ABSTRACT

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 eyewitness account of a campaign from antiquity. In this book, Kate Gilliver makes use of this firsthand 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.

chapter |3 pages

Introduction

part |2 pages

Chronology

chapter |7 pages

Background to war

Building an empire

chapter |13 pages

Warring sides

Discipline vs. spectacle

chapter |4 pages

Outbreak

The migration of the Helvetii

chapter |33 pages

The fighting

Invasion, siege and conquest

chapter |3 pages

Portrait of a soldier

Caesar’s centurions

chapter |10 pages

The world around war

The impact of the conflict

part |2 pages

Portrait of a civilian

chapter |7 pages

How the war ended

Roman triumphs

chapter |4 pages

Conclusion and consequences

Pax Romana

chapter |1 pages

Further reading