By all accounts, Napoleon regarded the Robespierre brothers very highly. He was somewhat well-acquainted with Augustin, younger brother to Maximilien, whom he met through another mutual acquaintance - a fellow Corsican named Antoine Christophe Saliceti. Napoleon and Augustin met each other at Toulon, during that fateful siege in which Napoleon would show himself to be a highly capable commander. Augustin wrote to his brother, “I would add to the list of patriots the name of citizen Buonaparte, general in chief of the artillery, an officer of transcendent merit. He is a man who resisted Paoli’s caresses, and who [as a result] saw his property ravaged by this traitor.” Being praised with such a strong language marked Napoleon early on, even more-so than the better-known Lazare Hoche, or one of his most capable marshals in later years, André Masséna. Napoleon for the first few years of the Revolution was a dedicated Jacobin and a strong admirer of the elder Robespierre. During a famous dinner in February 1797 at Ancona in which Napoleon was in attendance, he eulogized Robespierre as “this man who was superior to all around him,” and “the creator of the only strong government France has had since the start of the Revolution!” He would often strongly criticize the Directory that followed Robespierre’s rule in such a vein. He never met Maximilien. On 9th Thermidor Year II (July 27, 1794), Robespierre and a few associates within the Committee of Public Safety, as well as other supporters from the Paris Commune, fell from power and were guillotined the next day. Soon after, Napoleon, having had the now unfortunate association with Augustin, was arrested for suspicion of treason, no doubt through the contrivance of Saliceti to save his own neck. He was released due to lack of evidence, but the event simply immortalized Robespierre for Napoleon. He never truly abandoned his own “jacobinism” and would at times display the same ruthless vengeance that Robespierre was once capable of. This was markedly true during the Iberian war, in which jacobin ideology played a large part in Napoleon’s geo-strategic thinking, especially as regards the Spanish Bourbons and the Catholic clergy that led the resistance against him. Little could be doubted of the sincerity of this admiration, for he carried it on for much of the rest of his life, even up to his exile at St. Helena. He would often ruminate about them and urge his listeners not to judge so easily “a character who belongs to the domain of history. Despite what is commonly said against them, they are singular, and do not have despicable characters. Few men have left the mark that they have.” 據(jù)稱，拿破侖非常高度評(píng)價(jià)羅伯斯庇爾兄弟。他與馬克西米連的弟弟奧古斯丁相當(dāng)熟悉，這是通過另一位共同的熟人──一位叫安托萬·克里斯托夫·薩利塞蒂的科西嘉人介紹的。拿破侖和奧古斯丁在圖盧恩相遇，在那場命運(yùn)攸關(guān)的圍城戰(zhàn)中，拿破侖展現(xiàn)了他作為一名極有能力的指揮官。奧古斯丁曾寫信給他的兄弟，「我會(huì)把公民布納帕爾特這位榮譽(yù)市民的名字添加到愛國者的名單中，他是大炮兵的總司令，一位有卓越功績的軍官。他是一個(gè)抵抗了保利的人，并且由于這個(gè)原因，他的財(cái)產(chǎn)被這個(gè)叛徒洗劫一空?！? 被如此強(qiáng)烈的言辭贊揚(yáng)在早期就為拿破侖留下了印記，甚至比較知名的拉扎爾·奧什等人，或是他晚年最有能力的元帥之一安德烈·馬塞納-馬恩省還要更多。 在早期，拿破侖受到如此強(qiáng)烈的言詞贊揚(yáng)，這使他在革命初期的幾年中留下了深刻的印記，甚至比較知名的拉札爾·奧什或是他晚年最有能力的元帥之一安德烈·馬塞納-馬恩省還要更多。 革命初期的頭幾年，拿破侖是一名忠實(shí)的雅各布賓派支持者，也是年長的羅伯斯庇爾的堅(jiān)定崇拜者。在1797年2月的一次著名晚宴上，拿破侖也在場，他對(duì)羅伯斯庇爾進(jìn)行了頌詞，稱他為「這位在眾人之上的人」，并且是「自從革命開始以來，法國唯一擁有的堅(jiān)強(qiáng)政府的創(chuàng)造者！」他經(jīng)常以這種方式強(qiáng)烈批評(píng)繼羅伯斯庇爾統(tǒng)治之后的政府機(jī)構(gòu)──執(zhí)政五人會(huì)。 他從未見過馬克西米連。在熱月九日（1794年7月27日），羅伯斯庇爾和公共安全委員會(huì)內(nèi)的幾名同事，以及巴黎公社的其他支持者，失去了權(quán)力，并在第二天被斬首處決。不久之后，拿破侖因?yàn)榕c奧古斯丁的不幸聯(lián)系，被以嫌疑叛國的罪名逮捕，無疑是薩利塞蒂為了保住自己的脖子而搞的陰謀。由于缺乏證據(jù)，他被釋放了，但這件事只是使羅伯斯庇爾在拿破侖心中永垂不朽。他從未真正放棄他自己的「雅各賓派」立場，有時(shí)會(huì)展示出與羅伯斯庇爾曾經(jīng)表現(xiàn)出來的同樣無情的報(bào)復(fù)心。這在伊比利亞戰(zhàn)爭期間表現(xiàn)得尤為明顯，雅各賓派的意識(shí)形態(tài)在拿破侖的地緣戰(zhàn)略思維中扮演了重要角色，尤其是涉及對(duì)抗西班牙波旁家族和領(lǐng)導(dǎo)抵抗他的天主教神職人員的問題上。 這份欽佩的誠意幾乎不容懷疑，因?yàn)樗恢背掷m(xù)著，甚至一直延續(xù)到他在圣赫勒拿的流亡生活。他經(jīng)常沉思他們，并敦促他的聽眾不要輕易判斷「一個(gè)屬于歷史領(lǐng)域的角色」。盡管有關(guān)他們的言論常常被指責(zé)，但他們是舉足輕重的，并且并非卑劣的人物。很少有人能夠留下他們所留下的印記。