71–80 of 97 posts
serious question, how is this interesting beyond "Caesar had a significant cavalry advantage"?
I think there's plenty interesting. The sophistication of Roman siege warfare. There is an entrenched enemy. Caesar's legions build miles of fortification to surround and starve out the enemy. Many more enemies come to break the siege. Caesar's legions build second miles long fortification, around the first. It is a defining moment in Caesar's rise to fame and infamy, laying the groundwork for his eventual emperorshi…
Worth pointing out that Julius Caesar was never emperor and its difficult to say that he really aspired to such a position. Yes, he was dictator for life but Sulla had fairly recently been appointed dictator with no time limit applied so that wasn't without precedent. Working out what could have happened of he hadn't been assassinated is difficult. Did he take on many of the trappings of a king? Yes. Did he seem to try and avoid that same perception, such as with the crown at Lupercalia? Also yes. Whatever he was though, he certainly was not emperor.
In France, this event is well known and taught in class (at least it was in the 80's). As I remember it now, this was taught as a bittersweet moment in our history. We united, we were brave and fought a stronger army but still we were defeated and our chief was captured and killed by the enemy. As a result we were colonized and we lost almost all our Celtic culture (Celtic culture remains present notably in Bretagne…
"The inhabitants of the town sent out their wives and children to save food for the fighters, hoping that Caesar would take them as captives and feed them. However, Caesar forbade their being admitted to his fortification."
Reading this made me realize how little Roman history I know. What's the best source for learning about the major people and events of that era? EDIT: I guess what I'm really looking for is a hierarchy of topics, starting extremely broad (e.g. Roman Republic vs. Roman Empire) and drilling down into individual people and events. In other words, I want to do a breadth-first traversal, rather than depth-first.
The Masters of Rome novels by Colleen McCullough are historically accurate, incredibly dramatic, gripping and realistic. They tell the story of Rome from the birth of Caesar in the Republic to the ascension of his successor Augustus in the Empire.
Another comment mentioned I, Claudius, which is also excellent.
Reading this made me realize how little Roman history I know. What's the best source for learning about the major people and events of that era? EDIT: I guess what I'm really looking for is a hierarchy of topics, starting extremely broad (e.g. Roman Republic vs. Roman Empire) and drilling down into individual people and events. In other words, I want to do a breadth-first traversal, rather than depth-first.
How has no one pointed out this awesome boardgame yet? https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1430/caesar-epic-battle-...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think there's plenty interesting. The sophistication of Roman siege warfare. There is an entrenched enemy. Caesar's legions build miles of fortification to surround and starve out the enemy. Many more enemies come to break the siege. Caesar's legions build second miles long fortification, around the first. It is a defining moment in Caesar's rise to fame and infamy, laying the groundwork for his eventual emperorshi…
"laying the groundwork for his eventual emperorship". Worth pointing out that Julius Caesar was never emperor and its difficult to say that he really aspired to such a position. Yes, he was dictator for life but Sulla had fairly recently been appointed dictator with no time limit applied so that wasn't without precedent. Working out what could have happened of he hadn't been assassinated is difficult. Did he take on…
There was a whole PR strategy related to this that went on for centuries. Many of the rulers after Julius Caesar talked about restoring power to senate and/or the citizens, and downplayed their own immense power, without actually doing much of anything to reduce it.
That said, it's certainly possible that Julius Caesar could have followed a similar path to Sulla. He very well might have had every intention of relinquishing power after a certain point.