![]() Therefore, in March 58, Caesar destroyed the bridge at Geneva and blocked the road along the Rhône, which served to slow down the Helvetian advance. However, his legions were still in the eastern part of his province. This is exactly what happened.Ĭaesar's military base was the valley of the lower Rhône, which had been Roman from 123 onwards. A victory over the Germans would place him on the same rank as his uncle Marius. Besides, there were reports about Germans that were attacking the Aedui, a Gallic tribe in the valley of the Saône that was allied to Rome. This was unacceptable to any Roman governor.įor Caesar, it was a golden opportunity to impress the Senate and People's Assembly. The Helvetians had migrate to the south-west of France and had to cross through Roman territories. However, the migration of the Helvetians, a coalition of tribes in modern Switzerland, forced him to think about at least one or two campaigns in the north. In the spring of 58 BCE, Caesar's legions were already in the eastern parts of his province: the Seventh, the Eighth, the Ninth and especially the Tenth, which was called 'the knights' and was very dear to Caesar. ![]() Originally, it was not Caesar's intention to attack Gaul, but Romania, which was rich in precious metals. If the Romans were afraid of the Gauls, they were terrified of the Germans. (Climatological changes are sometimes mentioned, but the evidence is contradictory.) Marius had defeated some of their tribes, the Teutones and the Cimbri, but in Caesar's days it was probably not a gross exaggeration to say that the states of Gaul would have to become Roman or would be overrun by Germans, who would proceed to attack Italy. In the second century, mass migrations from Germanic tribes had started, for reasons that remain unclear to us. Most people in Italy were afraid of new Gallic invasions. In the fourth century, Gallic warriors had settled along the Po and had invaded Central Italy (even capturing Rome in July 387). The Greeks and Romans called all these nations Celts or Gauls. ![]() In the late Iron Age, their different cultures had started to resemble each other, largely by processes of trade and exchange. Gaul as a whole consisted of a multitude of states of different ethnic origin. Legions The Conquest of Gaul (58-54) The dying Gaul
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