Reactions to it were filtered through discourses of nationalism, from America to Germany. It was designed to validate – to audiences around the world – Napoleon’s personal power, his imperial system, and his ambitions for France.
Napoleon’s Caesar attracted notice not so much as a narrative of the ancient past, but as a heavily symbolic statement of national and imperial intent. The book was a sweeping appropriation of the legacy of Caesar, who was conscripted in Napoleon III’s battle to rebuild the glory of France. In 1865, Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, published his History of Julius Caesar.
