My essay is about the Battle of Alesia that took place in 52 BC, by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar. Rome went to war with the Gallic tribes from 58 BC to 50 BC, these wars ended with the win in Alesia in 52 BC. The Romans had a lot of victories and that made the Roman Republic expand over all of Gaul. This battle win in Alesia made Julius Caesar head ruler of the Roman Republic.
The background of the battle started in 54-53 BC when the Carnutes killed the pro-Roman ruler Tasgetius. After that incident Caesar sent some troops to Gaul to get rid of any possible threats. After sending his troops there they were attacked and after getting ambushed they were then defeated. Caesar lost a quarter of his troops, he tried to get help from Rome
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To create a good defense, Caesar had his men make a set of fortifications around Alesia. It was about 18 kilometers round. It did not take long to build these walls they were set up by two four and a half meter wide ditches and they were four and a half meters deep. There was one ditch close to the wall and they filled it with water and set up traps. By the ditches the Romans had watch towers filled with ammunition. Vercingetorix 's cavalry often attacked the construction sites trying to prevent full enclosure. The Roman troops fought back and kept them away. Because it was taking long, some of the Gallic troops managed to escape from areas that were not finished. Caesar was not happy with just the one wall and wanted more protection so he had the men build another one. He had it pointing outward in order to surround his army. The second wall was the same as the first and it was able to include four troops of men. These walls were put in place to help protect the Roman troops from the Gallic troops, who were strong and determined to win the Romans.
At the time, living in Alesia was very bad. With about 80,000 soldiers and the civilian population there were too many people that were inside the country for the tiny amount of food that they had. The Gauls decided to get rid of the children and the women from the city to save the remaining food for the warriors. The Gauls were hoping that Caesar would allow the women and children an opening to let them go. Caesar did
Crucial to protecting the empire, the borders the Romans had surrounding them were excellent; whether they be manmade or natural. Hadrian’s Wall was a good example of a manmade border. Issued by Emperor Hadrian in around 122AD, the wall was located in Northern England and was the most fortified wall built by the empire. Hadrian decided that they had conquered enough land, and was afraid that he wouldn’t have full control of the empire if he conquered more land, so this wall was built to keep out the Scottish people and to discontinue further growth of the empire. The Rhine River proved to be an exceptional natural border for the Romans, as
The three Punic Wars demonstrated the Roman emperors’ power over Rome with laws over land, environment, and conflicts. In The three Punic Wars Carthage and Rome fought for power over Mediterranean Sea. Carthage was lead by hannibal. The first Punic War was in 264 BC when Rome and Carthage wanted power to rule Sicily. The wars started when when Mercenary soldiers surrounded the city of Messena which is now Messina in Sicily and requested aid from Rome and Carthage against Hiero II, the king of Syracuse. Carthage and Rome hadn't always been enemies, they were on friendly terms before the greek king Pyrrhus had entered Italy.
The Romans won the Second Punic war for a variety of reasons. These included the role and strategy of the Roman Senate and the failure of the Carthaginian government to support Hannibal. Rome’s strong control of the sea as well as Carthage's failure to rebuild their navy contributed greatly. The actions of Fabius Maximus and Scipio Africanus brought about the decline of Hannibal's momentum in Italy and his final defeat. Thus, there was no single reason as to why Rome were victorious against Carthage.
The first Punic war started as the Romans moved over the sea and marched on Sicily to gain lands there. The war began 264 BCE and finished 241 BCE. There were a lot of battles especially with the Battle of Agrigentum being a massive learning curve for the Carthage army as it was routed by the Romans.
Let's explore the factors that led to the eventual fall of one of history’s most powerful and influential empires. From about 50 BCE until the year 200 CE, the Roman Empire was the superpower of the Mediterranean world. During that time, the empire’s wealth,territory and international status grew and grew.But even as the empire prospered,it was slowly starting to fall.In this essay I will be telling how Rome fell,and i believe that rome fell because of a weak government,natural disasters and foreign invasion.
From 264 BC to 146 BC, a series of wars broke out between Carthage and Rome. These wars were probably the largest that had ever taken place in this time period, and were called The Punic Wars. The reason for the conflict was the existing Carthaginian Empire and expanding Roman Republic came into contact with one another. During this time new strategic weapons and plans were being used. The Romans successfully defeated the Carthaginians with a wide use of tactics and sophisticated weapons.
In 49 B.C., Gaius Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his army, declaring civil war on Pompey and his supporters in the Senate. In this paper, I will explore the political and legal issues that pushed Caesar to the brink.
And don't forget the belt of scattered camouflaged pits with sharpened poles lay between all the trenches and if anyone did get past all that they'd find themselves facing a 12 feet wall with projecting stakes. In late September, the expected relief army of Gauls arrived, commanded by Commius of the Atrebates and Vercassivellaunos of the Averni. When they arrived they saw another wall around the wall that was enclosing Alesia. On 2 October, Vercassivellaunos attacked the weak spot (which was a steep hill that the Romans could not build through) in the Roman outer wall, with Vercingetorix attacking the inner wall. Caesar realized the attack would be difficult to beat off and
In Rome, the Patricians, the wealthy elite, sat at the top of the pyramid. They are followed by the Senators, as mentioned before had political power, but under the supervision of the consuls. The Equestrian class or equites were determined on a man could maintain a steady income. The freeborn Roman citizens or the Plebians sat below the equites. The last tier on the pyramid were slaves and soldiers. The Romans practiced both Judaism and Christianity. The women of both countries had no power of any kind nor were they considered citizens, so they were not allowed to run for office or serve in the military. Instead, they carried out the traditional family lifestyle of cooking, cleaning, and caring for the children (Cartwright, 2016).
Romans here are portrayed as fearless warriors, being similar to the Spartans, and potentially also being a nodd to the city’s divine origins of Mars, the god of war. But aside from courage, livy also ascribes the Romans with the virtue of forgiveness and mercy. When the Etruscans are cut to pieces by neighboring cities, it is to Rome that they flee: “A handful of Etruscan soldiers, having nowhere nearer to go, found their way to Rome, where they arrived unarmed and helpless... They were kindly received... the majority of them were induced to stay” (125).
Military engineering was only evident during the peak of Roman military during the mid-Republic to the mid-Empire. Before the mid-Republic period there is very little evidence of military engineering, and in the late Empire it is the same. Only during the central period was engineering a major part of the Roman Military. Military engineering took the form of the regular construction of fortified camps, in road-building, in the construction of siege engines, to the building of roadways for travel of the roman military. Engineering practice led to the invention of siege equipment such as the ballistae. This was a large crossbow that could be used to take down stone walls with just a few blows. Also to the creation of siege towers, as well as allowing the troops to construct roads, bridges and fortified camps. All of these led to the ability for Roman troops to, assault settlements easier, move more rapidly to wherever they were needed, cross rivers to reduce march times, surprise enemies, and to camp in relative secure areas, even in enemy territory.
Edward Luttwak’s The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire from the First Century A.D. to the Third gives a militaristic analysis of the tactics used by the Roman Empire while also highlighting parallels between Rome and contemporary U.S. military policy. Luttwak divides his book into three chapters, a chapter for each of the 3 identified systems; the first chapter discusses Rome’s use of mobile armies and client states to defend her borders. The second chapter shows border defense as was provided by small groups of marching legionary troops. The third and final chapter details the transition from an offense stance to a more
With the introduction of the hoplite phalanx to the Roman army, came a multitude of wars and long drawn out campaigns that the Romans were involved in throughout the republic period. One such campaign or campaigns that set the Roman republic as the uncontested superpower in the Mediterranean was the Punic Wars. Rome fought three wars against Carthage between 264 and 146 BCE. These wars constituted major events in the history of Rome and the Mediterranean basin (Marcel Le Glay 2009) p. 73. Though these wars were fought for reasons such as competing economics, revenge (most notably the Carthaginian general Hannibal), and a fear that could be related in today’s terms of opposing forces such as (the United States and Soviet Union feared each other during the Cold War) the fact is in the end Rome defeated the Carthaginians, not only were the Carthaginians defeated, but the city of Carthage was demolished and the people massacred or sold into slavery so as not to threaten the Romans ever again. In the fall of the city, in obedience to the Senate’s orders the inhabitants were reduced to slavery or forced to emigrate, the town was burnt and soil was
The Roman empire is considered one of the most powerful and longest lasting empire of all time by most historians. At its peak the Roman empire managed to take control and rule nearly the whole inhabited world at the time. Though their military achievements were outstanding the Romans also excelled at legislature. The Romans ran a governmental system which was most like a republic which the power was in the hand of the senators and patricians. The senators and patricians were mostly extremely rich elders of the community who linked themselves to gods. Though the people were the ones who voted for the senators the rich always voted who they wanted because they were the first to vote which made the senate corrupt since the lower classes barely got a say. Although the Roman empire was extremely successful historians are always doing research to figure out what elements led to its collapse. However, the Roman legislature, use of propaganda to sway public opinion, military power to conquer lands, and philosophy were essential reasons for the extended survival of the Roman empire.
One of the first wars Julius Caesar encountered was the Gallic War. The city of Gaul was rising just like Rome. However, one day German troops took back their land forcing one Gaul tribe to retreat back their main city. To do this they would have to cross some Roman territory. Gaul thought that this wouldn’t be a problem as they thought of Romans as understanding people. Julius Caesar soon learned about the Gaul tribe’s plans and took an army to the area in which the Gaul tribe would be crossing. Gaul sent two of their leaders and discuss their problem. The Gaul leaders then left to find out what date they wanted to cross. In that time Julius Caesar wanted to show how much force the Roman army had. He ordered his troops to build a wall across the point in which Gaul wanted to cross. The leaders soon came back and were astonished by the Roman army’s creation. When Julius Caesar and Gaul leaders met this time Julius Caesar said that he wouldn’t allow them to cross. Gaul was not about to give up so easily, from then on they began to check for weak spots in the Roman’s defenses. The Gaul tribe finally gave up as they knew that there were not any weak spots. Gaul decided that they would take a more dangerous route. They would travel through a narrow valley even though enemy could attack from above. Julius Caesar learned of Gauls new plans and was fearful. He thought that if Gaul went back to its main city it would hold a grudge against Rome and come to destroy them. So Julius