Caesar's Conquest of Gaul

Caesar's Conquest of Gaul

Gaius Julius Caesar, born 100 B.C.E. in Rome to the impoverished patrician Julian Clan, knew controversy at an early age. Nephew to Popular Gaius Marius, he was earmarked by the Optimate dictator Sulla for prosciption after his refusal to divorce his Popular wife, Cinna. Fleeing Rome, and not returning until after Sulla's resignation in 78 B.C.E, upon his return he gained a position as a pontificate, an important Roman priesthood. Slowly but surely throughout his lifetime he worked his way up the political ladder, eventually becoming Consul, and finally Dictator Perpeteus Ð'- Dictator for life. One of the most influential political and military leaders of all time, Caesar was also a highly intelligent man and an exceptional orator. However, acquiring this absolute power was no mean feat, and Caesar had well equipped himself through previous expeditions with all the resources necessary to gain power in Ancient Rome.

One such "expedition" was Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul. Through Gaul, Caesar found a way to acquire power and prestige for himself within the Roman political arena. Therefore, Caesar's conquest of Gaul was incidental to his rise to power, and was merely used as a "stepping-stone" by which he could climb further up the political ladder, following the traditional path of the cursus honorum. His conquest of Gaul gave him all the resources necessary to climb the political ladder Ð'- wealth, popular support by the people of Rome, and, most importantly of all, the support of a staunchly loyal and experienced army.

In previous years, Caesar had relied upon the wealth and prestige of others in order to further his own political and military ambitions. Before his governorship of Cisalpine Gaul, he relied heavily upon the financial support of Crassus (whom was his main creditor) to gain favour with the Roman public. However, with his appointment as proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum in 58 B.C.E, Caesar saw an opportunity to increase his own wealth and prestige without relying upon the support of others. To his command of Cisalpine Gaul, he was also later given the command of Transalpine Gaul. His command of the Gallic region had several advantages. Firstly, the Po Valley was an excellent recruiting ground for troops. Secondly through Gaul, Caesar had an opportunity to acquire great wealth, which would be needed to further his political career. Furthermore, the political instability of Gaul gave Caesar an excuse to gain military glory for himself, and thus the support of the public in Rome.

Almost every single move that Caesar made during his political career was not without a clear purpose; indeed even his acceptance of the position of proconsul was not without purpose: Cisalpine Gaul's proximity to Rome allowed Caesar to keep a close eye of the affairs of Rome. However, it is also apparent that there were other reasons for his acceptance of the post:

"When at the close of his consulship the praetors Gaius Memmius and Lucius Domitius moved an inquiry into his conduct during the previous year, Caesar laid the matter before the senate; and when they failed to take it up, and three days had been wasted in fruitless wrangling, went off to his province. Whereupon his quaestor was at once arraigned on several counts, as a preliminary to his own impeachment. Presently he himself too was prosecuted by Lucius Antistius, tribune of the commons, and it was only by appealing to the whole college that he contrived not to be brought to trial, on the ground that he was absent on public service." (1)

During Caesar's first consulship of 59 B.C.E, his supporters used violence as a means of getting his political counterparts to pass his Agrarian Land Bill (the Lex Campania), which proposed to divide up publicly-owned land between the army veterans, as well as the urban poor. The Optimates vehemently opposed the Bill, and it was only through the use of violence that the Bill was ratified in the Senate. Therefore, Caesar also accepted his proconsulship of Gaul so readily, because it granted him immunity from the charges that he was facing.

Taking up his command of Cisalpine Gaul in 58 B.C.E., Caesar was confronted by the opportunity he had been waiting for. A tribe known as the Helvetii from northern Switzerland started a mass migration in late 58 B.C.E., seeking new homes within Transalpine Gaul. It was under the pretext of protecting the other Gallic tribes (such as the Aedui, who were allies of Rome) that Caesar found an excuse for his army to invade Gaul, so that he could win military glory for himself. Meeting the Helvetii at Bibracte, Caesar forced them to return to their homes. Later that year, the Suebi, a Germanic tribe started to expand at the expense of Aedui, and Caesar, sensing another opportunity for a successful campaign, drove the Germans back beyond the Rhine.

Once again, in the winter of 56 B.C.E., the Gallic tribes of the Veneti and Aquitani revolted against Roman rule. Caesar swiftly put down this uprising; however, he was extremely lenient in punishing the Veneti and Aquitani, as he realised that the Gauls could be useful allies to him in the future: "the perfidiousness of the tribes whose good-will he conciliated, another in his humanity and clemency to those he overpowered." (2) To furthermore reaffirm his newly kindled friendship with the Gallic tribes, he created a new legion composed entirely of Gauls trained in Roman tactics and warfare, to whom he gave full Roman citizenship:

"Encouraged by this, he added to the legions which he had received from the state others at his own cost, one actually composed of men of Gallia Transalpina and bearing a Gallic name too (for it was called Alauda [or "Crested Lark"]), which he trained in the Roman tactics and equipped with Roman arms; and later on he gave every man of it citizenship." (3)

This important period of Roman expansion into Transalpine Gaul was extremely beneficial to Caesar's popularity and political career. Following his victories over the rebellious Gallic tribes, his reputation was greatly increased, and the Roman public was greatly excited by the amount of booty that Caesar's Gallic campaigns had netted for Rome, thus further increasing his already vastly expanding support base. Through his vastly successful campaigns, Rome now controlled nearly all of Transalpine Gaul, not only giving him an enormous supply of natural resources and wealth, but also the support of Gallic tribes. Caesar had "become the champion and protector of the Gallic people" (4), due to his leniency towards the rebellious Gallic tribes.

In 55 B.C.E., two Germanic tribes