Julius Caesar's Rise To The Republic | Tony Robinson's Romans | Timeline

the stabbing happened just a few yards from here it was a frenzied attack 23 stab wounds inflicted by the same number of assassins it's one of the most notorious murders in history and it determined the course of Western civilization and even though it occurred over 2,000 years ago we still know the exact date but it happened it was the 15th or as it was then known at the Ides of March and the murder victim was of course Julius Caesar Caesars been called the greatest man who ever lived a truly superhuman figure who was a brilliant general a great writer and a man of the people after his death they mourned him in their thousands so how come he ended up on the wrong end of the assassin's dagger what made people hate him so much I've come here to Rome to try to find the real Caesar the man behind the myth one of the most complex driven people in the whole of human history [Music] to follow in Cesar's footsteps is to embark on an epic journey from ancient Egypt to the uncharted island of Britain he came he saw and he conquered by turns brutal and brilliant he changed the map of Europe but more importantly he transformed Rome itself from a republic into an empire above all he was the man who terminally destroyed the old system Judy Caesar celebrates how many people he kills he celebrates her triumph he killed a million people he was really one of Europe's great geniuses but basically flawed and look at the cost for everyone else Rome was the center of Caesars universe but when he was born here in a hundred BC nobody could have predicted that he would one day reign supreme amongst the elegant temples and colonnades of them I'll in that direction deep core known as the Subura it was in dirty crime-ridden Saburo with its multi-story tenement lost the julius caesar first saw the light of day but it wasn't exactly one of the street kids who roamed the slums the aristocratic Caesars trace their roots back to the founding fathers of Rome they'd lost a lot of money but the babies three names tell us that he's of noble birth [Music] his first name was Gaius Julius and Caesar were both family names but the name Caesar which means cart has led to the first fiction about him in ancient times great men had remarkable births and the legend grew that he'd been cut from his mother's womb the myth gives us the name by which we still know the operation the cesarean section it's a good story but in fact Caesar was born quite normally they did do the operation in those days but only to save the life of the child the mother never survived and we know that Caesars mother was still alive when he was 40 in a hundred BC the most special thing about the young boy was his aunt julia she'd recently boosted the family fortunes by marrying a charismatic politician called marius that marriage determined caesar's political colors for life [Music] Ceaser's noble roots made him eligible later in life to sit in the Senate house here in the forum where his fellow aristocrats ran Rome like a private club but by the first century the Senate had split into bitter factions siding with Marius put all the Caesar family firmly on one side of the political divide Judy Caesars early life is dominated by a civil war which is between two army commanders I mean almost like sort of preempts what he's going to do and he's not in the group which one basically so again he's he's in the aristocracy but there's the possibility of his death at any point as the power struggles slid into anarchy the seventeen-year-old Caesar got a terrifying taste of the reality of Roman politics a powerful general from the other faction swept into Rome and appointed himself as emergency dictator to settle the unrest his name was sulla to deal with political opponents he invented the fiendish system of prescription it worked something like this instead of wasting energy arresting and killing people himself Sola put up lists of names in public places these people were then fair game anyone who killed them got a reward 1600 leading citizens were purged in the first wave of murders and more followed some people were just dragged out of their houses and kicked to death in the streets on one of the names on these ominous public lists was Julius Caesar he went underground changing houses almost daily relying on a network of discreet family friends in the fetid swampy back streets he caught malaria as he sweated it out favors were called in political neutrals brokered a deal with sulla they secured a pardon on the condition that the teenager come out of hiding to face the dictator sulla was a large menacing man with a bloody face he turned to the teenager who defied him what he saw was a tall slim young man with piercing black eyes who even when he was looking at the most powerful man in Rome wasn't going to give any concessions to tradition instead of the normal short-sleeved tunic he got long sleeves with fringes and he wore his belt slung low hipster style if he couldn't dress properly what other customs mighty try and break down sulla must have wished he'd never let him off he turned to those who'd negotiated the pardon and made a telling prediction all right he said have it your way but I'm warning you this young man who you're so desperate to protect one day he's going to bring down the very system that we want to preserve a lot of what we know about Caesar is written much later by people who already knew what he'd achieved Cilla's prophetic statement was probably made up with the benefit of hindsight in 83 BC there were far bigger problems threatening Rome than one outrageously dressed teenager and the main problem was the system itself the six hundred years Rome had been governed as a republic ruled by aristocratic senators there were all volunteers and changed jobs every year it had worked well but then Rome expanded from a simple city state to control an empire that spanned the Mediterranean the structure that was designed for local government couldn't cope with running a global superpower as it expanded Rome had switched from voluntary national service to having a professional army to protect and run its dominions but after making Rome rich these soldiers retired with nothing the already crowded city was overflowing with vast numbers of angry veterans living in poverty and demanding a pension so-called crowd pleasers like Caesar's uncle Marius were reformers who wanted to redistribute land to provide for the soldiers others saw any change as an assault on tradition there was for about the last century of the Republic a continuous conflict between what we can call conservatives and reformers but they don't have political parties there isn't such a thing as a reformed party there's no clear understanding of this is the way the Reform Party wants to go and this is the way that the Conservatives are trying to stop it what you have is a clash of systems of authority Caesars own clash with Authority meant that Rome was still not safe for him his family packed him off abroad doing junior jobs and improving his education this foreign travel was meant to give him a low profile but it led to one of the most extraordinary events of his whole career he was still only 25 with a small retinue of servants who was sailing two roads for a course in the art of rhetoric or public speaking from a Greek master as his ship crept round the coast of Greece it was boarded by pirates and Caesar was kidnapped the pirates must have thought they'd hit the jackpot when you demand a ransom you don't expect your victim to start trying to negotiate out words but when they told him that they wanted 20 talents of silver Caesar treated the amount with contempt 20 said I'm worth more than that make it 15 [Music] 50 talents is almost a ton of silver it would take nearly a month to collect his men sailed off to try and raise some money from the local banks while Caesar remained on board he didn't want to waste his time so he practiced public speaking on the Pirates they thought this was a joke and Barents him and when he swore he'd see them hanged they laughed and laughed when the money arrived the Pirates let Caesar sail away to the nearby port of Meletis it was a fatal error and Meletis he heard a squadron of ships and men out of his own pocket returned and found the Pirates still at anchor he captured them reclaimed the ransom and took them back to the provincial capital when he found that the governor seemed more interested in taking a bribe in order to let them go free rather than punishing them Caesar took the law into his own hands he kept his promise of justice and had every single one of the Pirates crucified spent a month in their company Larkin around and joking with them so as an act of mercy and for old times sake he had their throats cut first [Music] this savage punishment and gambling with his own life was Caesars way of making sure of headlines back in Rome Romans are always competing full they call it farmer fame Gloria Dignitas and just think of what Roman life is like here we are in in the Roman Forum and the Roman ruling class get there by being voted for by people and it's it's an even more direct relationship than with modern politicians I mean maybe the media exposed modern politicians in some ways but they they constantly have to see these people face to face and they have to make an impact on them so they're all in the business of arousing cheers making its own PR absolutely they're there they're there as concerned with spin as any modern politician but Caesar had strong competitors for Rome's attention he was about to run up against a man called Spartacus Julius Caesar had begun life like a boy's own hero on the run from death squads one minute battling pirates the next and in 73 BC he was enlisted to fight another epic figure Spartacus a gladiator who was at the center of a slave rebellion Julius Caesar was a junior officer in the campaign against Spartacus as the rebels retreated south through the countryside the Romans moved to cut them off [Music] whatever the movies might say there was never any hope of Spartacus succeeding the sad fact is that the real-life Spartacus wasn't a noble revolutionary but a hopeless runaway who ended up as little more than a bandit thousands joined his rebellion but they were rats in a trap Caesar joined the Roman military machine as it advanced down the country forcing the disorganized rebels into defeat and capture there was absolutely no mercy for this assault on the established order along the Appian Way 6,000 prisoners from the Sparta can revolt were crucified anyone traveling north from Naples to Rome would ride the last few miles to the accompaniment of screams the stench of the tortured and the dying for Caesar it was no less than they deserved Caesar was one of those who wanted reforms in ro but he was no revolutionary as he'd already shown he could be as ruthless as any of his fellow aristocrats in defending the rule of law and the status quo but the Spartacus campaign was to be vital for Caesars career in another way when he was 32 Caesar took his place in the Senate on the lowest rung of the official Roman career ladder within the Senate there was an ascending order of ranks you could be elected to each with their own qualifying age Caesar like most of his contemporaries wanted to reach the top and become consul but Roman political life was a risky and expensive gamble you needed money to get on and Caesar didn't have it our stick rats on the make for a huge amounts of money to finance their election campaign against the possibility of forgetting a province where they will extort back everything they paid out but of course not everyone can get elected so at every stage of the pyramid you've got people falling off it and falling into debt you've got desperate desperate men Ceaser's commanding officer on the Spartacus campaign had been Marcus Licinius Crassus [Music] Crassus was immensely influential mostly because he was the richest man in Rome he'd made millions as a crooked property baron and was quite happy to make huge loans to an ambitious young man like Caesar finance was vital to Caesar because he had to play catch-up he started on the bottom rung two years after he could have done at the age of 32 he was a driven man hungry for success he was sickened when he saw a statue of Alexander the Great in Cadiz he realized that by his age Alexander had conquered half the known world to compensate Caesar went into overdrive as he climbed the ladder he did everything to excess [Music] unlike politicians today senators paid for their policies out of their own purse when he was in charge of public entertainment his games were bigger and better when he had a job maintaining the Appian Way he spent a fortune on repairs the ordinary people loved him for it on a personal level he had to walk the walk he was lavished with entertainment gifts and bribes Caesar had the best of everything wine clothes antiques jewels and women especially women being married never stopped Caesar making other conquests back in Rome Caesar was famous for being one of the most prolific adulterers ever he slept with the wives of his enemies for information he slept with the wives of his friends for fun and sometimes he slept with his friends he was so notorious that the famous poet Catullus wrote a poem about the varied and energetic sex life he shared with his chief of staff mamuro perverted bedfellows Caesar and mamuro compete against each other at serial adultery and pulling teenage girls but private life and politics all needed funding besides legitimate expenses Caesar also had to buy votes every election - every job meant a fresh advance from Crassus then in 63 be soon a life long post of Pontifex Maximus the high priest came up for grabs it was an honorary but hugely influential job Caesar was the rank outsider but it was too good a chance to miss Caesar risked everything to get elected he put himself so deeply in debt that when he left home in the Subura he said to his mother I'll either return as Pontifex Maximus or I'll be off in exile forever it was a typical high-stakes gamble and he brought it off he got the job and the perks which went with it including a house right in the middle of the forum today Caesar stands moral guardian of Rome's City Council but no political scandal can possibly match the vicious corruption of the Senate in Caesars day as a leading advocate of reform Caesar was bound to provoke opposition his arch enemy in the Senate was Cato a dyed-in-the-wool aristocrat who despised Caesars populist approach Cato has his own political ambitions Keita wants to make a name for himself and he makes a name for himself as mr. virtue and he chooses to identify Caesar as mr. Vyse now as Caesar is an incredibly controversial character right from the start and I and I think one must assume that Caesar actually as a personality he relished controversy he was never going to compromise with people he just went all out for it this wasn't the kind of friendly rivalry you sometimes see with professional politicians but a bitter personal dislike they both use dirty tactics after one meeting here Caesar narrowly avoided being killed by one of Cato's bodyguards in his turn Caesar used the mob to disrupt meetings he'd organized so-called spontaneous protests when he didn't get his way then he'd calmed the mob down and tell them that he didn't want to make any fuss thus earning support from the Senate for his dignified behavior Cesar was nearing 40 notoriously vain he wore a laurel wreath to cover his thinning hair and had all his body hair plucked and he was still broke for his next promotion he was appointed for a year as a governor in southern Spain with a brief to combat the brigands that have been plaguing the province before he set off his wagons were impounded by the bailiffs and he had to touch Crassus for more money to get them out of hock but for a hard-up senator a foreign posting was a payback in the provinces he's rather like a mini king his king of that area he can make decisions whatever decisions he really wants to and there's almost an expectation of extortion when you go you will always make money Caesar fought a brilliant campaign against the brigands and if he also accidentally attacked and looted a few innocent towns Rome was willing to turn a blind eye they liked a good victory with success came the booty of war enough to pay off his debts and reward his men sufficiently well to ensure their future loyalty he was supposed to stay in Spain till the end of the year but he wanted to be where the action was he cancelled his contract and returned to Rome he'd been awarded a triumph there but more importantly elections were looming he was about to mount the final rung on the Roman ladder of success the consulship [Music] you Ziza came back from Spain to stand for election as consul so he needed some of this white cloth Candida in Latin to be a candidate he had to come into the center of Rome dressed in white and apply in person but at that time this was a big problem for him because he'd also just been awarded a triumph which was an official celebration for conquering generals involving a big procession right up here through to the temple of Jupiter in the middle of Rome and Caesars problem was that the rules said that the general couldn't come back into Rome till after the triumph had taken place the problem was a clash of dates the deadline for applications was before the triumph Caesar hated to give up the chance of glory but political power was what he craved most he gave up his triumph and was duly elected consul but his conservative opponents wouldn't let their archenemy have it all his own way there were two consoles each year they were supposed to work together but Cato and Cesar's other enemies made sure that his fellow console that year would be one of their own men who'd act as an anchor on his ambitions they chose Cato son-in-law Bibble as' which was a bit like pairing Ken Livingstone with Norman Tebbit and expecting them to work together this kind of pettiness made Caesar vow that he'd never compromise with his opponents again from now on he'd bypassed them he did it by making a semi-official alliance with the two most influential figures in Rome his money man Crassus and Pompey the great at the time Pompey was the real superstar in Rome he was only six years older than Caesar but had had a brilliant military career and had already been console through Crassus and Pompey Caesar mobilised a network of support and votes this alliance was known as the triumvirate all three had something to gain I'm Pompey can make sure that all his veterans turn up to vote for instance as simple as that they say it's in your interest to do this to support this man so it can mobilise the support of a lot of people he also gets the support of Marcus Crassus partly because Marcus Crassus wants to have a new deal for the tax farmers of Asia he's representing them here in the Senate there was a set order of speaking but Caesar always invited his chums Pompey and Crassus to speak first he had his archenemy Cato arrested for speaking for too long and he intimidated the opposition with hired thugs but number one on his hit list was his fellow consoled Bibble as' when he tried to interrupt while Caesar was speaking the hired thugs burst in and tipped a bucket of down over his head Caesar had a positive reforming agenda but sleaze and his bully boy tactics overshadowed everything he did bimba --less went in fear of his life he tried to get a state of emergency declared and when this failed he simply went home locked himself in and tried a novel method of blocking all political business out of his front door every morning and whatever the weather even on a nice day like today he'd say he'd seen a flash of lightning which meant that the gods were displeased this may seem daft but actually was a stroke of genius because it meant that just by turning up to work down at the Senate that morning Caesar was breaking the law if he tried to pass any legislation it was illegal because it was going against the will of the gods just like a diplomat today he couldn't be charged while he was still in office but the moment he came back into Rome as a private citizen he could be charged both sides are cheating of course they're cheating by the Roman rules because it is proper to use religious obstruction but Bibulus is overusing it he's using it in an absurd fashion and similarly Caesar and many others used violence in in a fashion that quite alarmed the Romans Romans jokingly called this year the joint consulship of Julius and Caesar as it drew to a close Caesar had to make sure his next job kept him away from Rome and the threat of prosecution the tradition was that consuls were rewarded with a plum job in the provinces after their year in office with plenty of opportunities for making money the fact that Caesar was a wanted man didn't matter for Romans observing the ancient traditions and upholding the honor of the consulship was paramount his enemies voted him one minor post Caesar ignored them and mangled the job he wanted he took the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul a lucrative province that also let him keep in close touch with his interests in Rome he could have ended up as just another corrupt Roman politician a footnote in history then fate intervened his allotted province was south of the Alps what's now northern Italy north of the Alps was the Roman province of transalpine Gaul present-day Provence and longer dock that was the limit of the empire beyond it the Gaulish tribes were causing trouble a new Roman governor had already been appointed for transalpine Gaul but unfortunately for Caesar he died on the journey north so it now made perfect sense for Caesar to be given that additional province as well along with command of its troops and it was that decision that turned Caesar the politician into Caesar the general the Asterix stories are probably most people's closest contact with Gaulish culture a general sense of jolly meets swilling goals giving the Romans the runaround the balls of brave warriors the violence is not about and Caesar himself is a humorous little man with a big nose and even bigger vanity it works because there's elements of truth and especially Caesar being vain but ironically we wouldn't know much about the Gauls way of life if it weren't for Julius Caesar [Music] the Gauls didn't leave any written record of how they saw themselves indeed the only way that we know anything at all about the world in which Asterix lived is because of the person who destroyed it Caesar wrote in detail about ghoulish customs and religion and habits even while he was doing his best to replace them with what he thought of a civilization what the comic strip doesn't begin to convey is the brutality of that campaign in 60 AD there were twelve million Gauls Caesar boasted that he killed a million of them and enslaved a million more it all started with one small problem the Romans lumped everyone beyond the empire together as barbarians in fact there were hundreds of different tribes each vying for position with the others contemporary coins show how the Gaulish tribes each had their own identity the Peruzzi who lived where Paris is today the arverni would give their name to the Auvergne and the tribe that caused the trouble the helvetii what caesar had to deal with was a major immigration problem the helvetii lived in what's now Switzerland but when they were attacked by German tribes they started migrating to Southwest France the easiest route south took them across a bridge over the Rhone at Geneva down the Rhone Valley and then cut west across transalpine Gaul Roman territory to stop them trespassing Cesar moved north at lightning speed [Music] this is where the rhone leaves Lake Geneva the bridge that the Helvetii were flooding across was somewhere around here where that island is Caesar simply destroyed the bridge and left the Helvetii stranded on the north bank problem solved his brief campaign was over but as government's have found ever since you can't stop desperate and determined immigrants by blocking one entry route after that the helvetii found a more northerly route which completely bypassed the Roman Empire so they were no longer Caesars responsibility but much to his delight they started over running the lands of another tribe called the I do we who appealed to Rome for help against this new invader Caesar immediately set off for their territory in what's now Burgundy the headquarters of the I do II was big practic Avast hill fort in North Bergen day as the migrant tribesmen camped out in the valley Caesar arrived to fight his first battle in Gaul the battle took place not far from here Caesar moved forward in classic formation three lines of troops against the helvetii the tribesmen who were used to fighting man-to-man felt back against the double hail of javelins towards that mountain over there Caesar continued to advance 15,000 tribesmen who until that moment had been standing on the sidelines over on that hill move forward to attack Caesar's army calmly he ordered his third line to wheel round and attack the new threat while he continued to advance towards the Helvetii the result was victory on both flanks a triumph of roman organization [Music] over the next few years Caesar sliced his way through Gaul with each conquest he moved deeper into foreign territory in 57 BC he conquered the Belgic people's in the northeast they were threatened by the huge Roman presence to the south and United to fight it thus giving Caesar the excuse he needed to invade the next year it was the turn of the Gauls in Normandy and Brittany to be overrun then Caesar moved across the country again to fight a German encroachment Over the Rhine in a lightning attack he stormed the enemy camp and slaughtered men women and children any survivors were chased to the Rhine where they were cut down or drowned but the massacre wasn't enough for Caesar he wanted a much bigger and better PR victory he decided to cross the Rhine and teach the Germans a lesson the local tribes offered to ferry him across but he wanted something much more spectacular so he ordered a bridge to be built the Rimes 400 metres wide at complaints on 6 to 8 meters deep Caesar was determined to intimidate the tribes with a demonstration of what cutting edge Roman technology could achieve in just 10 days the Romans spanned one of the greatest rivers in Europe and when they crossed it what did they do well the Germans ran away so they spent 18 days destroying their crops and villages and when they'd ensured famine Caesar retraced his steps destroyed the bridge and returned to Gaul by 55 BC Caesar was 45 what had started as a bit of troubleshooting had turned into a major conquest in five extraordinary years he'd more than rivaled Pompey the great military reputation expanding Roman territory and for the first time in his life making a personal fortune he'd gone to the limits of the known world but his quest for glory would take him beyond those limits to the remote island of Britain you Julius Caesar was a brilliant general who conquered all of what's now France and Belgium how do we know because he tells us the only point of the campaign for Caesar was to enhance his reputation in Rome military success was key to popularity with the people news would have filtered out anyway but Caesar wasn't content with second-hand accounts even though he was a full-time soldier he spent all his spare time writing up his account of his military exploits in serialized form a new book came out every year called the Gallic Wars they're classics of Latin literature but they're also history spun like a government press release in order to enhance his reputation as Gallic Wars are a monumental achievement hundreds of pages of history written while fighting campaigns across the country and not just written written beautifully the workaholic Caesar also wrote a book on Latin grammar the Gallic Wars had to be an accurate account of events other Roman soldiers were writing home from the front and any outright lies would be exposed instead Caesars interpretation of why events happened and his role in them puts him in the most favorable light [Music] even at the time opinion was divided about Caesar and his reputation on the one hand he was awarded in extraordinary 15 days of Thanksgiving for his victories on the other there were those who are outraged at his treatment of the barbarians and demanded that Caesar should be handed over to the German tribes to be punished for the way he treated them this is a Roman statue of a dying Gaul although he's recognizably barbarian with his shaggy hair and the metal talk around his neck he's portrayed with all the human dignity of a Greek hero there were contemporary artists and philosophers who had a different attitude to Caesars ruthless worldview let's not forget that just a few decades after Caesars assassination Jesus Christ was articulating the message of Christianity and much of what was adopted by Christianity had already been articulated by philosophers like Plato so there was an alternative view to this one of dog-eat-dog on a massive organised and violent scale Caesars governorship lasted five years in 55 BC his time was up in the Senate Caesars allies Pompey and Crassus were trying to get his posting extended for another five years to keep him out of Rome and away from prosecution but Caesar had to show there was still a job left to do [Music] there was one undiscovered and unconquered realm still in Europe a dank Misty Island right on the edge of the known world we called it Britain one of the warring tribes there had appealed to Rome for help it was the perfect opportunity Caesar got his extension and prepared for an invasion in these days when you can pop across the channel and back in a day it's difficult to imagine what this meant to the Romans it was like proposing and moon-landing the channel is only 20 odd miles across but for the Romans who were used to sailing the millpond of the Mediterranean was a huge barrier in addition the transports and troop carriers required to mount a full-scale invasion were a formidable logistical problem just the kind of mission impossible that Caesar had made his trademark but in 55 BC it was a desperate gamble for glory it was near the end of the campaigning season and the winter storms were fast approaching Caesar got separated from his cavalry by bad weather heedless he pressed on with justice infantry on this ill-fated mission British tribes tracked their progress along the coast hurling insults and weapons as he reached what's now deal Caesar could see he had a fight on his hands but his main problem was actually landing the deep bottom boats just couldn't get near enough the infantryman knew that they'd have to jump into the water in full kit and wade in under a hail of missiles thrown by the mounted tribesmen up there just waiting to attack the normally fearless troops seemed paralyzed but the spell was broken by the standard-bearer who shouted jump lads if you don't want to lose our standards at least history will know that one of us did our duty and he went over the side and into the water the troops followed [Music] the legions were surprised by the ferocity of the opposition they had no cavalry to counter the Britons in their speedy war chariots it wasn't Caesars finest hour the grand invasion turned into a survival exercise his troops had a tough few weeks foraging for supplies constantly fending off attacks from the natives before Caesar gave the order to return to go they were lucky to get back at all Caesars transports hadn't been properly beached and were wrecked by storms crammed into the surviving vessels the troops limped back across the channel before winter closed in but Julius Caesar wouldn't be beaten the British Invasion is the perfect example of Caesars ability to live life on an epic scale the Suzi was back in Gaul he ordered 800 newly designed ships to be built before returning to Italy for a winter of politics and memoir writing then he went back to Gaul the following spring and ordered a full-scale invasion but he wasn't just driven by wounded pride Britain was renowned for his gold silver and enormous pearls although anyone who lived here could have told him that what he'd actually find most of would be whether he hadn't learned his lesson from the year before his fleet was again completely wrecked on the beach by storms undaunted he left his engineers to repair them and ordering replacements from France he set out this time it went a bit better but Caesar still spent a frustrating few weeks marching through Kent and able to engage the Britons who made guerrilla raids then vanished had they known it all the tribesmen had to do was wait until caesar's supply lines were so stretched that he had to give up but they didn't the british army finally gave battle here on the banks of the Thames at Brentford if there was any where they were going to be able to stop this strange mechanical fighting machine from an alien country it was here at the lowest forwarding point of the Thames the British leader arrayed his forces over there on the far bank in woodland with sharpened stakes in front of them for protection Caesar knew that if he was going to beat them he was in for a difficult crossing his cavalry went in first followed by the infantry waiting in right up to their necks they took everything that the British could throw at them and when they finally got out the other side dripping and in full armor they launched such a heavy assault of the British that tribal resistance virtually crumbled Caesar had got the victory he wanted but his conquest was insubstantial a PR exercise rather than a real invasion he had neither the will nor the troops to keep an occupying force in Britain instead he imposed an annual tax on the Britons but as soon as they'd wave goodbye to his patched up boats they promptly forgot all about it it would be 97 years before Roman standards were seen on British soil again within 15 years Caesar had risen at the top of the political tree and conquered half of Northern Europe but his greatest conquests and challenges were still before him the next 10 years would take Caesar from the killing fields of Greece to Cleopatra's boudoir he'd rise so far they'd have to coin a new word to describe him Emperor [Music]

Channel: Timeline - World History Documentaries

Views: 1,274,426

Rating: 4.7868242 out of 5

Keywords: Documentary Movies - Topic, roman empire, history documentary, Documentaries, 2017 documentary, rome, TV Shows - Topic, documentary history, real, roman, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, History, stories, tony robinson, Channel 4 documentary, Full Documentary, BBC documentary

Id: 3duE5TzSWco

Length: 48min 6sec (2886 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 26 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/low_cool]

I thought this was a video featuring that dude with the world wide self empowerment seminars. This is much more interesting.

[u/mrfortran]

RemindMe! 12 hour "Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant"

[u/fartingBaron]

What the hell is that maniac doing to that steak at the beginning? Juicing it?