Caesar versus Vercingetorix

[swamppirate]

Just finished reading the book about the Battle of Alesia..very good book...Vercingetorix was close to unifying the Celtic Tribes and took it to Caesar in pre-Alesia battles...he was reasonably close to being able to defeat Rome....if so, who knows we may have been speaking Celt!! Good Read...

[Joe723]

I'm just finishing up Caesar's Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins, about the 10th Legion.
The more I learn about Gaius Julius Caesar, the more impressed I am.
They sure did take a hit from a number of the tribes and Vercingetorix was a great leader - but Caesar had a genius for war.

[jdogonroad]

I happened to read about that that battle in Military History magazine about the same time I saw it on one of the History channels. Very interesting battle. Vercingetorix should have left himself an opening escape route of the encirclement, or better yet, not allow himself to be bottled up. But it didn't help that his allies were either slow in responding or bought off. I bet the history channel show can be found.

[swamppirate]

Originally Posted by jdogonroad

I happened to read about that that battle in Military History magazine about the same time I saw it on one of the History channels. Very interesting battle. Vercingetorix should have left himself an opening escape route of the encirclement, or better yet, not allow himself to be bottled up. But it didn't help that his allies were either slow in responding or bought off. I bet the history channel show can be found.

It was very interesting...Caesar basically created a double wall..he was able to keep the besieged in and the reinforcements out. Interestingly also, is that he allowed Vercingetorix to live for quite a while after he was captured...drilling him on his tactics and to a point almost becoming friends....Vercingetorix fought in the gladiator ring and was ultimately put to death in celebration on Caesar's Gallic victories...."Vae Victis"!!!

[Medic09]

Most of my history of the time comes from reading Asterix in the 80s. ;-) I didn't do so well with the originals during HS Latin.

Good stuff, actually, if you already appreciate Roman-European history. The English translations are pretty good.

http://www.asterix.com/

[WS-G]

Originally Posted by Medic09

I didn't do so well with the originals during HS Latin....

No apology needed. A lot of us had that issue back in high school: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIAdHEwiAy8

[Old_Starlight]

Originally Posted by swamppirate

Just finished reading the book about the Battle of Alesia..very good book...Vercingetorix was close to unifying the Celtic Tribes and took it to Caesar in pre-Alesia battles...he was reasonably close to being able to defeat Rome....if so, who knows we may have been speaking Celt!! Good Read...

The international language of diplomacy was for the longest time, French. Guess what language group it comes from? (Sure as hell wasn't Latin) ;-)

[Xdeth]

Who was Caesar's 2IC or top officers, I think the propoganda machine left out a host of names, a cohort if you will heh heh. Most of what I read centers on his cunning as a politician, the soldier Caesar is harder to understand how he did all that, suspect.

[swamppirate]

Originally Posted by Xdeth

Who was Caesar's 2IC or top officers, I think the propoganda machine left out a host of names, a cohort if you will heh heh. Most of what I read centers on his cunning as a politician, the soldier Caesar is harder to understand how he did all that, suspect.

I believe one of his main "men" was General Publius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus. He was the one who the Celtiberians surrendered too after the Romans put the smack down on the Celts in Iberia. Additionally, General Publius Crassus (son of his friend Crassus of the First Triumverate) was the general who helped Caesar take down the Celts along the Atlantic coastal region.... Have no doubt Caesar was a cunning war machine, which was driven by the constant crave for power/military prestige and his need to conquer additional land to pay off his enormous debts he had incurred...can you tell I was a geeky History Major

Old Starlight...I'm Scotch/Irish, so in reality it would not have really mattered one way or another!!! LOL....

[sabasarge]

Originally Posted by Joe723

I'm just finishing up Caesar's Legion by Stephen Dando-Collins, about the 10th Legion.........

This is pretty interesting apropos the 10th Legion......

http://www.timesofisrael.com/in-a-br...f-roman-might/

[molonlabe110]

Originally Posted by Old_Starlight

The international language of diplomacy was for the longest time, French. Guess what language group it comes from? (Sure as hell wasn't Latin) ;-)

Are you sure about that?

I'm pretty sure French fits very squarely into the romance language category which by definition are distortions of Vulgar Latin.

As a French speaker this is news to me, curious to hear more.

[jtk317]

I was also wondering about that. I was thinking French, English, Italian, German, and associated languages to those were originally spawned from bastardized Latin. I am not a linguist so I am very willing to admit being wrong. Just studied some French, Spanish and Latin and figured the ones I named came from what started out as differing dialects of the original Latin.

[KidA]

French most definitely came from Latin.

The Celtic people spoke Gaulish but French is from the vulgate Latin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_French

[Corsair]

If you liked the Battle of Alesia read Marius Mules great book. There are 3 books on the series so far. Read them all could not put them down great read.

[Old_Starlight]

I stand corrected on French Origins.

I do know my own mother tongue shares similarities with French, but is not a latin derivative and I was assuming

In fact most people when they see my first name usually assume it's French.

But I'm big enough to be wrong and to also thank you all for pointing it out....yet another way to be edumacated

Maith agat (Thank you)

[Old_Starlight]

Originally Posted by swamppirate

<snipped for brevity>
Old Starlight...I'm Scotch/Irish, so in reality it would not have really mattered one way or another!!! LOL....

So you are a drink? LOL....it always amuses me that the US standard is to refer to the "Scotch/Irish" which automatically makes me think of óuiscé beathá (Water of Life or Whiskey).

'Tis far easier to say we are Gael and we were never conquered by Rome until the Church became Rome.

[swamppirate]

Originally Posted by KidA

French most definitely came from Latin.

The Celtic people spoke Gaulish but French is from the vulgate Latin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_French

The Celtic language was actually known as p-celtic or q-celtic..don't always believe Wikipedia..

[KidA]

Originally Posted by swamppirate

The Celtic language was actually known as p-celtic or q-celtic..don't always believe Wikipedia..

Doesn't matter - modern day French is from Latin. There are only about 200 words in the entire French language that trace back to celtic roots.

There are 29 scholarly references in that article on the history of the French language by the way.

Unless you're taking affont to my "celtic people spoke Gaulish" which you should since I screwed up. I meant to say early Frenchies spoke a celtic language called Gaulish. So mea culpa on that.

Gaulish was a celtic language but its use fizzled out as the Romans came in and brought Latin. French then derived from that with a few dozen French words still identified as having celtic/gaulish origins.

[jtk317]

Well OS I'll say not all in the US fall into that particular trap.
I learned that I was Scot/Irish from a young age, though it seems a predominent amount was the latter in my family tree. The temper has come in handy at times.

[ET1/ss nuke]

Is there a connection between Gaulish and Gaelic?