The Conquest of Gaul
by Gaius Julius Caesar · first published 1983
8mentions
2recommended by
7HN commenters
2009–2023first – last mentioned
29% recommend71% neutral
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Since there's no limit on the publication date, "The Conquest of Gaul" by Caesar was a great read for me to do during my daily commute.
on “Ask HN: Book of the year” ↗…compiling this when it was written is definitely impressive. This one is a reasonably lengthy read, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Additionally, though it is somewhat biased in favour of the author, The Conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar [1] was a great look into the campaigns throughout Gaul. And a relatively short read when compared to The Histories. [0] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1362.The_Histories [1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/592167.The_Conquest_of_G...
on “Ask HN: What are your favourite history books?” ↗…general way Rome quashed rebellion in general was brutal. The amazing thing we actually have first hand accounts on Rome's military conquests in the forms of the writings of Julius Caesar (eg with the conquest of Gaul, which was essentially genocide). Now first hand accounts aren't necessarily accurate (eg Herodotus tended to embellish) but there are other accounts that lend a lot of credence to Caesar's accounts.
on “Modern human incursion into Neanderthal territories 54k years ago at Mandrin” ↗…but baked the clay tablets preserving them. In the early days of Rome, Rome (the city) was sacked by Gauls. This destroyed a lot of the early works of Rome. This affected Rome's expansion (eg Caesar's conquest of Gaul has been argued to be affected by the cultural significance of this sacking). I's one reason why the origins of Rome are somewhat steeped in myth and legend rather than fact such as the apocryphal tale…
on “Could the greatest works of literature be undiscovered?” ↗…they involve lots of military strategy. You should also check out "The gathering storm + the other six books Churchill wrote on WWII. Man I could go on forever. I have "Panzer General" and "Caesar's Conquest of Gaul" on my nightstand... Enjoy... PS: Once you're well versed you'll hear people referring to Clauswitz a lot. When you're sick of hearing his name and you want more than the wikipedia entry go read "On…
on “Ask HN: good books about military strategy?” ↗…the Caucasus Mountains. I like that because I'm used to thinking that most mercenaries were Balearic slingers, Numidian horseman, and Cretan archers. Probably because that's what Caesar wrote about in Conquest of Gaul. I guess you can't forget about Iberian and Libyan infantry that Carthage used quite a bit as well as Spartan mercenaries and the infamous Italian mamertines. Caesar: Ch. 7 Thither, immediately after…
on “Mercenaries Were More Common in Greek Warfare Than Ancient Historians Let On” ↗…were championed. For example, "De Bello Gallico" (On the Gallic War,) is not a neutral historical account; it was written by Caesar for a Roman audience and aimed to defend and promote his actions. His conquest of Gaul would amount to genocide in a modern context but the Roman Public (the common people), at the time didn't seem to mind too much and thought his actions heroic.
on “Square where Julius Caesar was killed opens to the public in Rome” ↗…however, he was self-conscious about his baldness. According to Suetonius, combed his remaining hair all the way forwards sometimes, perhaps the original "combover." He also wrote a book called "The Conquest of Gaul" which should give a good idea about his character.
on “Was Cleopatra Beautiful? (1997)” ↗