Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Battle of Alesia

Episode Date: May 28, 2021

In the year 52 BC, the Roman General Julius Caesar fought the last major battle in the conquest of Gaul. The implications of the battle have reverberated throughout history and can still be felt in the world today. But the real story isn’t the implications of the battle, but how it was won. It was one of the most audacious gambles in military history, and it worked. Learn more about the Battle of Alesia on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the year 52 BC, the Roman general Julius Caesar fought the last major battle in the conquest of Gaul. The implications of the battle have reverberated throughout history and can still be felt in the world today. But the real story isn't the implications of the battle, but how it was won. It was one of the most audacious gambols in military history, and it worked. Learn more about the Battle of Elysia, one of the greatest feats of tactical military genius in history, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. This episode is sponsored by the Athletic Brewing Company. Athletic Brewing brews delicious craft beers that just have. happen to be non-alcoholic. Athletic Brewing founders, Bill and John, are craft beer lovers who wanted to cut back on alcohol without compromising on flavor.

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Once again, that's Athleticbrewing.com. Coupon code Everything15. During the period of the Roman Republic, the area we now know as France was called Gaul. The Gauls had a special place in the Roman psyche. Over 300 years earlier in 390 BC, a tribe of Gauls entered Italy and sacked Rome. The sack of Rome by the Gauls created a deep-seated fear of Gaul, amongst the Romans. Other than a thin strip of land along the Mediterranean coast, the Romans left most of Gaul alone for most of the period of the Republic. In the years after the sack of Rome,

periodic raids by Gauls into Italy caused the Romans to resort to human sacrifice, which was something they otherwise never engaged in. It was in this environment that Julius Caesar, after he was finished in his term as consul, was sent to be the pro-consul of the Roman provinces of Sissalpine Gaul, which was in northern Italy, and Trans-Alpine Gaul, and Trans-Alene. Alpine Gaul, which was the Roman-controlled part of southern France. Caesar came into the position highly indebt, having spent lavishly to attain the consulship. It was now that his time in office was over that he was going to cash in. Most pro-consuls would go to a province and make money off of the run-of-the-mill corruption and squeezing people with high taxes. Caesar, however, was much more

ambitious. Much more ambitious. He began waging an unauthorized war with all the tribes in Gaul. He used a lot of trumped-up charges to justify his wars. He raised legions, developed logistical trains to support his units, played different Gaelic tribes against each other, and basically took advantage of their highly ununified tribal system. Caesar also used his victories against the Gauls for massive propaganda purposes. Caesar's commentaries on the Gallic Wars was written by himself in the third person. They were periodically sent to Rome where they served as news updates for the citizenry.

The result was that they made sense. Caesar, incredibly popular. After several years of constant losses to the Romans, the Gauls eventually wised up and started to unify. They elected a single person who would lead them in battle, Versengetteryx. The Gauls actually had a significant numerical advantage. They were fighting on their home turf, and they didn't need long supply chains. After the selection of Versing Getorex as their leader, the Gauls went on a rampage,

killing Roman merchants, settlers, and smaller military units. Word took time to reach Caesar, who was willing. wintering in Sissalpine Gaul, but when he heard about the tribes uniting, he headed back into Gaul. On his return, he had very serious supply issues, and he decisively lost a battle at Ghergovia. In Ghergobia, Versingoterex was holed up in a fortified town, and he beat Caesar back when Caesar tried to take the town by force. Versen Gettorex then went to the fortified town of Elysia, which is where this story really begins.

Elysia was built on a hilltop, and like Gurgovia was heavily fortified. Versingeterex was hoping that Caesar was going to make the same mistake he did in Grigovia. Caesar had somewhere between 60,000 and 75,000 men, which included Roman legions, as well as allies from Germanic tribes. Versingetorex had approximately 80,000 men besieged inside of Elysia. Caesar didn't attack Elysia. Instead, Caesar got to work building fortifications. A lot of fortifications. Roman legions weren't just highly disciplined fighters.

but were also very skilled in engineering. In fact, they spent far more time building camps and fortifications than they ever did fighting. They built over 25 miles worth of fortifications, completely surrounding the hill city of Elysia. They built a wooden fence, 23 towers, trenches, anti-calvary traps, as well as trenches for the infantry. It was a well-built structure that would be very difficult to break through, and everything was aimed at the forces inside the town. This was a massive effort and required chopping down a significant part of the forests around Elysia. The entire effort took about a month.

Versingetteryx tried to disrupt construction by sending out sorties on horseback, but it wasn't sufficient. Caesar wanted to starve out Versingetorix. In addition to the 80,000 men he had inside Elysia, there were also women and children in the town as well. They all had to be fed and supplies were limited. Versengetics, however, had sent out messengers before the seed started to gather all of the tribes. tribes to have them come to Elysia to relieve the town and crush the Romans. It was now a waiting game. It was a matter if the food in Elysia could hold out long enough for the reinforcements to arrive.

The Gauls knew that they didn't have enough food for everyone, so they held a council where they made the hard decision to expel the old and the sick. The townspeople also agreed to send out their women and children. They wanted to save as much food as possible for the fighters, and they also hoped that Caesar would take in the exiles as prisoners, which would then exhaust his food supply. However, Caesar didn't take the bait. He didn't let the Gauls expelled from Elysia to enter, so they sat stuck between the walls of the city and Caesar's walls, where they eventually starved to death.

Caesar became aware that Golic reinforcements were on the way. In fact, the number of troops coming was far larger than his own force, which was already engaged in a siege. Now, up until this point, this was a pretty standard siege. The wall and fortifications were large, to be sure, but so far this wasn't something that would stand out in the history books. What happened next, however, is what made this battle famous, and what established Caesar as one of the greatest generals in ancient history. If Caesar broke off the siege to confront the reinforcements, then 80,000 troops from the town would spill out and attack one of his flanks. If he didn't break off the siege, then a quarter million men would be attacking him while he was still besieging the town.

Most generals, when put in Caesar's position, would do the prudent thing and retreat. Take your forces, get away, regroup, and fight again another day. What Caesar did was one of the craziest things any general did in the history of warfare. He built another wall. He took all his men and built an even longer wall that encircled the wall he already built. He basically created a fortified military donut. The Romans and their allies were now sandwiched between three. two walls, serving as the dough in the donut. Versingeterex and his 80,000 men were inside the donut,

and a quarter million relief forces would be outside the donut. You don't have to be a military genius to realize that this was far worse than being surrounded. Caesar was not only going to be totally surrounded by a superior force, but he also had a larger force in the middle of his fortress. It's hard to come up with a worse tactical position than being surrounded, yet Caesar managed to find himself in one. When the reinforcements finally arrived, they camped about a mile away from the fortification. They thought they saw what was a weakness in the Roman walls, and the next morning they marched over 60,000 men to attack at that point. While that was happening, Versen Gettrix and his men came out of the town and began attacking the wall anywhere they thought it was weak.

Caesar sent one of his leading officers, Labienis, and six cohorts of Calvary, to the outer wall to stop the Gaelic reinforcements. He then sent Brutus, yeah, that brutus, to hold off Versingeterex on the inner wall. The Romans were constantly putting out fires having to rush from one part of the wall to the other to stop the Gauls. The Roman forces were stretched so thin that every single person sandwiched inside the walls was put to help holding the Gauls back. Eventually, just as the interior wall was starting to get weak,

Caesar personally assembled the remaining cavalry inside the walls and broke through to the outside in a last ditch effort. He wheeled around and began attacking the reinforcing Gauls from behind. His cavalry and the men inside the wall managed to surround and destroy a large number of the Gaelic forces outside the wall, causing the rest of them to flee. Versingertricks and his men never broke through the inner wall, and after the reinforcements fled, he knew it was over. Caesar had somehow managed to win, despite being surrounded from within and without, and by a significantly larger force. Versengeteric's close to starvation inside Elysia surrendered. He would be held prisoner by the Romans for five years before being ritually strangled at Caesar's triumph.

This would turn out to be the last great battle against the Gauls. They never seriously united again to challenge the Romans. Gaul was incorporated into the Roman Republic. Back in Rome, they went nuts when they heard the news of the victory in Elysia. There were 20 days of celebrations and games held. Caesar was now the richest and most powerful person in the United States. entire Roman Republic. From here, you know the rest of the story. Caesar marches back to Rome, crosses the Rubicon, the dais cast, they have a civil war. Caesar wins another amazing victory at

Farsalis, gets named dictator, and is assassinated by said Brutus. Much of what we know of Elysia came from Caesar himself, and he is an extremely biased source. But by Caesar's own estimate, he killed a million Gauls and enslaved a million more, all in a war which Caesar provoked. Julius Caesar was certainly not a good guy. From a strictly military standpoint, however, was Julius Caesar the greatest general in antiquity? Probably not. But he was a great general,

and maybe the greatest general in Roman history. And his performance at Elysia was possibly the greatest, most improbable victory in military history. The associate producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Thor Thompson. If you'd like to support the show, please donate over at patreon.com.

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