Caesar’s Gaul

Ebook "The Gallic Wars"

Dear Classical Wisdom Members, 

This week we do not come to bury Caesar... after all he died 2068 years ago this Friday. It would be weird if he was not already interred... 

Nor do we necessarily come to praise him either. A complicated man, to say the least, his list of noteworthy deeds are astonishing, and not all astonishingly good. 

Sure, he crossed the Rubicon, was the lover of Cleopatra, changed the calendar to 365 days, defeated Pompey, was captured by pirates, smashed the ancient Republic, and of course was stabbed 23 times… 

He also led a violent and bloody 8 year campaign against the Gauls. Portrayed at the time as a ‘pre-emptive’ and ‘defensive’ action, this war greatly expanded the Roman Republic, secured its borders and boosted Caesar’s political career extraordinarily.

It also, according to Plutarch, resulted in the death of one million Gauls and another million enslaved. 

Indeed, the Gallic wars were instrumental in Caesar's ability to win the Civil War, make himself dictator, end the Roman Republic and establish the Roman Empire.

So yeah, you could say the Gallic Wars were pretty important. 

The crazy thing is... our very best source of information on this war comes from the very man who led it. And while ironically Caesar succeeded in conquering the Gallic peoples, he also successfully preserved some of their history by recording for prosperity. 

Vercingetorix Throws Down His Arms at the Feet of Julius Caesar, 1899, by Lionel Noel Royer

It is through the eyes and words of one of Rome’s most famous figures that we can learn about some of the most unknown peoples. Caesar’s history gives us invaluable insight into Rome’s relationship with the ‘barbarian’ hordes beyond the Alps, including the mystical and mysterious shamans of northern Europe, the Druids.

Classical Wisdom Members, you can discover both the man who changed history… and the history he changed with our Ebook, Caesar’s The Gallic Wars, below. 

And to get you started, please enjoy a fantastic article on The Gallic Wars. Why did Caesar write this history? How does he describe the Gauls and the mysterious Druids? And how much of it can we actually believe? 

Read on and let us know in the comments what you think! 

All the best,
Anya Leonard
Founder and Director

Classical Wisdom

P.S. If you are not a member yet, this is the time to join!

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Caesar’s Gaul

By Benjamin Welton

When it comes to Julius Caesar’s accounts of the Gallic wars, it’s clear to see that propaganda was his chief concern. Of course, he claims to have recorded his conquest for the purposes of posterity, namely that his notes would be the source material for a later, more qualified Roman historian. But despite his main motivations, his accounts have, in fact, become one of our most important resources regarding a mysterious peoples.

The Dying Gaul, or the Dying Galatian, an ancient Roman depiction of a defeated Celtic warrior

Covering modern-day France, Belgium, and parts of Switzerland and Germany, the Gallic Wars (58-50 B.C.) saw Caesar conquer most of the Celtic world on the Continent.

Not only that, but it also included two Roman invasions of Britain, neither of which netted the distant island for the empire. (That, of course, came later in 43 AD under the leadership of the emperor Claudius.) Ultimately, after many years of campaigning and putting down several Gallic rebellions, Caesar crossed the Rubicon in 49 B.C. on his way to winning the civil war for the Populares, or the Roman aristocratic leaders who relied on the people’s assemblies and tribunate for power.

After victory in 45 B.C., Caesar was crowned Dictator Perpetuo and thus the 500-year reign of the Roman Republic imploded, due to the insidious cancers of autocracy and the cult of personality.

In the wider scope of Roman history, Caesar’s political victory was the result of his military accomplishments, especially his success in Gaul. Among his men, Caesar commanded complete authority and trust, and because of this, Caesar’s Commentarii de Bello Gallico – his third-person account of the wars – is replete with examples of Roman courage and prowess in battle.

While these passages are intended to show the brilliance of Caesar’s command, they also serve to highlight something starker