rose through the ranks of the Roman Republic, ultimately declaring himself dictator for life and shaking the foundations of Rome itself.

Photograph by James L. Stanfield, National Geographic

Julius Caesar was a Roman general and politician who named himself dictator of the Roman Empire, a rule that lasted less than one year before he was famously assassinated by political rivals in 44 B.C.E.

Caesar was born on July 12 or 13 in 100 B.C.E. to a noble family. During his youth, the Roman Republic was in chaos . Seizing the opportunity, Caesar advanced in the political system and briefly became governor of Spain, a Roman province.

Returning to Rome, he formed political alliances that helped him become governor of Gaul , an area that included what is now France and Belgium. His Roman troops conquered Gallic tribes by exploiting tribal rivalries . Throughout his eight-year governorship , he increased his military power and, more importantly, acquired plunder from Gaul . When his rivals in Rome demanded he return as a private citizen , he used these riches to support his army and marched them across the Rubicon River, crossing from Gaul into Italy. This sparked a civil war between Caesar’s forces and forces of his chief rival for power, Pompey, from which Caesar emerged victorious .

Returning to Italy, Caesar consolidated his power and made himself dictator . He wielded his power to enlarge the senate, created needed government reforms, and decreased Rome’s debt. At the same time, he sponsored the building of the Forum Iulium and rebuilt two city-states, Carthage and Corinth. He also granted citizenship to foreigners living within the Roman Republic.

In 44 B.C.E., Caesar declared himself dictator for life. His increasing power and great ambition agitated many senators who feared Caesar aspired to be king. Only a month after Caesar’s declaration, a group of senators, among them Marcus Junius Brutus, Caesar’s second choice as heir, and Gaius Cassius Longinus assassinated Caesar in fear of his absolute power.

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Julius Caesar Essay

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Julius Caesar Essays

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Shakespeare's Julius Caesar opens with the concurrent celebrations of Caesar's defeat of Pompey and the annual fertility festival of Lupercal. The coupling of the two historically separate events each celebrating distinct gender roles dramatically...

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Self-Deluded Characters in Julius Caesar Kiara Cooper

The main characters in Shakespeare’s Tragedy of Julius Caesar have distorted self-perception, showing throughout the play that they see themselves as actors in a great historical play rather than actual people (Van Laan 139). Brutus, Antony,...

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“For who so firm that cannot be seduced?” (1.2.312). Cassius’ muttered soliloquy in William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Julius Caesar immediately calls attention to his goal of manipulating people. A man well versed in rhetoric, he puts to good...

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Drawing Brutus as an Honorable Hero in Julius Caesar Royce Yang 10th Grade

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Arguments are the pinnacle of progress, development and change. People with conflicting ideas and beliefs engage in this activity constantly. However, did you know that arguments actually come down to a science? In 4th century B.C.E, Aristotle...

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A comparative study of two texts reveals context as the primary influence upon the interplay between pragmatism and personality morality in an individual’s pursuit and consolidation of power. Driven by an overarching contextual desire for stable...

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The title of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar is often criticized, argued that it should be titled Brutus, as Marcus Brutus is the tragic hero. However, the title is appropriate, as Julius Caesar, though insignificant as an actor in the play since he...

The Wives in Julius Caesar Anonymous 9th Grade

The wives of Caesar and Brutus played a very key role in Act II, scenes 1 and 2 in Julius Caesar, by Shakespeare. They both significantly affected their husbands. They had to do something to influence their husbands to prevent them from doing...

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Shakespeare is perhaps the best-known name in the world. Naturally so, since his plays have been a part of the canon for a long time, with Julius Caesar among them. There have been thousands of adaptations of Julius Caesar let alone Shakespeare’s...

Foreshadowing and Character Development in Julius Caesar Anonymous 9th Grade

Thanks to a literary tool called foreshadowing, readers are not always surprised by important events or plot twists in literature. Foreshadowing is an effective way to hint to readers that a major plot point will happen. In Shakespeare’s tragedy...

95 Julius Caesar Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best julius caesar topic ideas & essay examples, 📌 simple & easy julius caesar essay titles, 👍 good essay topics on julius caesar, ❓ julius caesar essay questions.

• William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” According to Wyke, the play explores the dramatic structure of Julius Caesar’s ambition to take to the throne of the Roman Empire.
• Personality of Julius Caesar and His Effect on Rome Caesar’s role in the play is not immense, though he dominates the play, even after his demise in the third act of the play. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Political Impacts of Julius Caesar This enables Lepidus to see the leadership potential in Caesar and makes his wish to work with him in the government.
• The Battle of Words: Brutus vs. Antony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar However, the speech styles employed by these two characters are not similar but differ from each other in that the style employed by Brutus is one of oration, stoic and is simple and direct to […]
• Why Julius Caesar Was Assassinated There is clear indication that Caesar wanted to be called a king and this was the biggest mistake that he made.
• Ancient and Modern Dictators: Caesar and Mugabe First of all, it is vital to identify the role of Julius Caesar and his contributions to the humanity and to the society of Romans, in particular.
• Julius Caesar’ Desire for Power Unfortunately with the death of Crassus by 53 BC and Caesar’s subsequent rise to power this as a result eclipsed the political standing of Pompey resulting in a distinct shift in the balance of power […]
• The Gallic War and Julius Caesar’s Life One notable difference between Caesar’s and Plutarch’s descriptions of the siege of Alesia is how the authors list the numbers of the Gauls.
• Julius Caesar an Iconic Roman This was highly unexpected, as Caesar, a declared dictator, had the support of all the people of Rome, and his death resulted in administrative imbalances.
• The Play “Julius Caesar” by William Shakespeare Meanwhile Caesar’s son, Octavius, the heir to the throne, decides to avenge for his father’s killing which leads to the deaths of the chief conspirators, Cassius and finally Brutus.
• Roman History: Why Julius Caesar Was Assassinated Julius Caesar was both a politician and a strong leader for the Romans, who were responsible for the changes in the history of the Greco-Roman. Caesar’s behavior in the temple was observed to be a […]
• Roman History: Caesar Augustus During Augustus’s reign, the Roman Empire conquered Egypt, the land along the southern bank of the Danube, the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as the territory between the Rhine and the Elbe.
• Julius Caesar’s and Czar Nicholas II’s Leadership He had to overcome numerous difficulties during his life that have led him to the path of becoming a leader. He had to face the first revolution in the history of Russia and has changed […]
• Act 1 Scene III of “The Tragedy of Julius Caesar” Analysis The third scene is full of phrases and descriptions appealing to the reader. Short phrases deliver messages to the reader about the true essence of Cassius, Casca, and Cicero.
• Persuasion, Manipulation, Survival, Success at Work in Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” Since the beginning of the play edited by Roma Gill, Brutus is presented as a character who is very close to Caesar and is a “great friend” of his.
• Description of Augustus Caesar Marble Portrait I have my goal to examine the way the portrait reveals the features communicating a message of the ruler’s glory and divine nature.
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• Cleopatra’ and Caesar’ Relationship It must be noted though that based off historical accounts the relationship between Cleopatra and Julius Caesar was bound to fail even before it started due to the volatile combination of their personalities and the […]
• Shakespeare Authorship Question: Thorough Analysis of Style, Context, and Violence in the Plays Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Twelfth Night It should be stated that even though most of the scholars point to the fact that Shakespeare was not the author of the plays, I would like to contradict this opinion and prove that Shakespeare’s […]
• Julius Caesar and Rome Julius also lost support from the Senate because he was perceived as a leader of the masses rather than the aristocrats. To some extent, Caesar was a statesman because he cared about the needs of […]
• Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare The thought provoking tales in the book is something that arouses one’s consciousness and broadens one’s imaginations on the event that led to Caesar’s death as it makes the ardent readers to have a kind […]
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Calpurnia: the Unseen Influence Behind Julius Caesar

This essay shines a spotlight on Calpurnia, the often overlooked yet intriguing wife of Julius Caesar, highlighting her subtle yet significant influence in the turbulent era of Ancient Rome. It portrays Calpurnia not just as a figure in the background but as an active participant in the political and personal life of Caesar, showcasing her role as a noblewoman, confidante, and advisor. The narrative delves into her insightful premonition of Caesar’s assassination and her entrusted role in managing his personal documents post-mortem, reflecting her intelligence and resilience. The piece eloquently argues that Calpurnia’s story is emblematic of the many unsung women in history, underscoring the importance of recognizing their contributions and narratives. Through Calpurnia’s lens, the essay invites readers to reconsider the silent yet impactful presences behind historical titans, portraying her life as a testament to understated elegance, wisdom, and strength in a male-dominated society. Moreover, at PapersOwl, there are additional free essay samples connected to Julius Caesar.

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When we traverse the annals of history, particularly the tumultuous times of Ancient Rome, the name Julius Caesar often takes center stage. However, lurking in the shadows of his grand narrative is a figure equally compelling but far less sung – Calpurnia, Caesar’s last wife. Calpurnia’s life is a tapestry of intrigue, power dynamics, and subtle influence, making her a fascinating character in her own right.

Calpurnia Pisonis, often merely a footnote in the extensive chronicles of her illustrious husband, was more than just a passive observer to the seismic events that shaped the Roman Empire.

She was a member of the Pisonis family, a noble lineage, though not as politically influential as the Julii. This background gave her a unique vantage point, situated at the nexus of privilege and power but without the overbearing scrutiny faced by the likes of Caesar.

Her marriage to Julius Caesar was not just a union of two people but a confluence of two potent forces. While Caesar was gallivanting across Europe, expanding the empire, and etching his name in the annals of history, Calpurnia was the steadying force back home. The dynamics of their relationship, though not elaborately documented, speak volumes through the few anecdotes that survive. One of the most telling is her premonition about Caesar’s assassination. The night before the Ides of March, she dreamt of her husband’s murder and pleaded with him not to go to the Senate. Caesar, for all his bravado and might, heeded her fears and almost avoided his fate, only to be persuaded at the last moment by Decimus Brutus.

This incident illuminates Calpurnia’s role – not just as a wife but as a confidante and advisor. Her insights and intuitions, although not always heeded, were a testament to her acumen and connection with Caesar. The fact that Caesar, a man not easily swayed by superstitions or fear, considered her warnings seriously, indicates the respect and importance she held in his life.

However, Calpurnia’s story doesn’t end with Caesar’s assassination. After his death, she remained a figure of significance, albeit in a more subdued manner. She was entrusted with Caesar’s personal papers and his will, a task that speaks volumes about the trust and respect he had for her intelligence and capabilities. Her life post-Caesar is shrouded in mystery, but her actions during and after his death suggest a woman of resilience and depth, navigating the treacherous waters of Roman politics with grace and strength.

Calpurnia’s narrative is a poignant reminder of the countless women in history whose stories remain untold or understated. Her life, intertwined with one of history’s most prominent figures, was not just a reflection of her times but also a testament to her individuality and influence. In a society where women were often relegated to the background, Calpurnia’s presence in Caesar’s life was a statement of her persona – subtle yet significant, gentle yet impactful.

In conclusion, while the grandiose deeds of Julius Caesar are celebrated and studied, it’s crucial to acknowledge and appreciate the silent, steadfast support and influence of figures like Calpurnia. Her story, though not as widely documented, is a compelling narrative of loyalty, insight, and quiet strength. As we delve into history, it’s essential to remember that behind every great man like Caesar, there’s not just a great woman, but a great story waiting to be told. Calpurnia, in all her understated elegance and wisdom, is indeed one such story, echoing through the ages, reminding us of the unseen and unsung influencers of history.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Julius Caesar — Characteristics of Julius Caesar

Characteristics of Julius Caesar

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Published: Mar 16, 2024

Words: 458 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

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Exceptional leadership, insatiable ambition, remarkable intelligence and adaptability, legacy and relevance.

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Opinion What it means when the mercenaries appear

Elliot Ackerman’s new novel is “ 2054 ,” written with retired Adm. James Stavridis. This piece is adapted from an essay in the spring 2024 issue of Liberties, a journal of culture and politics.

In the summer after the fall of Afghanistan , I received an invitation to speak at CIA headquarters. I used to work as a paramilitary officer at the agency, and a former colleague of mine attended the discussion. Afterward, we went back to his office to catch up over a drink. The two of us had once advised the CIA-backed Counterterrorism Pursuit Teams in Afghanistan. At their height, the CTPT forces numbered in the tens of thousands. During the fall of Kabul, they played an outsize role in bringing any semblance of order to the evacuation after the government and national army dissolved.

My friend reached behind his desk and pulled out two overhead surveillance photographs. When congressional leaders had asked about the CTPT’s performance vs. that of the Afghan National Army, the CIA had shown them these photographs. “That’s a photo of the last Afghan army flight out of Kandahar,” my friend explained about the image of panic and chaos. He then showed me the second image, taken a few hours later, also at Kandahar Airfield. In it, the C-17 transport plane is in the exact same position, except the soldiers loading into the back are in neat, disciplined rows. “This is a photo of the last CTPT flight out of Kandahar.”

The Afghan National Army, which had systemic issues with discipline and graft, was deeply dysfunctional, while the CTPT was as effective as many elite U.S. infantry units. Unlike the Afghan National Army, the CTPT reported not to the Afghan government but, rather, to the U.S. government through its CIA handlers. It was a private army.

The CTPT’s mission evolved from being a small counterterrorism force used to hunt down al-Qaeda to a counterinsurgency force used to capture and to kill the Taliban leadership, to, eventually, a border security force used to hold the country together, at least as long as it could.

Private armies have played a critical role in virtually all wars; the CIA-funded CTPT in Afghanistan and the Wagner Group in Ukraine are only the most recent examples. Broadly speaking, they serve two distinct purposes: They act as a force multiplier that expands the regular military’s capacity, and they create political deniability for both a domestic and an international audience. Private armies remain a tool used by democratic leaders and authoritarians alike. Mercenaries are as old as war itself.

In the game of empire, expansion fuels prosperity and war sustains expansion. Except war is a dirty business, one that citizens of most wealthy and prosperous nations would rather avoid. Yet someone has to fight these wars and, afterward, secure the peace. Whether it’s Pax Americana, Pax Britannica or Pax Romana, pax imperia isn’t really peace; it is the illusion of peace sustained by the effective outsourcing of war. This doesn’t impugn an imperial peace — I certainly would have preferred to live in Pax Romana as opposed to the medieval turbulence that followed — but, rather, shows how these periods of political and economic stability are sustained.

During the Roman Republic — before Pax Romana — conscription was conducted through a draft of male citizens, but this contract frayed and then tore apart under the burden of imperial expansion. In 49 B.C., one of Julius Caesar’s first decrees as dictator for life was the granting of Roman citizenship to those occupying the farthest reaches of the nascent empire. Changing the preconditions of citizenship altered the composition of the army, which had profound effects on Rome, the army being its most important institution. Service in the legions would increasingly fall to nonnative Romans who never saw Rome and never spoke Latin, and whose loyalty was often more to their native-Roman officers than to the abstraction of a Rome they barely knew.

This dissolution of Roman identity within the ranks proved fatal in the empire’s final years. The mercenaries who fueled its expansion became its undoing. This is not to say the outsourcing of military service away from Rome’s center was ineffective, even if it culminated in the dissolution of Rome itself. Indeed, few nations can boast a military that conquered and garrisoned an empire over a period of nearly 1,500 years. For this reason, it comes as no surprise that other empires appropriated many of the techniques Rome pioneered.

None more so than the British. Their empire connected their small island nation to a broader world, delivering it outsize wealth, influence and power. And the jewel in the crown of the British Empire was, of course, India. The imperial era was a period of significant reform and expansion for the British military, to include a rebalancing of the empire’s reliance on regular vs. private armies.

Like the Romans, the British increased their reliance on non-British soldiers as their empire expanded. Unlike the Romans, the British did not extend rights of citizenship to the diverse array of cadres that composed their forces; instead, they incorporated their imperial charges into the empire as subjects of the crown. The British East India Company fielded the largest of these private armies, which it paid for with company proceeds. Indian sepoys (a term, derived from Persian, for a native soldier serving under foreign orders) filled the ranks while native-British officers led them, but those officers held commissions inferior to those in the regular British army.

The mission of the East India Company’s army was, simply, to secure the interests of the company on the subcontinent. The governance of colonial India is a remarkable example not only of military privatization but also of the privatization of empire. Company rule extended until 1858, after those same sepoy regiments revolted in what became known as the Indian Mutiny.

The Indian Mutiny was the result of an accumulation of social and economic resentments, as opposed to a single cause. The fighting continued for a year, with garrisons of sepoys across the country killing British officers and their families. By the end of that year, the British had regrouped and, along with sepoys loyal to the East India Company, defeated the rebels. Still, the Indian Mutiny was a debacle for the empire. It caused British leaders to question the composition and quality of their military forces. Between 1868 and 1874, a series of reforms implemented by British Secretary of State for War Edward Cardwell would transform the British army from a force of gentleman-soldiers to a professional army with a robust reserve that could be mobilized in a time of war.

If the Indian Mutiny revealed the dangers of relying on private armies, it was the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, in which the precursors of the German Empire routed the Second French Empire, that proved the importance of having a military reserve that a nation could rapidly mobilize.

After the Napoleonic Wars, British soldiers served brutally long 20-year enlistments. Often, these soldiers would spend many of those years far from home in various colonies and, upon retirement, older and weakened by prolonged active service, they would be of little military use as reservists. This left Britain without a pool of soldiers to mobilize in wartime. The Cardwell Reforms shortened enlistments to as little as six years, allowing soldiers to return to civilian life but remain in the reserve at reduced pay. This new policy granted British leaders access to a large reserve army, should they need it.

Prior to the Cardwell Reforms, officers in the British army didn’t earn their commissions; they purchased them. Cumulatively, British families invested millions of pounds in the purchase of commissions. Those who could not afford them served as officers in colonial regiments, which held inferior standing within the army. By the time Cardwell began implementing his reforms, this had created a dysfunctional tiered system. The army was the opposite of a meritocracy. The resulting incompetence of the uniformed aristocrats, immortalized in Tennyson’s “ The Charge of the Light Brigade ,” was disastrously proved on the battlefields of the Crimean War. The era of the gentleman-soldier in the British army was coming to an end, as was a reliance on private armies such as those deployed by the East India Company.

An empire, once acquired, must be maintained. It requires the control of territory, and this requires — to use the distinctly American term — boots on the ground . A question naturally follows: Whose boots? The reforms that Julius Caesar made to Rome’s legions, along with the ones that Cardwell made to the British army, were efforts to answer that question.

After World War II, when the United States was called “to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle” against communism, as President John F. Kennedy put it in his inaugural address in 1961, the question of whose boots became foremost in the mind of U.S. military strategists. Each of the two superpowers had acquired an empire at the end of the war, and these empires needed to be garrisoned and defended against the other.

Kennedy framed the nature of that defense in a speech at West Point in 1962, in which he emphasized a new military challenge: “another type of warfare, new in its intensity, ancient in its origins — war by guerrillas, subversives, insurgents, assassins, war by ambush instead of by combat; by infiltration instead of aggression, seeking victory by eroding and exhausting the enemy instead of engaging him.” At the time Kennedy delivered this speech, he had already authorized a significant expansion of Special Operations forces within the U.S. military. In an official White House memorandum on guerrilla warfare in 1962, in which Kennedy would forever require members of the U.S. Army’s Special Forces to wear the green beret, he declared : “Pure military skill is not enough. A full spectrum of military, para-military, and civil action must be blended to produce success.” His commitment to unconventional warfare as a pillar of national defense was a strategic pivot as profound as those that took place in Britain and Rome.

This “other type of warfare” became a reality in Vietnam and a doctrine of American warfare into the next century. Strategic concepts such as “foreign internal defense” and “counterinsurgency strategy,” the latter first seen in the Philippines in the early 20th century and then further developed in Vietnam, appeared again in Iraq and Afghanistan. They rely on the U.S. military to train a partner force that eventually takes responsibility for the conduct of the war, requiring far fewer American “boots.”

This was the strategy of “Vietnamization,” which sought to bolster the South Vietnamese military. In Iraq, this was the “surge” and the “Sunni Awakening,” in which U.S. forces doubled down on training the Iraqi military while co-opting Sunni militias once loyal to al-Qaeda. In Afghanistan, it was a second surge and reinvestment in the Afghan National Army. What these examples all have in common is an American method of warfare that shifts the burden to an indigenous force, allowing American troops to withdraw. It also shifts the conditions of victory, which is less defined by conditions on the battlefield. Victory today is defined — this is an extraordinary development — by outsourcing the prosecution of a war and bringing our troops home.

In Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, this strategy yielded mixed results. Vietnam and Afghanistan were wars that America unequivocally lost. With Iraq, it is difficult to argue that the United States won, but it is equally difficult to say we lost. The Iraqi government that was created after the U.S. invasion endures, and the security services that the United States helped train have successfully carried the burden of their own security, in recent years defeating the Islamic State with little aid from American boots. When President Biden announced the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, he emphasized that “our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm’s way — U.S. boots on the ground. We have to change that thinking.”

The war in Ukraine began as a mercenary war. When Russia invaded Crimea in February 2014, the invading soldiers wore no Russian military insignia, causing many to refer to them as “little green men.” The explicit appearance of Russian soldiers would have cost Russian President Vladimir Putin more politically than he was willing to accept. In the eyes of the international community, as well as in the eyes of his citizens, there was value in deniability. Putin needed to launder his activities in Ukraine. Mercenary armies are very good at such laundering.

To lead this mercenary venture, Putin made an unlikely choice: Yevgeniy Prigozhin, a coarse former restaurateur known as “Putin’s Chef.” Backed by cadres of battle-tested field commanders, Prigozhin helped found the Wagner Group in 2014 and presided over its rapid expansion. Between 2014 and 2021, Wagner mercenaries delivered many thousands of Russian boots on the ground in places where no Russian boots should have been — Libya, Ukraine, Sudan, Mali, Venezuela, the Central African Republic and directly against American troops in Syria in February 2018. All this while the Kremlin denied Wagner’s involvement and, in some cases, its existence.

The Wagner Group was an effective military force that Putin could deploy anywhere in the world without political embarrassment. When Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Wagner Group contributed about 1,000 soldiers to the invasion, but it never assumed the lead. That job would fall to the regular Russian military, which hadn’t taken on an operation of this scope in more than a generation.

Only months into the war in Ukraine, however, the Russian military was in crisis. It was swiftly exposed as a mediocre and confused force, proving the dangers of might without competence. After sustaining heavy losses, Putin needed to replenish his ranks. But how could he sell the Russian people on a mobilization for a war that wasn’t even a war but, rather, “a special military operation”? There is no more dire threat to a political leader’s power than a failed war. So he enlarged his reliance on the Wagner Group, increasing its size and allowing its cadres to recruit in Russia’s prisons.

Like the Romans and the British, Putin would learn the dangers of vesting military power in private hands. Prigozhin began feuding with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and other senior commanders, characterizing them as incompetents. For his army of mercenaries, Prigozhin became a charismatic populist leader, airing their grievances against Russia’s military establishment. Prigozhin gave Russia a sorely needed military victory in the battle of Bakhmut, and no achievement vests a leader with political power more quickly than battlefield success. This is one of the great dangers of placing military power in the hands of private military leaders.

This was a lesson Putin learned early on the morning of June 24, 2023, when Prigozhin marched his Wagner Group soldiers off the battlefield and back into Russia.

Prigozhin’s mutiny (which might have turned into a coup) failed, with his cadres largely absorbed into the regular Russian army or banished to private wars in Africa, and with Prigozhin’s apparent assassination two months later. Yet the uprising serves as another example of the dangers that exist when a nation uses private armies. Sometimes the only thing more dangerous than a state’s monopoly of force is the lack of such a monopoly.

We should be extremely cautious of wars fought with this indirect approach, designed mainly to insulate a domestic constituency from the costs of war. Proxy wars have long been elements of strategy in great-power competition, but a war fought under our flag by mercenaries is different from a proxy war. A nation that requires private armies to sustain popular support for wars is likely fighting those wars for the wrong reasons. The “good wars” — wars that must be fought and are typically fought for the right reasons — seldom rely on private armies. Beware of the nation unwilling to do its own fighting.

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