by Anonymous on Mon Sep 13, 2004 3:51 am
Ave,
Battle of Alesia, 52 B.C requires special mention IMHO......This was THE battle that clinched total Roman occupation of Gaul. This was the only time when even a rather organised gallic campaign under brillinat commanders like Vercingetorix and Commius failed to defeat a much numerically inferior Roman army.
The actuall dynamics of the battle itself is impressive;
1.55000 Roman infantry and 6000 cavalry versus 230,000 Gallic infantry and 80000 cavalry. (Caesar had this tendency to exaggerate enemy numbers but it is almost certain that there were about 200,000+ foes)
2. The engineering genius of the Romans who made two concentric 11 mile (circumference) defensive lines with all those ditches, towers and spikes while the tribes of gaul gathered forces and marched to Alesia......all the while under constant attacks from the Gauls defending Alesia.
3. Caesar, Labienus and Trebonius deftly moving around the cohorts from one scene to another to meet the attacks from both the defenders and the relief force.
4.The Gallic forces were routed, losing almost three fourths strength as against minor losses in the Roman ranks.
The implications of the war are very significant....Gaul became a staunch Roman province like Hispania, Transalpine Gaul and Greece for another 400 years. It provided a springboard and major recruitment centre for further Roman conquests into Anglia and Germania. Note that Attila's threat to Western Roman Empire was checked almost exclusively by Briton and Gallic legions under Aetius. The Gallic spirit was crushed so badly that there were no more serious challenges to Pax Roma, the threat to Rome now came from Judaea and Germania.... Even the Belgae were almost wiped out after Caesar took some legions and ran a second revenge campaign (for the slaughter of Sabinus's and Cotta's legions) into Ambiorix's country immediately after Alesia. The Atlantic seaboard was now totally under Rome as a result.
Marius Sandrocottus.