字幕列表 影片播放 列印英文字幕 The Gauls were one of Rome’s oldest and most bitter enemies. They had sacked Rome and throughout the centuries fought alongside the Republic’s most dangerous adversaries, including Pyrrhus and Hannibal. By the end of the 2nd century BC Southern Gaul was largely subdued, however, there was still tension in Northern Gaul, particularly along the Rhine. These tensions would ultimately climax in the Gallic Wars: the conflict that would shape the future of Western Europe for centuries to come, giving rise to the Holy Roman Empire and modern-day France, the conflict that would forever etch the name Gaius Julius Caesar in the annals of history. But before we start our video, we would like to thank our sponsor – Wix. Wix is everything you need to create a beautiful personalized site, as it offers 100s of templates and top-grade hosting for free, along with various unique apps that you can add to your site. We were able to build a professional new website for our channel through Wix's technologically advanced Editor tool, and you can see it at kingsandgenerals.org. On our website, we feature all things Kings & Generals and you can see our YouTube videos, get our social media feeds in one place to catch our fun social posts, access our merchandise and contact us. Wix allows us to have another outlet to promote our content and serve as a platform to connect to our subscribers. Support our channel and build your own site by clicking on the link in the description or by entering the URL wix.com/KingsAndGenerals Rome had been rocked by almost half a century of Civil Wars and the Republic was in decline. Both Marius and Sulla had marched on Rome, highlighting the ineffectiveness of the system for maintaining a large Empire and the fact that the legionaries were more loyal to their generals than to the state. Following this chaotic period, three men had established an unofficial alliance to effectively control the Republic. This was the First Triumvirate consisting of the famous general Pompey the Great, the richest man in Rome Crassus, and Julius Caesar. Caesar had been consul the year before, in 59 BC, but his political campaigning had left him in debt and made him many enemies in Rome; he needed to make money fast and gain enough military success to keep his political adversaries at bay. When the time came for distributing provinces for Caesar to govern as proconsul, he was able to use his political allies to secure Cisalpine Gaul, Illyricum and Transalpine Gaul for an unprecedented 5 years. This put Caesar in control of four veteran Legions, the VII, VIII, IX and X, all of whom had fought with Caesar before in Hispania and were loyal to him. They had a total of roughly 22,000 Legionaries plus auxiliaries. Caesar now had the men he needed; all he needed was an excuse for war. Fortunately for Caesar, a Celtic tribe, the Helvetii, was planning a migration into Gaul in 58 BC. Their leader, Orgetorix, had formed a confederation with a number of neighbouring tribes, the Tulingi, Latobrigi, Rauraci and Boii, and they now numbered 368,000 men, women and children. Orgetorix had even convinced them all to burn their homes in order to leave no option of failure. However, soon he was accused of being a tyrant, was forced to commit suicide. Command passed to Divico. Divico was determined to stick to the plan and began amassing supplies in order to start pouring into Gaul. To do this they would have to either pass through the land of the Roman ally Aedui, and the province of Transalpine Gaul, or take the longer route through the mountain passes in the North. The Romans had built up a healthy fear of migrating tribes following the Cimbrian War in 113-101 BC and so Caesar, hearing of this, was only too willing to come to the rescue of the Aedui. He took the only available legion in the area and force marched them up to Geneva, destroying the bridge on the Rhone that provided access into Transalpine Gaul. The Helvetii appealed to Caesar asking for military access through Roman lands and promising they would not attack. Caesar played for time, pretending to consider this offer for almost 15 days. Using this time, his legion was able to construct a fortified embankment almost 5 metres high stretching 20 miles along the river bank. With the legion manning the embankment and now in a stronger position, Caesar denied the Helvetii access and refused to allow them to cross. Some of the Helvetii ignored this and attempted to cross nonetheless in small boats but were prevented from doing so by the legionaries throwing javelins and shooting arrows into them. With the southern route thus blocked, the Helvetii decided to take the longer northern route through the mountains into Gaul. Leaving his top lieutenant, Labienus [la’bi’aenus], in command, Caesar returned to Italy to levy a further two legions and to pull the other 3 veteran legions out of their winter quarters in Aquileia, bringing his total to approximately 33,000 legionaries plus auxiliaries. Despite Labienus being in a position to easily block the mountain pass, the Helvetii managed to push into Gallic territories and began ravaging the land. The Gauls pleaded with Caesar to intervene and chase the Helvetii out and Caesar, yet again, was only too willing to help, marching his legions into the Gallic territories. The decision of Labienus to not hold the Helvetii in the mountains was likely an order received from Caesar; the Celts were now in open terrain, which better suited the Roman legions, and their pillaging of Gaul gave Caesar an excuse to intervene. Word reached Caesar that the Helvetii were currently attempting a crossing at the Arar River. They had been crossing in four large groups using many rafts and boats, but due to the size of the horde and their lack of organisation, the crossing had already taken them days and one group was still yet to cross. Caesar took 3 of his legions and swiftly marched to the river. Quickly forming his legions into battle formation, Caesar fell upon the Celts waiting to cross. Caught unaware, unprepared, and encumbered by their baggage, the Helvetii did not even have enough time to form a proper battle line. The fighting was over quickly, with the whole stranded group being killed or fleeing into the nearby woods whilst the other three groups could do nothing but watch helplessly from the other side of the river. The main Helvetii force began to move on and, not wanting to lose the initiative, Caesar quickly built a bridge across the river and moved all of his six legions across. The crossing that had taken the Celts 20 days had taken the Romans just 1. Caesar began tailing the Helvetii, waiting for the right time to strike. There were a few minor cavalry skirmishes, but nothing decisive. Caesar did once manage to find a battlefield that was advantageous and even had Labienus in position behind the enemy, however, due to poor communication from his scouts, Caesar was forced to pull back from the battlefield. This caused a delay in Caesar’s plan and he was being to run low on rations. He decided to head to the nearby town of Bibracte to resupply his army before continuing the pursuit. As he began to march off however, Divico gave chase, harassing the rear of the Roman army. Caesar sent his cavalry and light infantry to fight a delaying action in order to buy time to deploy his main force on a nearby hill. The four veteran legions formed three lines at the front with the two newly levied Legions, along with the auxiliaries, positioned further up the hill. These men were not tested in battle and so were not expected to do any of the fighting, instead they were to guard the baggage and were spread thin across the hill to seemingly increase the size of Caesar’s army. The Helvetii, numbering somewhere between 60,000-90,000 warriors, had successfully fought off the Roman cavalry and light infantry, forcing them to retreat. They now formed their infantry into a tightly packed shield wall and advanced on the Romans. The front two lines of legionaries opened the battle with a volley of javelins. These hampered the Helvetii by becoming stuck in their shields, forcing them to drop them and to break into a looser formation. With the shield wall in disarray, the Roman front lines charged into melee. The fighting was intense and tough but the Romans’ discipline and experience gave them the edge. Slowly, they began to get the upper hand, with the Helvetii being forced back to a nearby mountain. However, as the Romans pressed up the mountain, a portion of the Helvetii allies composed of Boii and Tulingi, roughly 15,000 warriors, entered the battle. These men had been acting as a rear-guard, protecting the camp, and now they fell on the Roman flank, threatening to encircle them. The Helvetii, bolstered by the arrival of their allies, began pushing back with renewed vigour. With the two front lines of legionaries already engaging the Helvetii on the mountain, Caesar committed his final line of veterans, which had been acting as a reserve. After hours of hard fighting, the Helvetii on the mountain were eventually broken and forced from the battle. However, the Boii and Tulingi fell back to the camp to make a last stand. Using their baggage wagons they formed a makeshift rampart and continued the fight, hurling missiles down into the Roman ranks. This is where the fighting was the most difficult as the Boii were famed warriors and fought desperately. Finally, after fighting long into the night, the third line was able to break into the camp, ending the battle. The battle had lasted almost 12 hours. Caesar had lost perhaps 5,000 men, whilst the Helvetii had lost around 40,000 to 60,000. Of the 368,000 people who began the migration, only 130,000 were now left. Caesar, with no cavalry left to speak off, was not able to give chase immediately and gave his men three days in order to recover from the battle before starting the pursuit. The Helvetii, seeing the Romans chasing them once more, surrendered completely and were forced to return to their homeland and made a vassal of Rome, acting as a buffer between Roman and Germanic lands. Caesar had achieved his aim of gaining a swift military victory and, for now, he would be able to hold off his political enemies in Rome. Furthermore, the Romans had now shown themselves to be a powerful force in the Gallic theatre. After his victory, Caesar rested in Bibracte for a short time before moving on. Rumour had already reached him of a Germanic tribe that had crossed the Rhine and was terrorising Gaul. The Gallic Wars were just starting and in our future videos we will talk more about them, so make sure you are subscribed to our channel and pressed the bell button. We would like to express our gratitude to our Patreon supporters and channel members, who make the creation of our videos possible. Now, you can also support us by buying our merchandise via the link in the description. This is the Kings and Generals channel, and we will catch you on the next one.
B1 中級 美國腔 Caesar and Gallic Wars: Battle of Bibracte 58 BC DOCUMENTARY(Caesar and Gallic Wars: Battle of Bibracte 58 BC DOCUMENTARY) 8 0 香蕉先生 發佈於 2022 年 07 月 04 日 更多分享 分享 收藏 回報 影片單字