Over the winter of 57 and 56 BCE, Caesar had
to make a decision to make. He was almost half way through his 5-year
term as the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum. If he had any post-governorship ambitions,
he had to start making plans now. He could go back to the Senate and assume
his place as a leader in the Reform faction, but that wasn't nearly as exciting as being
at the head of an army. Plus, throughout Caesar's life we get hints
that he didn't love the Senate. Remember, during his year as consul he did
everything in his power to cut the Senate out of the legislative process. He could run for consul again, but legally
there had to be a 10 year gap between consulships, and the Senate wasn't likely to grand an exemption
in his case. That put his next eligibility at 49 BCE at
the earliest. Caesar sent for his fellow Triumvirs, his
not-so-secret political allies, Pompey and Crassus. The three men met in a town called Luca, in
Cisalpine Gaul. This meeting, which is known to history as
the Luca Conference, has become the stuff of legend. Later writers would claim that hundreds of
senators accompanied Pompey and Crassus on this pilgrimage, but this is probably a later
invention. When the three men met, Caesar had a proposal
waiting for them. First, he wanted Pompey and Crassus to both
run for consul. It was winter now, elections were usually
held in the late summer, and if they were successful, they would assume office the following
January. Second, once they were in office, Caesar wanted
them to put forward legislation extending his term as governor. He was midway through a five-year term now,
and he wanted another five years added on to that. At the end of 10 years as governor, he would
be eligible for another term as consul. Third, he wanted Pompey and Crassus to secure
for themselves, with the support of Caesar's allies back in Rome, powerful governorships
of their own. They agreed that Pompey would get both of
the Spanish provinces, and Crassus would get the prestigious province of Syria. With all three Triumvirs in charge of powerful
provinces, they would each be able to focus on their own affairs and stay out of each
other's hair. See, there were rumours circulating at the
time that Crassus was secretly offering financial support to Clodius back in Rome. On paper, Clodius was an ally of Caesar's,
but in reality, the man was out of control. Remember, Clodius had indirectly come into
conflict with Pompey over the issue of Cicero's banishment. If this rumour was true and Crassus was financing
this conflict, it means that the Triumvirate was beginning to crumble. The three men agreed to this plan, and Pompey
and Crassus returned home. The Triumvirate wasn't just held together
by political necessity, but also by a bunch of small personal connections. For instance, Crassus's son, Publius Crassus,
was serving under Caesar in Gaul. Publius was probably in his late 20s and too
young for a command, but after the Conference of Luca, Caesar began to ignore convention
and unofficially put him in charge of a legion anyway. This was probably done as a favour to old
man Crassus. For the coming year, Caesar sent the young
Crassus and his one legion deep into Northwestern Gaul, to secure some tacit support from the
tribes in the region with a nonviolent show of force. He also sent another legion, under the command
of a legate named Galba, to the Alps. By this way, this Galba's son's son's son
would be a future Roman Emperor. Galba's job was to set up permanent outposts,
which would protect travelers from the Gauls living in the mountains. As it was now, traveling through the Alps
was extremely dangerous, especially for traders. If Caesar was planning on being in Gaul for
another 7+ years, he wanted to make it as easy as possible for goods to get goods in
and out of Italy. While constructing one of these mountain outposts,
Galba's legion was attacked by the native Gauls, and for a time they were completely
surrounded. But Galba kept his cool and broke out in a
surprise attack, which won him the day. With one legion busy establishing a safe route
through the Alps, and another legion making peace with the tribes in Northwestern Gaul,
Caesar in his commentaries says that Gaul was “reduced to a state of tranquility.” This mark's a bit of a turning point in Rome's
relationship with Gaul. Caesar was no longer simply reacting to events. He was behaving as if Rome was there to stay. Permanently. But Gaul's tranquility couldn't last forever. In Northwestern Gaul, the young Crassus had
established diplomatic relations with many of the tribes in the region, and accepted
hostages from them as a sign of good faith. The hostages weren't kept in cages or anything,
they just lived with the Romans, and were used as collateral if anything weird happened. This was normal practice in the ancient world,
especially when a powerful state bumped up against a weak one. Some of these hostages were from a tribe called
the Veneti. The young Crassus later sent diplomats to
the Veneti to negotiate the purchase of some grain. When they arrived, the Veneti arrested the
diplomats, and took them as hostages of their own. Who knows why they did this. They may have seen it as a fair exchange for
the hostages taken by Rome. They may have been annoyed with the Romans
for showing up and acting around like they owned the place. It could have been a simple misunderstanding. Either way, I think it's pretty clear that
this was a minor diplomatic incident. But when Caesar got word of this, he chose
to interpret the act as a formal declaration of war, and a full-blown Gallic uprising. He immediately ordered a fleet of ships built
on a river that lead to the Atlantic Ocean, and mobilized his entire army. He then sent a message to the young Crassus,
telling him to move south and continue establishing contact with the tribes there. With that done, he ordered three fresh legions
to the Northwestern Gaul, to stop neighbouring tribes from aligning themselves with the Veneti. Then he instructed Labienus to go with one
legion to the newly pacified Belgae territory, just in case they took this opportunity to
try something. This left Caesar with three legions for himself. He told his river-fleet to start moving towards
the Atlantic Ocean whenever they were ready, and marched off. He would deal with the Veneti personally. The Veneti specialized in sea trade, so when
they heard that there were a bunch of angry Romans coming their way, their first instinct
was to load everyone onto their giant sailing ships and get out of there. They watched from just offshore as Caesar
came across their abandoned villages, and systematically burned them to the ground. What the Veneti didn't expect was for a Roman
fleet to appear seemingly out of nowhere. Roman ships were tiny things with oars, designed
for going back and forth across the Mediterranean, while the Veneti ships were these monsters
with giant sails designed for long distance travel in the Atlantic Ocean. The Romans ships attacked, but they quickly
discovered that the huge Veneti ships were too sturdy to ram, and too tall to board normally. But they were able to figure out that they
could pull up alongside them, and pull down the Veneti rigging with big hooks on poles,
preventing them from sailing away. After that, it was only a matter of time before
the Romans figured out how to climb onto the Veneti ships. Caesar's army watched from the shore as the
Romans destroyed the Veneti fleet. The surviving Veneti surrendered to Caesar
unconditionally. He had their entire ruling council put to
death, and everybody else, he sold into slavery. This was an unthinkably harsh punishment for
something so small. This caused an uprising by some of the neighbouring
tribes but these were put down by the three legions stationed nearby. Try to notice the subtle change that has taken
place here. Caesar isn't positioning his legions as if
he's a general marching through enemy territory. He's moved in. He's enforcing the peace. With only a short time left in the campaigning
season, Caesar marched towards Belgae territory. There had been a small uprising there as well,
which Labienus had successfully put down. The thing that still bothered Caesar was that
there were two tribes around modern Calais that he said never formally made peace with
him after he subdued the Belgae. In Caesar's mind, they were still in war. This is a pretty weak excuse to march all
the way across Gaul. Even if it was true, these people did literally
nothing to provoke him. When Caesar arrived, these villages were abandoned
as well. They must have heard what happened to the
Veneti. The Romans set up their camp in a forested
area, and all of a sudden, without warning, they were attacked. The Roman infantry didn't even have time to
assemble, they just got into random groups and formed a line of defence as fast as they
could. They took heavy losses, but they held, and
it's a small miracle that they weren't completely overrun. The Gauls fell back and the Romans gave chase
into the woods. Caesar notes that in the woods his men suffered
even heavier losses. This implies that the Romans may have been
lead into further ambushes, but Caesar glosses over this. In the days that followed, Caesar turned this
temporary camp into a permanent one, by clear-cutting the trees surrounding the camp for visibility,
and having additional walls built for defence. With Caesar finally satisfied that his boot
was firmly on Gaul's neck, he turned his army around and marched south for the winter. He had big plans, but they wouldn't bear fruit
until next year.
Oh man I love this guy's videos. Anyone who feels a kindling of interest in Rome's history should check out Mike Duncan's The History of Rome podcast. I've listened to all of it more than once while commuting, very long and detailed so great stuff. Also Dan Carlin's Hardcore history podcast series's: Fall of the Roman Republic, and Punic Wars.
Man, I love this guy's videos. I've always loved learning about military strategy, especially medieval or earlier time periods and these videos do a good job at showcasing the evolution of a battle that happens.
I really like this guy's videos!
Such a complex political system in 56 B.C.E.
Historical squares and 3x5 envelopes!
This gave me history blue balls.
r/HistoriaCivilis
Caeser was a machine!
These videos were actually pretty useful studying tools for the Roman Republic history course I took last year