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Essay on Julius Caesar: Gallic War
It was early on an August afternoon when the Helvetii organized themselves and then charged pell-mell up the hill against Caesar's troops, who were spread along the slopes in three thick lines of eight ranks each. After several hours of fierce hand-to-hand fighting, the Romans were still in control of the hill, and had begun to push the Celts back toward its base. By sundown the Helvetii had retreated across a small valley and barricaded themselves behind their wagons and carts at the top of the next hill. The Romans pressed after them well into the night, until at midnight the defeated horde of Celts fled from the hill and into the woods, leaving thousands dead on the battlefield. (Christian Meier, David Mclintock, 1995).
Within a few weeks Caesar took his legions northward into modern Alsace and defeated an army of German invaders led by an ambitious chieftain, Ariovistus, who fled back across the Rhine. In both battles Caesar used the tactics that enabled him to defeat Celtic armies again and again over the next eight years all over the area of modern France, Belgium, and Holland. His careful maneuvering to obtain the most favorable field position, and the surprise and speed of his movements, almost always gave him the upper hand even before the battle had begun. Once in battle, the Roman legions usually had the advantage over their unorganized enemies because of their centuries-old practice of physical conditioning, rigorous training, and stern discipline. Caesar's well-drilled and heavily armed infantry lost only one or two battles throughout the entire conflict that came to be called the Gallic War.
At the end of the warmaking season in the fall of 58, Caesar billeted his six legions at Vesontio, modern Besançon, the principal oppidum, or fortified town, of the Sequani tribe, located just outside the border of Further Gaul......
