The new government that was established called for power to be shared by three consuls. You already see a kind of terminology that’s not harkening back to the revolution, nor even to the old regime, but consuls harkening back to the Roman Empire. Power was to be shared by a triumvirate, and Napoleon was to be first consul, primus inter pares, first among equals.
Two things were already very clear about him at this point. One was his enormous ambition, and the other was his great charisma. One had seen this in his dealings with the troops—his troops in northern Italy, his troops in Egypt—and also, all sorts of contemporary evidence suggests that in dealing with people individually he exerted an enormous amount of charm, power, and charisma. It was hardly a mystery that he would very quickly outmanoeuvre his two partners in this triumvirate, as well as the legislative bodies of the regime.
