Caesar's Gallic Wars 58–50 BC - Osprey

Caesar's Gallic Wars 58–50 BC - Osprey
96 pages - PDF - 37Mb
Author: Kate Gilliver

Julius Caesar was one of the most ambitious and successful politicians of the late Roman Republic and his short but bloody conquest of the Celtic tribes led to the establishment of the Roman province of Gaul (modern France).

Caesar's commentaries on his Gallic Wars provide us with the most detailed surviving eye-witness account of a campaign from antiquity.

Gilliver makes use of this account and other surviving evidence to consider the importance of the Gallic Wars in the context of the collapse of the Roman Republic and its slide toward civil war.

Contents

• Intro
• Chronology
• Background to war : Building an empire
• Warring sides: Discipline vs. spectacle
• Outbreak: The migration of the Helvetii
• The fighting: Invasion, siege and conquest
• Portrait of a soldier: Caesar’s centurions
• The world around war: The impact of the conflict
• Portrait of a civilian: Roman merchants
• How the war ended: Roman triumphs
• Conclusion and consequences: Pax Romana