Alesia
Julius Caesar is well known in history as the man who helped bring about the end of the Roman Republic and was then killed in the most famous assassination in history. However, it is often overlooked that Caesar was also one the greatest Captains in history.
His most significant military achievement was achieved at Alesia where Vercingetorix, Gaul's greatest military leader who had recently united most of Gaul against Rome, had holed himself up in the fortress with 80,000 men. Caesar laid siege to Alesia by enclosing the fortress with a wall, and then building another wall to keep out any relief force. Some of Caesar's defenses were novel, including an ancient version of the mine. When the relief force came, it was more than 200,000 strong. Caesar, through raw leadership and the discipline of the Roman Legion, managed to beat both the relief force and Vercingetorix, destroying liberty for the Gauls for all time.
Read more about it here.
posted by Sloanasaurus | 4/07/2006 11:04:00 PM
And he invented a really good salad dressing!
I think it was the salad he invented. You don't order a salad with Caesar dressing; you order a Caesar salad. And then he came up with the Orange Julius. S'aurus is right: he was quite the guy, a vintage Thomas Edison, if you will.
The Gauls were the arch enemies of the Romans since 390 BC when they sacked Rome... The Galllic general was heard to have said "Woe to the Vanquished."
Caesar put an end to this threat for all time.
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