Julius Caesar - Gallic Wars

Gaius Julius Caesar was born into a patrician family of the Roman aristocracy. He was born on July 13, 100 BC and died on March 15, 44 when he was famously assassinated in the Roman Senate on the Ides of March. He is universally respected as one of the most brilliant and successful military leaders in history. In a gift to readers of history, Caesar was also a highly trained speaker and writer. As an orator, the great general was perhaps second only to Rome’s greatest, Cicero, who praised Caesar’s writing: “The Commentaries really must be thought excellent. For they are naked and lovely, with every oratorical element stripped away like clothing…. In history nothing is sweeter than pure and clear brevity.”

The Corpus Caesarianum that has come down to us from antiquity comprises 14 books. Caesar himself wrote 7 of the 8 books of the Gallic Wars, and the three books of the Civil Wars. His general Hirtius wrote the eighth book of the wars in Gaul, and the authors of the remaining three books are unknown but were certainly part of Caesar’s military staff with the firsthand experience to write the Alexandrian War, African War and Spanish War. The veracity of the account of the events in these books is undoubted because we have multiple other original sources to verify the accuracy. While we have little extant parallel reporting for the work of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon or Arrian, we have a wealth of corroboration for Caesar’s work from ancient historians Appian, Cassius Dio, Plutarch, Sallust, and Suetonius (who we cover in later chapters of this book).

As modern readers, we should not underestimate the shared communication of news, politics, and sentiments across vast distances in the ancient world. While it required people to travel by land and sea to carry the information, there was no shortage of messengers, ambassadors and troops of various ranks travelling back and forth from Rome to the fronts as campaigns ranged across the continent. But it is remarkable that Caesar himself, who had such an influential role in important decisions, governmental authority and ultimately rule in Rome, was rarely in the capital. From the time he left for Gaul in Spring of 58, until September, 45 when he returned from the last of the civil war battles in Spain, he spent only about six months in Rome.

Roman provincial and military leaders were required to submit reports on the status or their accomplishments and responsibilities, including the costs and results of military campaigns. As the provincial commander and general of the army, Caesar authored these books as Commentaries on the war. A striking feature of this form of writing is that he depicts himself in the third person, he is always “Caesar,” the pivotal character in these histories. But beyond required, official reporting, Caesar used his exceptional talents to create very persuasive renditions of not only the campaigns, conditions, and enemies he was facing, but also a high-minded depiction of the morality and virtue his efforts embodied. It is tempting to consider this type of writing as propaganda, but as we read his judgements and ethical concerns, we are left with no doubt that he consciously, deliberately lived his life as a truly great and noble Roman.

                The Landmark Julius Caesar is the focus of this chapter, it includes the complete works of 14 books included in the war histories of the Caesar corpus, with a new translation and edited by Kurt A. Raaflaub and with Robert B. Strassler as series editor, both men hold the 2017 copyright. This first edition is published by Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House. This lavish publication follows the rich content tradition of the Landmark Series, with extensive footnotes that appear on the reference pages for ease of use, a very helpful introduction to help the reader best understand the material, excellent maps and extremely informative battle diagrams to illustrate complex engagements such as the siege of Alesia and the culminating confrontation at Pharsalus. Back matter includes a total of 47 appendices, 43 of which appear on a dedicated web site at www.landmarkcaesar.com. The entire package delivers a rewarding education for the reader interested in the wars of Julius Caesar.

                Because Caesar was such an accomplished writer, with a clear, descriptive approach and an elevated, path-breaking Latin prose style, his Gallic Wars is often the first text a young student encounters when studying the language and culture. My freshman year high school Latin textbook begins:

Gallia es omnis divisa in partes tres

Unam partem incolunt Belgae.

Aquitani aliam partem et Galli tertiam incolunt.

Balli se Celtas appellant.

Romani autem eos Gallos appellant.

Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt.

                Reviewing the original Latin, we see what a pleasure it is to enjoy the flowing, modern English of Kurt Raaflaub’s translation:

Gaul, if you take all of it into account, is divided into three regions. The Belgae live in one, the Aquitani in the second, and in the third a people called Celts in their own language but Gauls in ours. These three people are all different from one another in their languages, institutions and laws.

                A large relief map traces Caesar’s path as he invades Gaul, marches north, and conducts his first four major battles in the fighting season starting in Spring 58. On today’s map, Roman Gaul covers most of France, the Low Countries, Switzerland, and parts of Germany Caesar also crossed the Channel twice to invade Britain during this period. Modern day Provence, in southern France, is referred to in these books as the Province, and had been settled by Romans over sixty years earlier, which includes the ancient Greater Greece colony of Massilia (Marseille). The area called Cisalpine Gaul is northern Italy, or Gaul on our side of the Alps. Transalpine Gaul includes the Province and northwards. The eight years of war in Gaul was deadly for the enemies of Rome, Plutarch in his Life of Pompey states one million killed and one million enslaved. Pliny cites an even higher toll of 1,192,000 killed.

                During the third year of the war, in Summer of 56, Caesar was carrying his campaign to the Veneti on the Atlantic coast of Brittany. This series of battles displays the vast engineering flexibility of the Roman troops as Caesar puts them to the task of rapidly building a fleet of warships. The landscape in this area presents very difficult issues for traditional land-based assaults and sieges because the fortified towns are built on the ends of peninsulas, and when the Romans manage to overwhelm the defenses, vast numbers of boats are used to evacuate the population and move them to another, similarly defended town on the coast. The ocean here features huge tides, and the ports are rare, and the Roman fleets built for the inland sea of the Mediterranean are sorely challenged by the violent storms on the Atlantic Ocean. The opponents’ ships are built for these conditions, as Caesar explains at 3.13.

Their keels were somewhat flatter than those of our ships, in order to navigate the shallows and the ebbing of the tide more easily. Their prows were quite high, and the sterns were likewise shaped to handle the huge waves and the storms. The ships were made entirely of oak, so that they could withstand any blows, however violent. The hull braces were made of beams a foot thick and held in place with iron nails as broad as a man’s thumb. … In encounters between ships of this kind and our own fleet, ours proved superior only in speed and the force of rowing, the enemy ships were better adapted and more suitable in every other respect. Our ships could not damage them with rams – such was the strength of the hulls – and because of the ships’ height, it was difficult to launch weapons onto the decks; for the same reason, it was not easy to seize the ships with grappling hooks.

                While it was common for Roman ships to use towers built on the decks to attack from a raised platform above enemy ships, in this case the barbarian ships were too tall for this type of attack. But because the Veneti ships were completely driven by sail, the Romans devised a simple, but effective solution. The attached sharpened hooks to long poles. They used these hooks to grab the lines attaching the sail-directing yardarms to the mast and rowed along until these lines were severed.

When these ropes were cut, the yardarms, of course, dropped … the ships … were at once rendered completely useless. The rest of the battle depended on courage, in which our soldiers were easily superior – and this all the more because the action took place in full view of Caesar and the whole army, so that it was impossible to overlook any deed that ever so slightly excelled beyond the others.

                This scene of Caesar and the army watching the naval battle from nearby hills is strikingly reminiscent of the scene Herodotus paints of Xerxes witnessing the defeat of his Persian fleet at the hands of the Greeks at Salamis in 480. As modern readers we can enjoy this as an insight on the author Caesar’s education in war history from the 5th century, and we can doubly enjoy our own understanding we have gained by reading the classics.

                As this technique of disabling and boarding ships generates ship-by-ship victories for the Romans, the Veneti become aware of what is happening and decide to flee. Normally their powerful sails would carry their heavy ships downwind faster than the Romans could pursue them, but on this day Caesar’s luck is against them, as he explains at 3.15 and 3.16.

They had just turned their ships downwind when suddenly such a lull and complete calm arose that they could not move from the spot. … This engagement decisively ended the war with the Veneti and peoples of the whole seacoast.

                Caesar sometimes chose to use the army’s highly advanced engineering skills as a method to demonstrate Roman superiority, as evidence of their invincible power. In July 56, in the Fourth Year of the war, he decides to take his army across the Rhine, not on boats, but by building a new bridge. The footnote at 4.17b describes the likely location of the bridge and notes: “The Rhine is more than 1300 feet wide and on average 10 feet deep.” At 4.17, Caesar reflects on his reasoning and methods his army used to build this very impressive bridge, then wraps up the success at 4.18.

Going over in boats would neither be sufficiently safe nor reflect properly his own stature and prestige and those of the Roman people. Therefore, although he was very much aware of the extreme difficulty of building a bridge in a river with the width, rapid current, and depth of the Rhine, he still thought he should make the effort or otherwise not lead his army across at all.

In ten days, counting from the time when the wood began to be hauled in, the entire project was completed. The army was led across. … The Sugambri had been preparing to flee from the time the construction of the bridge began. By now, they had left their territory, taking all their possessions with them, and were hiding in uninhabited areas and forests.

                In November 54, in the Fifth Year of the war, Quintus Tullius Cicero (brother of Marcus Cicero, the famous orator and Consul) is Caesar’s legate in charge of a winter camp in the territory of the powerful Nervii tribe, who have been joined by the Eburones and Atuatuci to form a large force besieging the Romans. Caesar uses the example of their resistance to illustrate Roman ideals of courage and unfailing dedication to Rome. The Nervii, taking advantage of their military superiority, sent messengers to Cicero telling him to break up his camp and leave their territory. They said this was not because they were not well disposed to Cicero or the Romans, they “only refused to accept the establishment of winter quarters in their territory: they did not wish this to become a regular habit.” At 5.41, Caesar provides the classic response.

Cicero had only one answer to these arguments: it was not the custom of the Roman people to accept terms from an enemy who bore arms.

                By the seventh day of the siege, the Romans are in a desperate situation. Under heavy winds, the enemy launches incendiaries in the form of “slingshot made of red-hot clay along with flaming spears.” With the camp blazing, the enemy raise ladders to climb the ramparts. Caesar writes this glowing tribute to fearless heroism at 5.43.

But the courage and determination of the defenders were supreme: even when they were seared by flames on all sides and pressured by an enormous number of missiles, and although they realized all their equipment – including their personal possessions – was ablaze, no one stepped down from the rampart to leave the fight, and hardly anyone even turned his head. Precisely because the danger was so serious, everyone fought most fiercely and bravely.

                When messages reach Caesar, he gathers the small force of about 7,000 men he has available to march to rescue the besieged camp of Cicero. The enemy upon learning that the Romans are coming turn their full force of 60,000 to go and confront the new threat. As happens many times in the Gallic Wars, Caesar’s superior planning and tactics lure the larger number of attackers into unfavorable terrain where the Roman organization and fighting skills enable them to achieve a “rout that was so complete that not a single soldier stood his ground to fight. Caesar’s men killed a great number of them and stripped them all of their weapons.” Upon reaching the formerly besieged camp, we are again impressed with the peril faced and the courage of the defenders at 5.52. After stating astonishment at the towers and fortifications the enemy had built, Caesar memorializes and rewards the valor of men in battle, including not only the commanders but the centurions and military tribunes. In many other instances, he offers praise for individual soldiers, so important he felt it was to recognize brave performance in combat.

When the legion was brought out for inspection, he found that not one man in ten was without a wound. All these circumstances allowed him to judge how great the peril had been there and what great courage had been displayed in defending the camp. He offered Cicero the praise he deserved for his achievement and did likewise to the legion.

                Another feature that informs us that Caesar was not merely writing Commentaria as required by generals reporting to the Senate, he offers digressions into the cultures of the local people. From 6.13 through 6.16, in the Sixth Year of the war, he discusses the native religion.

The druidic system of learning is thought to have been developed in Britain and then brought over to Gaul, and even at present those who wish to become more expert in it through close study usually travel to Britain for instruction.

The druids usually do not participate in war, and they do not pay taxes along with the other people.

As a whole, the Gallic peoples are quite involved in religious matters and superstition. For this reason, those who are suffering from more serious diseases and are frequently exposed to battle … offer human sacrifices…. They employ druids to carry out these sacrifices, based on the belief that the spirits of the immortal gods cannot be placated unless one human life is given for another.

                In the Seventh Year of the war, in early 52, we are introduced to Vercingetorix who will unite the tribes and lead a huge rebellion to throw off the Roman rule that Caesar had established over so many of the peoples of Gaul in the previous six years. One of the greatest rebels of history enters at 7.54.

Vercingetorix, the son of Celtillus … was a young and very powerful Avernian whose father had held the leadership of Gaul and had been put to death by his nation for seeking the kingship. His son now called his family’s clients together and easily aroused them. … His followers then proclaimed Vercingetorix king.

                The massive army created by the new Gallic leader is very formidable not only in size, but in training and tactics. Vercingetorix emphasizes building a dominant cavalry component, and he convinces the other tribes to employ the most exceptional measures, including a scorched earth strategy to burn all the towns within reach of Caesar’s men, thus depriving them of sustenance to drive them out of rebel territory. Many hard-fought battles are brilliantly portrayed throughout Book 7, including heroic leadership by Caesar’s general Labienus who will play a large role at many key points in the Civil Wars when he switches his allegiance to Pompey. While being desperately tested and suffering grievous losses, the Romans carry the battle to their enemies with indomitable intensity. Caesar recruits fearsome German cavalry to expand his forces.

In September of 52, after six months of constant war, under Caesar’s leadership, the Romans rout Vercingetorix’ cavalry. Since this is his primary fighting force, he has to retreat to the town of Alesia, setting up the most memorable siege of all of Caesar’s Gallic Wars. At 7.69 Caesar describes the scene of the town of Alesia and the amazing Roman siegeworks, all built by the fighting men themselves, there were no separate engineering battalions in the legions.

The town of Alesia stood high up on top of a hill in a rather lofty position, and it looked as if it could not be taken except by siege. … The circuit of the siege works the Romans were beginning to build was ten miles long. Camps were placed at suitable spots, and along the same line twenty-three forts were built.

                These enormous fortifications surrounding a besieged town are called a circumvallation, they are intended to trap the enemy and prevent them not only from escaping but also to prevent any resupply of food, weapons, livestock, or reinforcements. But the location of Alesia is surrounded by vast expanses of Gaul on all sides, and previously subdued tribes who had been aligned with Rome were now changing alliances. At 7.76, Caesar informs us that even Commius, who had fought with Caesar in Britain and been rewarded for his work by relief from taxes and restored legal and administrative independence. Even allies like this are joining Vercingetorix’ rebellion.

But there was in all of Gaul such a powerful and unanimous desire to restore liberty and recover their old-time martial glory that people were moved neither by favors they had received nor by the memory of friendship. Instead they threw themselves into this war with all their passion and resources. Eight thousand horsemen and around 250,000 infantry were assembled….

                Now Caesar’s forces manning those ten miles of walls and twenty-three forts that comprise the circumvallation around the town of Alesia are threatened by a new, enormous army attacking them outside these walls. Vercingetorix still has a strong military force within the town, so the Romans are faced with attack on two sides at once, both surrounded by and surrounding powerful enemy infantry and cavalry. This requires yet another, even greater military engineering enterprise, which is comprehensively illustrated in Diagram 7.76. This lavish graphic serves as the opening battle diagram, while presenting the terrain, rivers, position of the walls and movement of the attacking Gallic forces. This new defensive wall is called a contravallation, designed to protect the besieging forces from attack from outside.

                This outside perimeter was fourteen miles long, but it was not just a simple wall, it was layered in many devious and deadly obstructions. These included five-foot-deep ditches filled with hidden, sharpened stakes. “The soldiers called these ‘grave markers’.” In front of these, eight rows of three-foot-deep pits were filled with upright stakes hidden in twigs and branches. These deadly constructions served the role that modern day minefields serve in today’s wars, not only destroying the unwary attackers who stumble upon them but funneling following attackers into killing fields. The Romans are armed not only with spears, bows, and swords, but they are further equipped with the equivalent of artillery in the form of slings and stone-throwers to launch murderous lead bullets, sharpened stakes, and one-pounder stones.

                Section 7.80 through 7.88 provides vivid battle writing describing the courageous Gauls attacking the resolute, indefatigable Roman legions. Many cavalry and infantry engagements ensue until Roman engineering superiority, fighting tactics and superior planning and leadership lead to victory. In the end, Vercingetorix surrenders and his troops throw down their arms. History, but not Caesar of course in this Commentari, tells us the great rebel king is taken to Rome in chains, where he will be kept a prisoner for six years until he is displayed in one of four of Caesar’s consecutive triumphs, and then in Roman tradition, executed.

                Caesar ends Book 7 with the notice that he “put aside the captives from among the Aedui and Arverni, hoping to use them to restore close ties with these nations; but the rest of the captives he distributed to his army as plunder, one for each soldier.” After explaining the arrangements for his troops’ winter quarters in Gaul, he closes out December, 52, the Seventh Year of the war at 7.90.

A public thanksgiving of twenty days was decreed at Rome after the facts of that year’s campaign were made known there.

                The Eighth Book of the Gallic Wars was written by Caesar’s general Hirtius, who starts out his book with a few paragraphs of complaining about how unworthy and unwilling he was to take on this work. Then he explains his reticence.

Of course, you and I are even more impressed with Caesar’s achievement than the other readers are, for they can admire how well, how perfectly he wrote, but we also know how easily and quickly he finished these works. Indeed, Caesar commanded not only the greatest facility and the most tasteful style in writing but an absolutely unerring skill in explaining his plans and decisions.

                In Book 8, Hirtius dutifully reports the final operations, but early on at 8.1, he lets us know where the Gallic Wars stand upon Caesar finishing Book 7: “All of Gaul had now been conquered.”