Bonaparte asked if for that sum, the Tuileries could be converted into a suitable "palace for the government." The architect replied that the sum named would suffice not only to restore the Tuileries to their former condition, but to make them habitable.
A habitable palace, that was all Bonaparte wanted.

How should he, a Republican, need regal luxury?
The "palace of the government" ought to be severely plain, decorated with marbles and statues only.

But what ought those statues to be?
It was the First Consul's duty to select them.
Accordingly, Bonaparte chose them from the three great ages and the three great nations: from the Greeks, from the Romans, from France and her rivals.

From the Greeks he chose Alexander and Demosthenes; the genius of conquest and the genius of eloquence.

From the Romans he chose Scipio, Cicero, Cato, Brutus and Caesar, placing the great victim side by side with the murderer, as great almost as himself.