Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- PART I FROM SULLA TO CATILINE
- PART II FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
- 9 The ‘Three-Headed Monster’
- 10 The Consequences of the Triumvirate: The View of Asinius Pollio
- 11 The First Consulship (59 BC)
- 12 An Inconvenient Ally: Clodius
- 13 Semiramis in Gaul
- 14 The Conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC)
- 15 The Black Book of the Gallic Campaign
- PART III THE LONG CIVIL WAR
- PART IV FROM THE CONSPIRACY TO THE TRIUMPH OF CAESARISM
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- Index
15 - The Black Book of the Gallic Campaign
from PART II - FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Translators' Note
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- PART I FROM SULLA TO CATILINE
- PART II FROM THE TRIUMVIRATE TO THE CONQUEST OF GAUL
- 9 The ‘Three-Headed Monster’
- 10 The Consequences of the Triumvirate: The View of Asinius Pollio
- 11 The First Consulship (59 BC)
- 12 An Inconvenient Ally: Clodius
- 13 Semiramis in Gaul
- 14 The Conquest of Gaul (58–51 BC)
- 15 The Black Book of the Gallic Campaign
- PART III THE LONG CIVIL WAR
- PART IV FROM THE CONSPIRACY TO THE TRIUMPH OF CAESARISM
- Chronology
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
We have become too humane not to be repelled by Caesar's triumphs.
GoetheCaesar's Gallic campaign was not exactly viewed with enthusiasm by his contemporaries. This must be taken into account when estimating its ‘long-term effects’, whose ‘inevitability’ is often teleologically overestimated. There is doubtless a risk of adopting a colonialist view. The campaign was unprovoked and there was no real menace; it led to the destruction of the old civilisation, which was gradually replaced by a Romanised one; and Pliny and Plutarch agree that it was an act of genocide of monstrous proportions. It was all for one end: it is clear that the protagonist and instigator of the venture cynically used the genocide in the political struggle at home. Part of his objective was also to capture a huge number of slaves (according to Plutarch, one million), who were useful for demagogic purposes (one thinks of Caesar granting at least one slave to each of his soldiers). Caesar knew well that, without a counter to Pompey's military glory, an equal division of power with him would be impossible, especially after Crassus' death.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Julius CaesarThe People's Dictator, pp. 118 - 124Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2007