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- Herausgeber: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
- Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
- Sprache: Englisch
The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, along with parts of Germany and the United Kingdom). Gallic, Germanic, and British tribes fought to defend their homelands against an aggressive Roman campaign. Caesar portrayed the invasion as being a preemptive and defensive action, but historians agree that he fought the Wars primarily to boost his political career and to pay off his debts. Still, Gaul was of significant military importance to the Romans. Native tribes in the region, both Gallic and Germanic, had attacked Rome several times. Conquering Gaul allowed Rome to secure the natural border of the river Rhine. Caesar makes impossible claims about the number of Gauls killed (over a million), while claiming almost zero Roman casualties. Modern historians believe that Gallic forces were far smaller than the Romans claimed, and that the Romans suffered significant casualties. The campaign was still exceptionally brutal. Untold numbers of Gauls were killed, enslaved, or mutilated, including large numbers of civilians. Contents: The Gallic wars The Civil war
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022
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Julius Caesar
THE GALLIC WARS. THE CIVIL WAR
Illustrated
THE GALLIC WARS
Translated by W. A. MacDevitt
Written as a third-person narrative, De Bello Gallico is Julius Caesar’s account of the wars he waged in Gaul from 58 BC to 50 BC, describing in detail the battles and intrigues that took place during the nine year campaign. Due to its simple and direct prose style, the work has served as an important text in Latin studies for many centuries. The commentary is divided into eight Books, each varying in size from approximately 5,000 to 15,000 words. It is commonly believed that the eighth book was added later by Aulus Hirtius, one of Caesar’s generals.
The work is a compilation made from notes jotted down in the tent or during a journey. In the commentary, Caesar describes his conflict with the Gallic tribe known as the Helvetii. The wealthiest man of the Helvetii, Orgetorix, convinced his countrymen that they should leave their homeland in modern day Switzerland, due to being too constricted by the surrounding rivers and mountains. They devised a plan to burn their homes and then depart their homeland. When Caesar learned of their plan to cross over a Roman province, he decided to attack the tribe, commencing the beginning of his conflict with the Gauls, eventually culminating with the Battle of Alesia in 52 BC. During this now legendary siege, the Roman legions found themselves not only besieging Gallic forces in Alesia of equal strength, but fighting a massive relief army sent to rescue their trapped comrades. Surrounded and outnumbered by as much as five to one, Caesar was destined to achieve one of the most remarkable military victories in history, resulting with the dramatic capture and conquering of Vercingetorix, the Gallic leader.
BOOK I
I. — All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are farthest from the civilisation and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valour, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone: it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and the territories of the Belgae: it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine, and stretches towards the north. The Belgae rise from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look towards the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which is near Spain: it looks between the setting of the sun and the north star.
