For those who grew up savoring the Classics Illustrated version of Caesar's Gallic Wars, this book is a leap to the next level: a lavishly and accurately drawn comic book style history(vaguely--but only--reminiscent of the best details of the Asterix series comix--). This fascinating book allows the characters to 'speak' Caesar's Latin and the reader to make the translations, which come surprisingly easy, even to the moderatley proficient. To those who know the Gallic Wars, it would certainly add a further diminsion, and for those just discovering Caesar, it would provide helpful illustrations of the peoples and the military arts of both Gallic and Roman camps.

THE HELVETIAN WAR. -- Early in the year 58 B.C., the whole population of Helvetia (northern Switzerland ), amounting to about 360,000 attempted to pass by an armed emigration through the heart of Gaul, in order to settle somewhere near the shore of the Bay of Biscay, possibly with the hope of being masters of the whole country. They were hemmed in by the great natural barriers of the Alps, the Lake of Geneva, and the Jura Mountains on the south and west; and pressed on the north by great hordes of Germans, who kept up a continual border war. Their fields were scant, their harvests insufficient, their people hardy and fearless. Their ambitious chief, Orgetorix, had prepared them so well for this enterprise that his flight and death -- when he was charged with guilty conspiracy, and put on trial for his life -- caused no delay.

Caesar was given Cisalpine Gaul, between the Alps, the Apennines, and the Adriatic.

When the governor designate of Transalpine Gaul (the one beyond our alps) unexpectedly died, this province, too, was assigned to Caesar at Pompey's insistence . (Caesar made the political partnership of his life when he did the First Triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus, the richest man in Rome (10 billion dollars estimated at today's standards)… Cisalpine Gaul gave him a recruiting ground and Transalpine Gaul give him an opportunity for conquest.

The Latin word provincia originally meant the sphere of action of a magistrate possession imperium (the right to command), but came to mean in later republican times a territory outside Italy, subject to the Roman people, obliged to pay tribute to Rome, and governed by a resident Roman magistrate.

Except in special circumstance a province did not have to provide military service.

Here is some very interesting information, tho I have no idea of its accuracy from an interesting site, the http://www.unrv.com/provinces/gallia.php"> UNRV site of Roman History, apparently not affiliated with a university, but fascinating, tho take it with a grain of salt. They say:

In 218 BCE during the Second Punic War, Gauls joined with Hannibal as he crossed the Rhône to invade Italy. Upon Hannibal's defeat in 202 BCE, the Gauls again tried to organize against Rome, but the Boii, then the dominant Gallic tribe, were subdued by 191 BCE. Thereafter, the Gauls were never again able to successfully challenge the Roman military. In the years following Hannibal's defeat, the Romans expanded throughout the Mediterranean. After reinforcing the northern colonies of Placentia and Cremona in 203 BCE, Roman troops expanded into Cisalpine Gaul. They waged costly, drawn-out campaigns against Gallic and Iberian tribes and finally, in 121 BCE, the Gauls were defeated on the lower Rhône, opening southern France to Roman rule.

An alliance with the Aedui against the Allobroges and the Arverni brought the Romans control of the Rhône River valley after 120 BCE.

The Roman colony of Narbo Martius (Narbonne) was founded on the coast in 118, and the southern province became known as Gallia Narbonensis. An invasion by Germanic Cimbri and Teutones was defeated by Gaius Marius in 102, but 50 years later a new wave of invasions into Gaul, by the Helvetii from Switzerland and the Suevi from Germany, triggered Roman conquest of the rest of Gaul by Julius Caesar in 58–50 BCE.

That's interesting? In this we need to be watching carefully if we are seeing organization or scattered tribes and what Caesar did and how he figured out best to approach them. Love it.

OK are we ready to move on??

Now this is a great part! We learn what CAESAR thinks is the motivation of the Helvetians, and the pitiful part is they LEFT no records? They were barbarians? They wrote nothing, or if they did, it's long lost, so we have Caesar's own opinion only. He was a shrewd man, was he right, do you think? OR is he slanting this for his own use? Why is he writing this, again??

Can we find any historical commentary which gives another motivation to the Helvetians? Fascinating, let's have a bit more: (this is not checked for error, so if you see one, please let us know)

Qua de causa Helvetii
quoque reliquos Gallos
virtute praecedunt,

quod fere

cotidianis proeliis
cum Germanis contendunt,
cum aut suis finibus
eos prohibent
aut ipsi in eorum finibus
bellum gerunt.

Eorum una, pars,
quam Gallos obtinere dictum est,
initium capit a flumine Rhodano,
continetur Garumna flumine,
Oceano, finibus Belgarum,
attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum,
vergit ad septentriones.

Belgae
ab extremis Galliae finibus
oriuntur,
pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni,
spectant in septentrionem
et orientem solem.

Aquitania a Garumna flumine
ad Pyrenaeos montes
et eam partem Oceani
quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet;
spectat inter occasum solis
et septentriones.

[2] Apud Helvetios
longe nobilissimus fuit et ditissimus
Orgetorix.
Is
M. Messala, [et P.] M. Pisone consulibus regni
cupiditate inductus
coniurationem nobilitatis fecit
et civitati persuasit
ut de finibus suis
cum omnibus copiis
exirent:
perfacile esse,
cum virtute omnibus praestarent,
totius Galliae imperio potiri.

Id hoc
facilius iis persuasit,
quod undique loci
natura Helvetii continentur:
una ex parte flumine Rheno
latissimo atque altissimo,
qui agrum Helvetium a Germanis dividit;
altera ex parte
monte Iura altissimo,
qui est inter Sequanos et Helvetios;
tertia
lacu Lemanno
et flumine Rhodano,
qui provinciam nostram ab Helvetiis dividit.

His rebus fiebat ut
et minus late vagarentur
et minus facile finitimis bellum
inferre possent;
qua ex parte
homines bellandi cupidi
magno dolore
adficiebantur.

Now that's pretty strong stuff, right there? That's also beautiful Latin. I know some people prefer Cicero, but ol Caesar is straight forward (did you know he wrote a grammar?) and has already begun to use some of his trademark expressions, which we may as well get down pat before we travel too far on. Here he gives us the boundaries of the Helvetians and advances some ideas why they might have wandered and even names names. Fascinating!!!!

So what do you think of the reasons he gives? Do you think he's right? Pick a sentence and try it!!

The biggest export was wine from Rome and Italy. They imported glassware from Egypt, along with paper, linen and grain, Africa sent olive oil and wheat, Spain sent metals, Britain sent tin, Gaul sent pottery and cloth, the Baltic region sent amber, India sent rugs and perfumes, while China sent silks. In Nero's time a silken lounge cost $75,0000 while certain purple silk fabric (sericoblata) cost $1,800 a pound.

Silk dealers were called sericarii.

Pepper was imported from India, the Egyptians popularized the onion. In later Rome, many foods were imported from the provinces and foreign nations, such as

rabbits, pheasants peacocks!!!!, apricots, peaches, cherries, oysters, sausages, figs, cucumbers and certain kinds of cheese. The Romans also held in high regard foods of a yellow color and hence saffron was used profusely to effect that coloring.

There were two kinds of merchants: wholesalers and retailers. Retailers were usually freed slaves, aliens, or members of lower classes, as a group in general they were looked upon with contempt because retail trade was considered sordid since it was believed to thrive by lying.

(Albert F Warsley)

Soldier Wit and Slang: There is no mention in Caesar's pages of campfire jokes, the songs of his men on the march, and their home letters, and it is only rarely that the personal element enters into the narrative, but we know that the life of the soldier was changed but little since then. His language then was just as picturesque as now. You will recall such descriptive names as "tin hat" for steel helmet, "Big Bertha " for the long-range guns of the Germans, "pill boxes" for the enemy's machine gun shelters, and "No Man's Land" for the deadly strip between the opposing font-line trenches.

An ancient writer tells us that the men of the Roman army, many of whom had been reared on farms in Italy, were fond of calling weapons and things about camp by the names of animals and objects with which they were familiar as country boys. The forked sticks on which Marius's solders carried the packs (sarcinae) were called "Marius' mules."

A certain kind of ballista or machine for hurling heavy stones, was named onager "wild ass," from that animal's habit of flinging stones at its pursuers with its hind feet.

Egads! What a question:

1. Was Rome, as the possessor of a superior culture, justified in imposing their civilization upon the primitive Gauls?

This, of course, assumes that culture is dictated by material possessions, not just civilization is dictated by the material world surrounding humans, but their very identity as humans, their culture, is a function of their material world. Blech.

Main Entry: civ·i·li·za·tion
Pronunciation: "si-v&-l&-'zA-sh&n
Function: noun
1 a : a relatively high level of cultural and technological development; specifically : the stage of cultural development at which writing and the keeping of written records is attained b : the culture characteristic of a particular time or place
2 : the process of becoming civilized
3 a : refinement of thought, manners, or taste b : a situation of urban comfort

---

Interesting. I think we would have to say that Rome in Caesar's day was certainly the first or a definition, when you think of Cicero and the philsophy he wrote, the mind boggles. I think I am in a minority in liking Caesar, but I REALLY like the way he writes, he's different from a lot of the other authors, for a lot of reasons and certainly was a great man, so it's interesting to read his somewhat dry ideas and conclusions.

Look what I found! My husband was packing for a trip to North Dakota and wanted one of the roll aboards and out of it fell this!!

This is a modern 2 Franc note from Switzerland in 2004, they're not on the Euro. Fascinating, isn't it!

Ok who wants to try another line, phrase or clause??