Caesar's Gallic Wars and the Siege of Alesia
- Date
- 58–50 BCE (Alesia 52 BCE)
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Gaul (France, Belgium)
- Era
- Classical Antiquity
- Significance
Between 58 and 50 BCE the proconsul Gaius Julius Caesar conquered Gaul (roughly modern France and Belgium), bringing a vast new territory and its peoples under Roman control and dramatically extending Roman power to the Atlantic and the Rhine.
The campaigns climaxed in 52 BCE at Alesia, where Caesar besieged the Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix, who had united many tribes in revolt. Caesar's army built a double ring of fortifications, an inner wall to contain the trapped defenders and an outer wall to repel a massive Gallic relief force, and won a complete victory; Vercingetorix surrendered the next day, ending organised Gallic resistance. The conquest, narrated by Caesar himself in his Commentaries, brought immense plunder and slaves, made Caesar enormously wealthy and gave him a battle-hardened, intensely loyal army. That army and prestige made him a rival the Senate and Pompey could not control, setting the stage directly for the civil war that would destroy the Republic. The Romanisation of Gaul reshaped western Europe for centuries.
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Empires active in 58–50 BCE (Alesia 52 BCE)
- Han Dynasty202 BCE – 220 CE
- Roman Republic509 BCE – 27 BCE
- Xiongnu Confederation209 BCE – 93 CE
- Kan Kingdom (El Mirador)300 BCE – 150 CE
- Indo-Greek Kingdom180 BCE – 10 CE
- Parthian Empire247 BCE – 224 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Battle of Actium ends the Hellenistic age2 September 31 BCE
- Battle of Gaixia and the founding of the Han dynasty202 BCE
- Battle of the Teutoburg Forest halts Roman expansion in GermaniaSeptember 9 CE
- The Kalinga War and Ashoka's turn to Dhammac. 261 BCE
- Destruction of Carthage and Corinth; Roman Mediterranean hegemony146 BCE
- Yuezhi defeat by the Xiongnu and westward migrationc. 176 BCE
Further reading
The wider story
Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic
Gripping popular narrative of the Republic's fall.
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