Caesar's "Conquest of Gaul"

Essay # 50417

History > Greek and Roman
History > Leaders
Literature > Greek and Roman

This is an essay outlining Julius Caesar's imperial conquest of Gaul during the last century B.C. Special attention is paid to Caesar's military strategy and the motivational techniques that he used with his troops.

2,900 words () | 6 sources | MLA | 2001 | Canada

Published on: Apr 13, 2004

Paper Summary:

This paper explains how, through analysis of Caesar's "The Conquest of Gaul", among other works, one may begin to put together an explanation as to why and how Julius Caesar was so successful in defeating his enemies in such a routine fashion. It shows that, although Caesar has been subject to many subsequent criticisms about the embellishments of his campaigns in his own work, and even his military abilities at the tactical level, his feats are simply too astounding and too well-documented and praised to go unnoticed.

From the Paper:

"Caesar's campaigns in Gaul began in fifty-eight BC when the Helvetii, among other peoples, began a mass migration from their homes in Switzerland. Caesar declined their request to pass through Roman territory due to the fact that the Helvetii had killed Roman consul, Lucius Visutskie 2 Cassius, years previous. For this reason, Caesar viewed the Helvetii as a threat to the well-being of their allies, the Sequani and the Aedui, who had been loyal to Rome in the past, and whose territory the Helvetii wished to pass through.3 Since the Helvetii had burned their own towns and villages to the ground, Caesar viewed them as even more dangerous since they had nowhere to retreat to, thus, they would be more willing to face the consequences that resulted from any of their actions.4 Despite Caesar's refusal for the Helvetii to travel through Roman territory, they marched anyway. Caesar reacted to this manoeuver posthaste. By the time Caesar's army had reached the Helvetii army, they had already pillaged the towns and fields of the Aedui and the Sequani, and taken all of their children into slavery.5 This infuriated Caesar, he planned a careful attack on the Helvetii, determined to make them pay. Caesar first attacked a small portion of the Helvetii, whom had not yet crossed the Saone River with the rest of the army, and ravaged them, making somewhat of an example of them. Caesar caught up with the rest of the Helvetii tribe days later and damaged them more in a grueling battle which ended with the retreat of a hundred and thirty thousand Helvetii soldiers. Caesar intelligently sent messages to other allied settlements where the Helvetii could surface, warning them not to provide the Helvetii with food or shelter as they would become the enemy of the Romans if they did. Due to lack of food and nutrition, the Helvetii surrendered within three days and were divided into several groups in accordance with Caesar's wishes.6 Thus, the first campaign of Caesar's conquest into Gaul was not really intended to be a victory for Caesar, and a step in expanding the Roman Empire, but more or less a gesture of assistance to a group who had remained loyal to Rome over many years(as understood by the writings of Caesar himself). Besides being successful in getting the Helvetii out of Rome, Caesar also was quite successful in removing Ariovistus from Roman territory."