Posted on 05/18/2021 5:41:25 AM PDT by LuciusDomitiusAutelian
On the next day, envoys from Alesia informed Caesar that Vercingetorix had convened the Gallic leaders so that they could decide how to proceed, whether they wished to execute or surrender him. Caesar demanded that they lay down their arms. The chieftains met him at the front of his camp, surrendered their weapons, and delivered Vercingetorix unto him. Having captured Alesia, Caesar gave one captive to each of his surviving soldiers as a reward.
(Excerpt) Read more at britannica.com ...
Another example of the staggering human cost of Caesar's conquest of Gaul. Also, the entire civilian population of Alesia perished during the siege. A year earlier he wiped out most of population of Belgium.
There's a reason the Romans didn't take reprisals after the siege. Much of the population of Gaul had perished in the last 10 years. There simply wouldn't have been anyone left to pay taxes or provide auxiliaries to the Roman Army.
The unsung heroes in Caesar’s Gallic campaigns were the Roman engineers. They designed and constructed the siege lines, built the assault engines and even determined the source of the mountain springs that supplied water to the Gallic fortresses. They actually diverted the springs and by the time of the definitive battles, the Gauls were dry and thirsty. Without competent combat engineers a huge army is not effective and very vulnerable.
And, more broadly, the Roman army had the organization, logistics, training, weapons, and discipline to carry out Caesar’s extraordinary plan for double seige lines. The Gauls must have been astonished to see what the Romans were up to.
When the Gauls later revolted, the Treveri joined the revolt and promised the cohorts safe passage. They then ambushed them, but the Romans relinked and maintained formation, fighting until dusk. Both sides suffered heavy losses.
The surviving Romans fought their way back to the camp, but realized they now had too few men left to defend it. So they drew lots and killed themselves during the night rather than surrender.
When the Treveri went to the camp in the morning and saw this, they concluded it would be insane to keep fighting men like this and sent emissaries to Caesar asking for forgiveness and pldging loyalty to Rome.
Yes, the engineering genius of the Roman’s was a large part of their success from the Punic wars on. The legions at this point, had undergone the Marian reforms, and were professional soldiers as well as engineers. They spent more time building palisades and ditches and marching than they did actually fighting. The fortifications built for this battle were as quick as the Army Corps of Engineers could do it imho. And one of the greatest ad hoc defenses ever built in world history.
The attention to detail it must have taken for Caesar to have integrated properly the inner and outer siegeworks, and then to have managed the placement and movement of troops within those walls, is just remarkable. A huge testament to the organizational and logistical skills of the legion system.
True, but a large number of Gauls were already serfs of their own nobility, whose status was scarcely better than that of Roman slaves.
Great context. Also, preceding this battle Caesar suffered one of his few nearly disastrous losses at Gergovia. Most of what we know comes from his Gallic Commentaries but there seems to be enough evidence to corroborate most of it.
Agreed. The Gauls had breached the outer wall at one point. He sent his right-hand-man Marc Antony to secure it and then went himself. If the Gauls had breached the outer wall it would have been his last battle and a massacre of his legions. Probably altering the course of Western Civ
You only need one volume, The Commentarii de Bello Gallico, preferably in Latin.
That is all you need if you want Gaius’ version. GJC was not only a master of war and strategy, he was the greatest PR publicist of the time.
My sophomore Latin teacher at Xavier HS always referred to Gaius,never Julius.
“Truly a tactical masterpiece. “
And engineering masterpiece.
60,000 men with shovels, saws and axes. 60 days.
Your Latin teacher was a good teacher. Praenomen (Gaius) is what we would call our first name. To understand Roman names you must understand the Praenomen.
My favorite was the loser Commodus; Lucius Aelius Aurelius Commodus Augustus Herculeus Romanus Exsuperatorius Amazonius Invictus Felix Pius
As much as Marius was responsible for the end of The Roman Republic. I give him credit where credit was due. He turned the Legions from landed aristocracy that had slaves carry their equipment into battle creating a logistics nightmare into a conscript army that carried their own equipment and were trained as much in fortification as they were in how to use the gladius. Marius’ Mules they were mockingly referred to as.
As a a brilliant general once said; “Novices discuss tactics, Veterans discuss logistics”.
Spent a decent amount of time in Italy, 2000+ year old structures still standing. Indoor plumbing. Heated floors. Heated baths (baths were a big big part of Roman life across the social strata). Fresh water from the alps. Truly masters of engineering. The Pantheon.
Then it all fell into disrepair. Take a 60 minute train ride north to Firenze (Florence) and see The Duomo. You can’t help but ask yourself how folks from 1500 years earlier built more impressive structures and engineering feats.
The Jesuits ha an excellent four year plan. 9th grade was grammar, declensions, conjugations, sentence formation and structure, and vocabulary. 10th grade was Caesar. He wrote in a strict grammatical style. So he came easily. 10th was Cicero’s First Oration . Written for the ear as much as the eye. Using stylistic language and metaphor. Required deeper reading and reader understanding. Finally there was Vergil and The Aeneid. Combining the styles exemplified by Caesar and Cicero and adding the intricacies of epic poetry. It taught us more than Latin. It was the basis for our studies. Acquire skills and knowledge and use them to gradually encounter, overcome, and understand more intricate objectives.
“As much as Marius was responsible for the end of The Roman Republic”
I hold a contrary view.
I believe the source of republican collapse was ochlocracy.
The democratic elements of the republican government devolved into corrupt panderers. Then they made their great error, which was to provoke the greatest general in history and allowed him to hang that corruption around their necks when he was made dictator for life.
The Roman senate of 100BC looks just like the US senate of 2000AD.
The only question is who will be Julius?
Wow, you had a great high school education. Can’t say the same here. This should be required as well as rhetoric and logic by the 12th grade. Self-taught but have worked with some of the top minds in the fields of “classics”. Now, you will get the 1619 project and if you happen to be white in color, you will be taught how you are the sources of all the world’s problems. I knew I would find very educated people here.
[”I hold a contrary view.
I believe the source of republican collapse was ochlocracy.
The democratic elements of the republican government devolved into corrupt panderers. Then they made their great error, which was to provoke the greatest general in history and allowed him to hang that corruption around their necks when he was made dictator for life.”]
This would make for a great academic debate/inquiry. I do agree with you about the Corruption among the Patricians/Senate. But Marius’ seven Consulships (six of which were illegal the best we can tell) broke the Republic and set the stage for men like Sulla, Cinna and on to the man who crossed the line when being declared Dictator for Life, GJC. Or arguably Augustus (Octavian) was the one who sealed the Republic’s fate. He put on a great show of respecting the Senate but his successor (Tiberius)pretty much ditched Rome and lived a depraved life and disregarded the Senate on Capris. Too bad Drusus died. And Germanicus was murdered (so we think). Rome got Caligula, who was obviously insane, and enduring his entire family being murdered, and living for years on Capris with Tiberius who is responsible for his family’s genocide, it is no wonder he was mad.
Some even argue that you can go back to Scipio the Younger (Africanus) as the beginning of the Cult of Personality in the Republic. Debatable. Humanity seems to have a propensity to want a single ruler (They asked George Washington to be king after throwing off the yoke of the Tyrant King George).
IMHO, there are parallels between the Roman Republic and our Republic but they aren’t necessarily on the same timeline.
I would argue that after WW2 the amount of authority placed in the Executive Branch due to nuclear weapons, made us an Empire. While not illegal FDR and his 16 years as POTUS is quite similar. And the 14th Amendment ended the American Republic. If we last anywhere near as long as Rome, I expect a Tiberius and a Caligula pretty soon.
And Obama broke the seal on executive orders which completely bypass the Senate. And it starts a chain reaction, Trump reversed Obama’s EOs and now the Usurper (regent for Kenyan) is reversing Trump’s reversals. It will only get worse if we last through the Usurper.
Very fair point, and Marius was a great man and general till his hubris and self-centered glory hogging forced Sulla to come back and put an end to him. While Sulla has a bad reputation I put him in the same class as Cincinatus. Marius was interested on glory on a personal level while Sulla was simply putting the old wretched Marius who didn’t mind spilling his own countrymen’s blood to satisfy the Oracle’s prediction of seven consulships (not the young great general) to bed.
Very deep subject and one to keep Roman history nerds debating for centuries to come. I don’t think we entirely disagree.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.