In 57 B.C.E, Julius Caesar was in the first
phase of of his 9 year campaign against the Gallic peoples. He had had some early success against some
of the initial resistance, and managed to march his army far enough north to finally
come into contact with the Belgae, whom he called "the bravest of all the Gauls." His first encumber with these people happened
when he and his army were encamped on a large hilltop. After hearing about Caesar's victories to
the south, an agreement had been reached among the Belgae tribes to put aside their differences
and meet this new threat as one. Unannounced, a huge Belgae army descended
on his position. The two sides sent their cavalry forward for
some light skirmishes, but the main forces kept their distance. Caesar, not wanting to abandon his strong
position, deployed for battle way up on the hillside. The Belgae deployed down at the bottom, just
on the other side of a small swamp. These were good defensive positions and both
sides knew it. The two armies started to get into a pattern,
where they would both deploy and just stare at each other all day. This went on for a while. The Belgae came with enough food to last for
a handful of days, but this was quickly turning into a siege. The tribes held a late night meeting, and
put the matter to a vote. In the end, they decided to go home and resupply,
but vowed to return if Caesar took any aggressive action. This is easier said than done. What an incredible turn of luck for Caesar. The next day the Belgae army just melted away
in front of him. After a couple of days, Caesar set off after
the largest and most formidable tribe, the Nervii. The Nervii had been the chief opponents of
breaking up the Belgae coalition. After some negotiations, they convinced many
like-minded tribes to stick together, and form a new, smaller army of the Belgae, totalling
around 75,000 men. They knew that Caesar would be coming after
them, so they took their time choosing a good battlefield. They settled on an area intersected by a river
called the Sabis, which was only about 3 feet deep, and was nestled between two small hills. One hill opened up onto a wide open plain,
and the other turned into a dense forest. The Belgae army crossed the river, slipped
into the forest, concealed themselves, and waited. Caesar had with him somewhere between 30 and
40,000 men, split into 8 legions. He suspected that the crossing of the river
Sabis may be contested, so he made his approach with caution. He set up a screen of cavalry and skirmishers
to both scout ahead and act as a shield for his main force. He then had his most experienced legions drop
their extra baggage and move up to the front, while his two rookie legions picked up the
extra weight and stayed back, advancing with the baggage train. When the Romans arrived at the river, they
didn't see any Belgae. Caesar decided that this hill, protected by
a river on one side, was a good enough defensive position, so he had his men start to encamp
for the night. The cavalry and skirmishers crossed to the
other side of the river to scout ahead as the infantry started fortifying the hill. Remember, the Belgae were already out there,
silently watching from the treeline. When the Roman scouts got close, a signel
was given, and the Belgae attacked all at once, catching the Romans completely unaware. The cavalry and skirmishes immediately retreated
across the river, desperately signeling to the main Roman army that they were under attack. The Roman infantry were all split up and busy
setting up the camp for the night. Some were digging trenches, some were setting
up tents, some were gathering firewood. Before Caesar even had time to sound the trumpets,
his legion commanders were running around grabbing soldiers from random units and throwing
them into adhoc lines of battle. In no time at all the Romans went from total
disarray to a having a disorganized but workable defensive line. By the time everybody was in position, the
battle had already begun on the Roman right flank. The Belgae were immediately in danger of enveloping
the line, and the Romans were giving ground. Some of the men dropped their weapons and
began to flee. Caesar arrived on the scene, jumped off his
horse, picked up a shield, and ran into his infantry, shouting encouragement and getting
his men to physically push back against the Belgae with their shields. He was successful. The Belgae advance was stopped, and both sides
paused for a moment to catch their breath. Caesar took this opportunity to quickly redeploy
his men into a defensive square formation, in order to avoid being enveloped on the right
a second time. Meanwhile, on the Roman left, two legions
had charged downhill into the enemy lines, and were dong quite well. The Belgae forces on this side seemed a little
thin, and the Romans were able to keep pushing all the way across the river. Once across the river, the Belgae collapsed
into a full-on route, and fled into the woods. The ease of this victory must have made one
of the legion commanders a little suspicious, because instead of joining in on the slaughter,
he had his men turned, and double timed it along the bank of the river, towards the Roman
right flank. And on the right flank, the Romans were still
in a fight for their lives. At some point in the fighting, a large number
of Belgae had been able to force their way around the Romans on the right, and had started
to make their way up the hill, towards the Roman baggage train. Imagine the surprise of the two rookie legions
when this huge Belgae raiding party crested the hill, and charged. Meanwhile, that legion from the Roman left
finally made it all the way to Roman right, and discovered that the right was in danger
of being overwhelmed. Despite being completely exhausted, this legion
entered the battle for a second time, and charged the Belgae rear. The Belgae made a heroic last stand, but the
writing was on the wall. Eventually, they were all killed. Speaking of heroism, the two rookie legions
had now officially entered the battle. After the Belgae charged, the fighting got
absolutely ferocious. The Roman defensive lines broke down pretty
quickly the whole thing turned into a giant free for all. It got so bad that slaves and civillians from
the baggage train grabbed weapons and joined the fight. The Roman skirmishers and cavalry, who had
barely escaped with their lives at the beginning of the battle, noticed what was happening
and ran back to help. It was a long, bloody fight, but the rookies
held their own, and eventually these last remaining Belgae surrendered to them. We don't know how many Romans were killed,
but it was probably a lot. Four of Caesar's eight legions had been overrun
at some point in the battle. In one anecdote we are told that the two legions
on the Roman right lost almost every one of their centurions. This explains why some of the men broke and
ran. With this resounding victory over the Belgae,
the first phase of Caesar's conquest of Gaul came to a close. Years of bloody campaigning remained, but
this was the most extreme the fighting got until the Battle of Alesia, many years later,
when the Gauls would make a valiant last stand against their new occupiers.
So glad he's making videos again after the 7 month hiatus.
How can such accurate information be obtained?
He is back, awesome :D :D :D
I should have been a History major, not a Psychology major. This stuff is interesting.
The Romans really were the best.
YES
Are there any other channels similar to this one?