Julius Caesar's account of his conquest of Gaul in the late 50s and early 60s is one of the most famous histories of the Roman world, and it's worth a read to clear up some of the confusion about who he really was and what he was fighting for. In this episode of Epochs, I read from Caesar's own account of the campaign.
00:00:00.000Hello and welcome to this episode of Epochs. And if you remember last time we left off where Julius Caesar had just finished his consulship and was going off for his first five year spell in Gaul as pro-consul, as governor, as general of the legions in Gaul, both Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul.
00:00:22.360And I'll be reading today from Caesar's own account of his conquest of Gaul. You can buy it just in Penguin paperback. It's quite a remarkable book. It's a really remarkable book. I mean, it's the only time in all of ancient history where we get a long account from a military commander, a successful military commander.
00:00:40.520And although there's all sorts of issues around the text, whether Caesar's lying or exaggerating or leaving things out, lying by omission, or whether it's sort of just pure political propaganda or not, once you take all those sorts of things into account, which is the job of the modern historian, it's still an absolutely incredible source.
00:01:01.360Remarkable. I mean, Caesar speaks of himself in the third person all the time, but it is Caesar writing it, or supposed to be. Probably actually dictated it to a slave or a freedman.
00:01:11.500But nonetheless, still, it's an absolutely incredible thing that it survives, and it's the best source and bits of evidence we've got for Gaul in that period, because the Celts weren't writing things down, the Germans, the Britons, weren't really writing anything down at that point.
00:01:26.480So it's absolutely valuable, incredibly valuable, in all sorts of different ways, not just for the life and career of Caesar. It's a fantastic thing, a wondrous thing, nearly, or in my opinion, it is.
00:01:38.800So first of all, before we just dive straight into the events, I wanted to read a section from the introduction in the book.
00:01:45.820Now, lots of books, lots of ancient texts, something like even the Iliad or something, you'll almost certainly find quite a long introduction, an essay-length, or sometimes even longer, introduction.
00:01:57.880I do advise people, if you're not completely familiar with the thing that you're reading, usually do read those introductions, because they're by an expert, who knows everything that they're talking about,
00:02:07.060and it will flesh out things that aren't explained within the text itself, and they're just worth reading, nearly always.
00:02:15.920In this, I am actually reading literally a Penguin paperback, Penguin Classics.
00:02:20.120In this, there's a really long introduction, but there's one section in it, a couple of pages, that I wanted to read out, because it just gives an overview of the whole thing.
00:02:28.420So I assume that most people watching this, or listening to this, they'll have an idea of what happened when Caesar went to Gauln, but might not know it in any real detail.
00:02:39.820So if I give sort of an overview, first of all, just a very, very high-level overview of what goes on, and then we'll dive in.
00:02:46.900I think that will help clear the mists of confusion about who's who and what's going on and things.
00:02:51.640So, a little section from the introduction, and the introduction's by someone called Jane F. Gardner, and this is the section within the introduction, called The Course of the War, and she wrote this, quote,
00:03:01.440It is not likely that when Caesar entered upon his provincial command, he entertained the intention of conquering the whole of Gaul.
00:03:08.580Had that been so, he would hardly, in going first to Transalpine Gaul in 58 BC, have left three of his legions in northern Italy.
00:03:15.680The province he had chosen for himself was Cisalpine Gaul, an Illyricum, firstly for its political value, since it kept him close to Italy,
00:03:23.900secondly, because it nevertheless offered scope for military success in operations against the tribes bordering the north-eastern frontier.
00:03:30.860That his first intention was an Illyrian campaign is indicated by his having based the three legions in Aquilia.
00:03:38.080After the campaigning season of 57, he set out on a reconnaissance trip in Illyria.
00:03:42.780He is perhaps attempting at this point to give the impression that he had still intended an Illyrian campaign in 56,
00:03:48.840had the Venetic Revolt not intervened.
00:03:51.000But, as we shall see, there are grounds for suspecting that, while not ruled out for the future, this was not then his first priority.
00:03:58.340That Caesar himself had been instrumental in having Ariovistus declared friend of the Roman people in 59 BC,
00:04:05.880suggests that he had hoped to delay the possible eruption of trouble for Rome's clients beyond the frontier of the Transalpine province.