Julius Caesar the general - Ides of March Special
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 13 มี.ค. 2024
- Julius Caesar was murdered on 15th March - the Ides of March for the Romans - in 44 BC. He is famous as a politican, as the man who gave his name to the line of emperors, for his affair with the equally famous Cleopatra - and because the month of July was named after him.
He was also a general - one of the Great Captains of history admired by the likes of Frederick the Great and Napoleon. This talk is about Caesar the general. It looks at the military side of his career. More than anything else it is about how Caesar planned and led his campaigns, and how he controlled and inspired his army in battle. I look at his style of command and ask whether it was unique to him or similar in style to other Roman generals.
What impresses me most about Caesar is ability to learn from his mistakes and seeing new tactics like Labienus mixing cavalry and light troops at Ruspina and immediately implementing this tactic among his troops. Thapsus was as great a victory as Alesia, always confronted by superior numbers, he out-thought his opponents and was willing to go to the front lines and join his troops.
I’ve just found your channel after reading your books and hearing so many podcasters say your name and I’m so glad I have , I really hope your channel blows up because without you many others wouldn’t have content to make.
Dude I have no idea how this channel hasn’t blown up - the amount of quality content by a genuine professional
Echo your sentiments entirely - I could hoover up this military detail all day!
Adrian is the content behind the content.
We're so lucky to have a scholar like you produce content !!
Thank you. Although I have read and heard much about Caesar, you consistently provide insights that I had never previously heard or considered.
Thank you Dr. Goldsworthy! These videos are invaluable.
Music sounds like a US western movie. Interesting. Thank you Prof. G.
What a gem of a channel
57:24 Adrian has stated in the past that successful Roman armies
typically suffered low casualties , yet Caesars Legions being at
50% strength or less by civil war time has me wondering if his
Legions were somewhat understrength when first levied, or that
Caesar legions were close to full strength when first levied but he
didn't much replenish individual legion strength following typical
attrition after all the Gaul/Britain campaigns ..or that Caesar
caused and accepted an unusually high attrition due to his style
of command/style of campaigning...Perhaps Adrian can shed some light on this.
Almost no Roman legions were ever at full strength. That was the simple consequence of losing men to desertion, injury, disease, retirement ect.
Yes, that is true of most armies throughout history. I'll do a video on this and on Caesar's army in particular at some point. Might be a while though ...
@@AdrianGoldsworthytheAuthor Well, I'm looking forward to it. It's quite surreal to get a reply from someone who's work I've studied in university. Thank you for these videos.
This IS a question i have Long waited to BE answered , how Long does a unit Work until IT has too few men in IT ? IS a unit officially destroyed when IT IS less than half the Manpower?
@@dale6947 I am friendly with several people whose work I studied at university or equivelent level since. Scholars are people too, and it is my experience that they are usually nice people.
I'm all settled in on favourable ground with a secure supply of corn to re-watch this excellent presentation.
I will add one further comment, I am in awe of Alexander the Great, especially when I learned the Cassender murdered Roxanne and Alexander IV, his 14-year-old son. The evil and corrupt were always one step away from power in Macedon. The two great Macedonian Kings were Alexander the Great and Philip II. It bothers me that Philip II has never gotten credit he deserves. I believe, without Philip II there would be no Alexander the Great. That is my opinion. He should be called Philip the Great.
Philip gets lots of creadit. He is usually credited with creating the balanced Combined-Arms force that Alexander used to win.
What makes you think that Philip and Alex were less evil and corrupt than the rest? Winners write the history (generally, post-WW2 the losers got to sell their version).
Thank you so much for the video! I know it is off topic, but may I inquire about the title of the outro song?
Thank you sir, we appreciate you and your expertise
Thank you for all these videos - thoroughly enjoy every single one.
I need to purchase your book about Julius Caesar.
Very appreciated , thanks
Thank you for this video!
A great commander doesn’t risk himself and thus his army. The Homeric archetype notwithstanding.
Excellent talk, thanks.
Amazing!
Reading your "Caesar" very good.
In the name of Rome, one of my favorite books, thank you 🙏
Just like to say I thoroughly enjoy your stuff. So I will. Keep up the good work! Might even read some of your books. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Would be good if it was Roman army based, Middle class young man making his way as a career officer. Not too much romance - just enough. I've got this amazon voucher burning a hole in me pocket!
Adrian, I've purchased all of your non-fiction books, even Rome and Persia. Do you have a patreon account or another way to show support for all of this great free content??
I'm always surprised at how many of the assassins were "friends" of Caesars! I know he was popular with the general people,but Caesar must have really really rubbed some of the elites the wrong way! Still a great Commander!
What's interesting about Caesar when compared to Alexander or Napoleon. Caesar was middle-aged, wasn't he? 40s? Ghenghis khan was middle-aged when he started his invasions outside of Mongolia. But even Ghenghis had been campaigning in his youth,consolidating the tribes. But Caesars military career starts relatively late! And he hits it "out of the park" so to speak! That's unusual, isn't it?
Thanks
Hello Mr. Goldsworthy. Could you do a video on legion vs phalanx. Which one is better? It seems people who are pro phalanx say Rome could only beat it due to the hilly or uneven terrain but on flat ground with hypasists and cavalry on the flanks the legion would get defeated on average like against Pyrrhus of Epirus.
Maniple system IS Basically Phalanx with joints,more flexible and more Independent. Phalanx IS great with good Support from cavalry and skirmishers. You also have a very shitty Control of your Phalanx. Once IT moves IT cannot be stopped and redirected easily, great for steamrolling , terrible for countering flanking movements
Caesar was a lucky general but as Sir Alex Ferguson used to say about Man Utd; the better we get the luckier we seem to be!
❤
I Claudius snake intro!!
Ave Caesare!
is there any evidence of any change in Caesar's character, attitude or plans after the harsh campaign of Munda?
Let’s make this simple. Harmless Gaul tribe walking around . Julius sees opportunity for victory. Chase hapless tribe into a small town fort and built ramparts around the small. Tribes come over to help. His troops had experience so defeat both charges. Gaul leader comes out from starvation.. He says hi and had him strangled. Declares victory goes to Rome and gets publicity. History continues from there.
Harmless gauls WHO sacked rome then joined hannibal also joined germanic invasions. Gauls arent Hippies my guy
I heard a podcast* some years ago (Au Coeur De L' Histoire) in which it was said that"Jules" was stabbed to death with the styli used to incise wax tablets rather than knives and daggers. Is there any evidence for that? *I downloaded it from the Europe1 site some years ago.
The conspirators used daggers. Caesar used his stylus pen and stabbed at least one of them.
😮
thinking about Rome again
Caesar landed in Britain twice and both times he had to scamper back across the Channel.
According to Jules it was a brilliant success but then no one else left a contemporary account so he could present it any how he liked.
Even the Romans admit that the Britons never paid any tribute but I read in modern histories that was because the Romans couldn't be bothered to send a ship (!)
Should we not perhaps make more of this repulse of the Baddest Roman of them all?
The ides of March, a day of infamy
Mid presentation musing. Other than their shared ambition, assessing the relative military skills of historical figures like Caesar (eg, Napoleon, Saladin, Mao Zedong) who conquered to gain power to those of anointed Kings (eg, Alexander, Xerxes, Genghis Khan) who used power to gain conquests.
Glad you avoided the best generals trope, it's top Trump level nonsense , I dislike hypothetical discussion, I especially hate "what ifs"
I expect Caesar almost certainly knew a great deal about Britain, trade between Gaul and Britain had been going on routinely for centuries.
It's a question of how much the merchants were willing to tell him. Before Caesar most of this trade seems to have been run by merchants from Gaul, using ports like the one at Hengisbury Head. After Caesar more Romans appear to have been involved, and the main trading ports switch more to the SE.
FUCK YEA!! ADRIAN!! ADRIAN!! ADRIAN!!