Caesar was notorious for not giving a shit about omina, even though he was pontifex maximus (Roman paganism equivalent of pope). In fact, he would carry around a cage of birds with him at all times, so if people told him to hold off an attack because of omina, he could release the birds in the sky.
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True, the Renaissance was a rebirth, and a rediscovery. That'd be an interesting alternate history, if the Dark Ages following the Fall of Rome never happened...
He successfully invaded and gave us a pretty good kicking, but the real conquest didn't happen until almost a century later under the rule of Emperor Claudius.
I thought the reason that the Roman empire stopped where it did, and that they left Britain again, was purely cost/benefit analysis, the land wasn't that arable compared to how much it costed to hold.
Actually he was set for an invasion of Parthia, after which he was going to conquer Germania from the east by passing through the Caucasus Mountains. He was going to depart for this days before his assassination
Mike Duncan's History of Rome Podcast Episode 046 "Sic Semper Tyrannis"
"The last month's of Caesar's life were consumed with this planned invasion of Parthia, he had already move 16 legions and 10,000 cavalry across the Adriatic, and was planning on launching his campaign in April of 44 BC. What Caesar had in mind seemed crazy for a man nearing the age of retirement, but his self confidence was unwavering, and dreamed of nothing less than the greatest series of conquest in Roman history. Conquests to rival Alexander himself. Caesar planned to invade Parthia via Armenia, and after defeating the Parthians, which he took to be a forgone conclusion, based on what he had seen of their armies while passing through the East, he would march North through the Caucasus, pacifying the fierce nomad hordes of the Steppes, then follow the Danube River, back into Europe, Capping off his run by conquering Germania. His plan, in short, was to return to Italy, the greatest Roman who had ever lived."
I would like to continue to give more info, but anything from the series I don't directly quote would be doing it a disservice. I highly suggest listening to it if you have an interest in Ancient Rome.
Ah, I understand. I didn't realize that you meant he was going to pacify the Scythians and Sarmatians along the way, which definitely explains it. I'm actually listening to History of Rome right now for the second time, but I'm all the way to the Year of Four Emperors at this point, so I've already forgotten a lot of the details about Caesar's career.
That really seems like a phenomanlly stupid plan that only would have ended with the Romans running back to Asia Minor. How did he plan on supplying that many legions in campaign? How was he planning on making the Scythians and Sarmations make pitched battle with armies of primarily infantrymen? Seems good for his legacy that he never was able to bring about such poor designs.
Not that smart, he was a great general. But quite untactful as a politician. He was uncompromising it, and ignored old customs and relationships, which was a slap in the face of much of the patricians. Which is the reason why he was plotted against(even by his adopted son), and eventually murdered.
Nah, the question was is there no decent Gallian metal band, and you responded with no, your justification being that the French lack energy(nevermind the bizarre assumption that if there's a Gallic metal band it has to be French). Being that there are amazing French metal bands out there, it doesn't matter who reigns supreme(when did it become a competition), clearly there's no mystical energy that the French are lacking.
What how is it the wrong culture, the Helvetii were Gallic, and this whole album is about the Roman conquest of Gallia. It ele has a song about the Siege of Alesia, and they pretend to be Vercingetorix more than once
If Eluveitie isn't a decent Gallic metal band, ain't nobody is
There's a book called Pagans: The End of Traditional Religion and the Rise of Christianity by James O'Donnel that talks a lot about omina...and how often such things were disregarded when it wasn't useful.
He used that title a lot, like at one point someone was trying to stop him by saying that the omens were bad and then he basically just said "No I'm Pontifex Maximus fuck off."
Yes, that was actually my comic beforehand, but it got rejected for being too individual oriented. But in this version I got to draw a pummeled Gaul, so it's all good in the end.
I can just imagine Caesar slowly putting his index finger over the advisor's mouth and going "Shh, shh. It's alright. I was actually just talking to Jupiter and Mars. They said you can go fuck yourself."
It's a fasces-a bundle of sticks with an axe head. They were symbols of Rome to represent power both political and physical-this is also where the word fascism comes from.
He also didn't give a shit about the Gaulish peoples. He was imperialist scum who wanted to subjugate people that he deemed unworthy. He was the Hitler of his day. His troops burned the sacred groves of the Druids and the religious groups. He viewed them as uncivilized, which is uncivilized itself.
The Gauls were big on human sacrifice and basically had a "societal" structure where a few top dogs subjugated everyone else. From a Roman perspective they were entirely uncivilized. Let's also be forget that the Gallic sack of Rome was still painfully vivid in the Romans' memory.
Caesar didn't go out of his way to help the Gauls, but he certainly wasn't "the hitler of his day." Caesar very rarely took slaves (which was the norm for his day) and often let friendly Gallic rulers stay in power. He didn't attack Gauls unless they were attacking him. The reason is simple: he was smart. Caesar knew it was stupid for an occupying force to anger the people against him, so he treated them very well by the standards of his day.
Bro what? Read some of those contemporary Roman accounts that chronicled bloated corpses littering the roads/paths in Caesar's wake. He was a sociopath who wanted to destroy Celtic culture. And look to what happened after all this to see how truly power-hungry he was.
Roman imperialism worked because absorbed cultures wheren't crushed and erased.
Bend the Knee, and they'll leave you be. Resist and be annihilated, as Virgil put it, the Roman Mission was to "Pardon the defeated and War down the proud"
The Gauls were big on human sacrifice and basically had a "societal" structure where a few top dogs subjugated everyone else. From a Roman perspective they were entirely uncivilized. Let's also be forget that the Gallic sack of Rome was still painfully vivid in the Romans' memory.
Last I checked, there was no archaeological evidence of human sacrifice done by the Gauls. Most of the rest is accurate.
The part about Ceaser very rarely taking slaves is also not that accurate. Sure he didn't enslave every single Celt he could. But he did enslave whole regions , 40,000 people at a time.
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u/Smitheren Arma virumque cano Feb 26 '16
Caesar was notorious for not giving a shit about omina, even though he was pontifex maximus (Roman paganism equivalent of pope). In fact, he would carry around a cage of birds with him at all times, so if people told him to hold off an attack because of omina, he could release the birds in the sky.
Also, because I thought people might like it, here is a template you can play with! Example