the stabbing happened just a few yards from here it was a frenzied attack 23
stab wounds inflicted by the same number of assassins it's one of the most
notorious murders in history and it determined the course of Western
civilization and even though it occurred over 2,000 years ago we still know the
exact date but it happened it was the 15th or as it was then known at the Ides
of March and the murder victim was of course Julius Caesar Caesars been called
the greatest man who ever lived a truly superhuman figure who was a brilliant
general a great writer and a man of the people after his death they mourned him
in their thousands so how come he ended up on the wrong end of the assassin's
dagger what made people hate him so much I've come here to Rome to try to find
the real Caesar the man behind the myth one of the most complex driven people in
the whole of human history [Music]
to follow in Cesar's footsteps is to embark on an epic journey
from ancient Egypt to the uncharted island of Britain he came he saw and he
conquered by turns brutal and brilliant he changed the map of Europe but more
importantly he transformed Rome itself from a republic into an empire above all
he was the man who terminally destroyed the old system
Judy Caesar celebrates how many people he kills he celebrates her triumph he
killed a million people he was really one of Europe's great geniuses but
basically flawed and look at the cost for everyone else
Rome was the center of Caesars universe but when he was born here in a hundred
BC nobody could have predicted that he would one day reign supreme
amongst the elegant temples and colonnades of them
I'll in that direction deep core known as the Subura it was in dirty
crime-ridden Saburo with its multi-story tenement lost the julius caesar first
saw the light of day
but it wasn't exactly one of the street kids who roamed the slums the
aristocratic Caesars trace their roots back to the founding fathers of Rome
they'd lost a lot of money but the babies three names tell us that he's of
noble birth [Music]
his first name was Gaius Julius and Caesar were both family names but the
name Caesar which means cart has led to the first fiction about him in ancient
times great men had remarkable births and the legend grew that he'd been cut
from his mother's womb the myth gives us the name by which we still know the
operation the cesarean section it's a good story but in fact Caesar was born
quite normally they did do the operation in those days but only to save the life
of the child the mother never survived and we know that Caesars mother was
still alive when he was 40
in a hundred BC the most special thing about the young boy was his aunt julia
she'd recently boosted the family fortunes by marrying a charismatic
politician called marius that marriage determined caesar's political colors for
life [Music]
Ceaser's noble roots made him eligible later in life to sit in the Senate house
here in the forum where his fellow aristocrats ran Rome like a private club
but by the first century the Senate had split into bitter factions siding with
Marius put all the Caesar family firmly on one side of the political divide
Judy Caesars early life is dominated by a civil war which is between two army
commanders I mean almost like sort of preempts what he's going to do and he's
not in the group which one basically so again he's he's in the aristocracy
but there's the possibility of his death at any point as the power struggles slid
into anarchy the seventeen-year-old Caesar got a terrifying taste of the
reality of Roman politics a powerful general from the other faction swept
into Rome and appointed himself as emergency dictator to settle the unrest
his name was sulla to deal with political opponents he invented the
fiendish system of prescription
it worked something like this instead of wasting energy arresting and killing
people himself Sola put up lists of names in public places these people were
then fair game anyone who killed them got a reward 1600 leading citizens were
purged in the first wave of murders and more followed some people were just
dragged out of their houses and kicked to death in the streets on one of the
names on these ominous public lists was Julius Caesar he went underground
changing houses almost daily relying on a network of discreet family friends in
the fetid swampy back streets he caught malaria as he sweated it out favors were
called in political neutrals brokered a deal with sulla they secured a pardon on
the condition that the teenager come out of hiding to face the dictator sulla was
a large menacing man with a bloody face he turned to the teenager who defied him
what he saw was a tall slim young man with piercing black eyes who even when
he was looking at the most powerful man in Rome wasn't going to give any
concessions to tradition instead of the normal short-sleeved tunic he got long
sleeves with fringes and he wore his belt slung low hipster style if he
couldn't dress properly what other customs mighty try and break
down sulla must have wished he'd never let him off he turned to those who'd
negotiated the pardon and made a telling prediction all right he said have it
your way but I'm warning you this young man who
you're so desperate to protect one day he's going to bring down the very system
that we want to preserve
a lot of what we know about Caesar is written much later by people who already
knew what he'd achieved Cilla's prophetic statement was probably made up
with the benefit of hindsight in 83 BC there were far bigger problems
threatening Rome than one outrageously dressed teenager and the main problem
was the system itself the six hundred years Rome had been governed as a
republic ruled by aristocratic senators there were all volunteers and changed
jobs every year it had worked well but then Rome expanded from a simple city
state to control an empire that spanned the Mediterranean the structure that was
designed for local government couldn't cope with running a global superpower
as it expanded Rome had switched from voluntary national service to having a
professional army to protect and run its dominions but after making Rome rich
these soldiers retired with nothing the already crowded city was overflowing
with vast numbers of angry veterans living in poverty and demanding a
pension so-called crowd pleasers like Caesar's uncle Marius were reformers who
wanted to redistribute land to provide for the soldiers others saw any change
as an assault on tradition there was for about the last century of the Republic a
continuous conflict between what we can call conservatives and reformers but
they don't have political parties there isn't such a thing as a reformed party
there's no clear understanding of this is the way the Reform Party wants to go
and this is the way that the Conservatives are trying to stop it what
you have is a clash of systems of authority
Caesars own clash with Authority meant that Rome was still not safe for him his
family packed him off abroad doing junior jobs and improving his education
this foreign travel was meant to give him a low profile but it led to one of
the most extraordinary events of his whole career he was still only 25 with a
small retinue of servants who was sailing two roads for a course in the
art of rhetoric or public speaking from a Greek master
as his ship crept round the coast of Greece it was boarded by pirates and
Caesar was kidnapped the pirates must have thought they'd hit the jackpot when
you demand a ransom you don't expect your victim to start trying to negotiate
out words but when they told him that they wanted 20 talents of silver Caesar
treated the amount with contempt 20 said I'm worth more than that
make it 15
[Music] 50 talents is almost a ton of silver it
would take nearly a month to collect
his men sailed off to try and raise some money from the local banks while Caesar
remained on board he didn't want to waste his time so he practiced public
speaking on the Pirates they thought this was a joke and Barents him and when
he swore he'd see them hanged they laughed and laughed when the money
arrived the Pirates let Caesar sail away to the nearby port of Meletis it was a
fatal error and Meletis he heard a squadron of ships and men out of his own
pocket returned and found the Pirates still at anchor he captured them
reclaimed the ransom and took them back to the provincial capital when he found
that the governor seemed more interested in taking a bribe in order to let them
go free rather than punishing them Caesar took the law into his own hands
he kept his promise of justice and had every single one of the Pirates
crucified spent a month in their company Larkin
around and joking with them so as an act of mercy and for old times sake
he had their throats cut first [Music]
this savage punishment and gambling with his own life was Caesars way of making
sure of headlines back in Rome Romans are always competing full they call it
farmer fame Gloria Dignitas and just think of what Roman life is like here we
are in in the Roman Forum and the Roman ruling class get there by being voted
for by people and it's it's an even more direct relationship than with modern
politicians I mean maybe the media exposed modern politicians in some ways
but they they constantly have to see these people face to face and they have
to make an impact on them so they're all in the business of arousing cheers
making its own PR absolutely they're there they're there as concerned with
spin as any modern politician but Caesar had strong competitors for Rome's
attention he was about to run up against a man called Spartacus
Julius Caesar had begun life like a boy's own hero on the run from death
squads one minute battling pirates the next and in 73 BC
he was enlisted to fight another epic figure Spartacus
a gladiator who was at the center of a slave rebellion Julius Caesar was a
junior officer in the campaign against Spartacus as the rebels retreated south
through the countryside the Romans moved to cut them off
[Music] whatever the movies might say there was
never any hope of Spartacus succeeding
the sad fact is that the real-life Spartacus wasn't a noble revolutionary
but a hopeless runaway who ended up as little more than a bandit thousands
joined his rebellion but they were rats in a trap
Caesar joined the Roman military machine as it advanced down the country forcing
the disorganized rebels into defeat and capture there was absolutely no mercy
for this assault on the established order along the Appian Way 6,000
prisoners from the Sparta can revolt were crucified anyone traveling north
from Naples to Rome would ride the last few miles to the accompaniment of
screams the stench of the tortured and the dying
for Caesar it was no less than they deserved Caesar was one of those who
wanted reforms in ro but he was no revolutionary as he'd already shown he
could be as ruthless as any of his fellow aristocrats in defending the rule
of law and the status quo but the Spartacus campaign was to be vital for
Caesars career in another way when he was 32 Caesar took his place in the
Senate on the lowest rung of the official Roman career ladder within the
Senate there was an ascending order of ranks you could be elected to each with
their own qualifying age Caesar like most of his contemporaries wanted to
reach the top and become consul but Roman political life was a risky and
expensive gamble you needed money to get on and Caesar didn't have it our stick
rats on the make for a huge amounts of money to finance their election campaign
against the possibility of forgetting a province where they will extort back
everything they paid out but of course not everyone can get elected so at every
stage of the pyramid you've got people falling off it and falling into debt
you've got desperate desperate men
Ceaser's commanding officer on the Spartacus campaign had been Marcus
Licinius Crassus [Music]
Crassus was immensely influential mostly because he was the richest man in Rome
he'd made millions as a crooked property baron and was quite happy to make huge
loans to an ambitious young man like Caesar finance was vital to Caesar
because he had to play catch-up he started on the bottom rung two years
after he could have done at the age of 32 he was a driven man hungry for
success he was sickened when he saw a statue of
Alexander the Great in Cadiz he realized that by his age Alexander had conquered
half the known world to compensate Caesar went into overdrive as he climbed
the ladder he did everything to excess [Music]
unlike politicians today senators paid for their policies out of their own
purse when he was in charge of public entertainment his games were bigger and
better
when he had a job maintaining the Appian Way he spent a fortune on repairs the
ordinary people loved him for it
on a personal level he had to walk the walk
he was lavished with entertainment gifts and bribes Caesar had the best of
everything wine clothes antiques jewels and women
especially women being married never stopped Caesar making other conquests
back in Rome Caesar was famous for being one of the most prolific adulterers ever
he slept with the wives of his enemies for information he slept with the wives
of his friends for fun and sometimes he slept with his friends he was so
notorious that the famous poet Catullus wrote a poem about the varied and
energetic sex life he shared with his chief of staff mamuro perverted
bedfellows Caesar and mamuro compete against each other at serial adultery
and pulling teenage girls
but private life and politics all needed funding
besides legitimate expenses Caesar also had to buy votes every election - every
job meant a fresh advance from Crassus
then in 63 be soon a life long post of Pontifex Maximus the high priest came up
for grabs it was an honorary but hugely influential job Caesar was the rank
outsider but it was too good a chance to miss Caesar risked everything to get
elected he put himself so deeply in debt that when he left home in the Subura he
said to his mother I'll either return as Pontifex Maximus or I'll be off in exile
forever it was a typical high-stakes gamble and he brought it off he got the
job and the perks which went with it including a house right in the middle of
the forum
today Caesar stands moral guardian of Rome's City Council but no political
scandal can possibly match the vicious corruption of the Senate in Caesars day
as a leading advocate of reform Caesar was bound to provoke opposition his arch
enemy in the Senate was Cato a dyed-in-the-wool aristocrat who despised
Caesars populist approach Cato has his own political ambitions Keita wants to
make a name for himself and he makes a name for himself as mr. virtue and he
chooses to identify Caesar as mr. Vyse now as Caesar is an incredibly
controversial character right from the start and I and I think one must assume
that Caesar actually as a personality he relished controversy he was never going
to compromise with people he just went all out for it
this wasn't the kind of friendly rivalry you sometimes see with professional
politicians but a bitter personal dislike they both use dirty tactics
after one meeting here Caesar narrowly avoided being killed by
one of Cato's bodyguards in his turn Caesar used the mob to disrupt meetings
he'd organized so-called spontaneous protests when he didn't get his way then
he'd calmed the mob down and tell them that he didn't want to make any fuss
thus earning support from the Senate for his dignified behavior
Cesar was nearing 40 notoriously vain he wore a laurel wreath to cover his
thinning hair and had all his body hair plucked and he was still broke for his
next promotion he was appointed for a year as a governor in southern Spain
with a brief to combat the brigands that have been plaguing the province before
he set off his wagons were impounded by the bailiffs and he had to touch Crassus
for more money to get them out of hock but for a hard-up senator a foreign
posting was a payback in the provinces he's rather like a mini king his king of
that area he can make decisions whatever decisions he really wants to and there's
almost an expectation of extortion when you go you will always make money
Caesar fought a brilliant campaign against the brigands and if he also
accidentally attacked and looted a few innocent towns Rome was willing to turn
a blind eye they liked a good victory
with success came the booty of war enough to pay off his debts and reward
his men sufficiently well to ensure their future loyalty he was supposed to
stay in Spain till the end of the year but he wanted to be where the action was
he cancelled his contract and returned to Rome he'd been awarded a triumph
there but more importantly elections were looming he was about to mount the
final rung on the Roman ladder of success the consulship
[Music] you
Ziza came back from Spain to stand for election as consul so he needed some of
this white cloth Candida in Latin to be a candidate he had to come into the
center of Rome dressed in white and apply in person but at that time this
was a big problem for him because he'd also just been awarded a triumph which
was an official celebration for conquering generals involving a big
procession right up here through to the temple of Jupiter in the middle of Rome
and Caesars problem was that the rules said that the general couldn't come back
into Rome till after the triumph had taken place
the problem was a clash of dates the deadline for applications was before the
triumph Caesar hated to give up the chance of
glory but political power was what he craved most he gave up his triumph and
was duly elected consul but his conservative opponents wouldn't let
their archenemy have it all his own way
there were two consoles each year they were supposed to work together but Cato
and Cesar's other enemies made sure that his fellow console that year would be
one of their own men who'd act as an anchor on his ambitions they chose Cato
son-in-law Bibble as' which was a bit like pairing Ken Livingstone with Norman
Tebbit and expecting them to work together this
kind of pettiness made Caesar vow that he'd never compromise with his opponents
again from now on he'd bypassed them he did it by making a semi-official
alliance with the two most influential figures in Rome his money man Crassus
and Pompey the great at the time Pompey was the real superstar in Rome he was
only six years older than Caesar but had had a brilliant military career and had
already been console through Crassus and Pompey Caesar mobilised a network of
support and votes this alliance was known as the triumvirate all three had
something to gain I'm Pompey can make sure that all his veterans turn up to
vote for instance as simple as that they say it's in your interest to do this to
support this man so it can mobilise the support of a lot of people he also gets
the support of Marcus Crassus partly because Marcus Crassus wants to have a
new deal for the tax farmers of Asia he's representing them here in the
Senate there was a set order of speaking but Caesar always invited his chums
Pompey and Crassus to speak first he had his archenemy Cato arrested for
speaking for too long and he intimidated the opposition with hired thugs but
number one on his hit list was his fellow consoled Bibble as' when he tried
to interrupt while Caesar was speaking the hired thugs burst in and tipped a
bucket of down over his head
Caesar had a positive reforming agenda but sleaze and his bully boy tactics
overshadowed everything he did bimba --less went in fear of his life he tried
to get a state of emergency declared and when this failed he simply went home
locked himself in and tried a novel method of blocking all political
business out of his front door every morning and whatever the weather even on
a nice day like today he'd say he'd seen a flash of lightning which meant that
the gods were displeased this may seem daft but actually was a
stroke of genius because it meant that just by turning up to work down at the
Senate that morning Caesar was breaking the law if he tried to pass any
legislation it was illegal because it was going against the will of the gods
just like a diplomat today he couldn't be charged while he was still in office
but the moment he came back into Rome as a private citizen he could be charged
both sides are cheating of course they're cheating by the Roman rules
because it is proper to use religious obstruction but Bibulus is overusing it
he's using it in an absurd fashion and similarly Caesar and many others used
violence in in a fashion that quite alarmed the Romans
Romans jokingly called this year the joint consulship of Julius and Caesar as
it drew to a close Caesar had to make sure his next job
kept him away from Rome and the threat of prosecution the tradition was that
consuls were rewarded with a plum job in the provinces after their year in office
with plenty of opportunities for making money
the fact that Caesar was a wanted man didn't matter for Romans observing the
ancient traditions and upholding the honor of the consulship was paramount
his enemies voted him one minor post Caesar ignored them and mangled the job
he wanted he took the governorship of Cisalpine Gaul a lucrative province that
also let him keep in close touch with his interests in Rome he could have
ended up as just another corrupt Roman politician a footnote in history then
fate intervened his allotted province was south of the Alps what's now
northern Italy north of the Alps was the Roman province of transalpine Gaul
present-day Provence and longer dock that was the limit of the empire beyond
it the Gaulish tribes were causing trouble a new Roman governor had already
been appointed for transalpine Gaul but unfortunately for Caesar he died on
the journey north so it now made perfect sense for Caesar to be given that
additional province as well along with command of its troops and it was that
decision that turned Caesar the politician into Caesar the general the
Asterix stories are probably most people's closest contact with Gaulish
culture a general sense of jolly meets swilling goals giving the Romans the
runaround the balls of brave warriors the violence
is not about and Caesar himself is a humorous little man with a big nose and
even bigger vanity it works because there's elements of truth and especially
Caesar being vain but ironically we wouldn't know much about the Gauls way
of life if it weren't for Julius Caesar [Music]
the Gauls didn't leave any written record of how they saw themselves indeed
the only way that we know anything at all about the world in which Asterix
lived is because of the person who destroyed it Caesar wrote in detail
about ghoulish customs and religion and habits even while he was doing his best
to replace them with what he thought of a civilization what the comic strip
doesn't begin to convey is the brutality of that campaign in 60 AD there were
twelve million Gauls Caesar boasted that he killed a million of them and enslaved
a million more
it all started with one small problem the Romans lumped everyone beyond the
empire together as barbarians in fact there were hundreds of different tribes
each vying for position with the others contemporary coins show how the Gaulish
tribes each had their own identity the Peruzzi who lived where Paris is
today the arverni would give their name to the Auvergne and the tribe that
caused the trouble the helvetii what caesar had to deal with was a major
immigration problem the helvetii lived in what's now Switzerland but when they
were attacked by German tribes they started migrating to Southwest France
the easiest route south took them across a bridge over the Rhone at Geneva down
the Rhone Valley and then cut west across transalpine Gaul Roman territory
to stop them trespassing Cesar moved north at lightning speed
[Music]
this is where the rhone leaves Lake Geneva the bridge that the Helvetii were
flooding across was somewhere around here where that island is Caesar simply
destroyed the bridge and left the Helvetii stranded on the north bank
problem solved his brief campaign was over but as government's have found ever
since you can't stop desperate and determined immigrants by blocking one
entry route after that the helvetii found a more northerly route which
completely bypassed the Roman Empire so they were no longer Caesars
responsibility but much to his delight they started over running the lands of
another tribe called the I do we who appealed to Rome for help against this
new invader Caesar immediately set off for their territory in what's now
Burgundy
the headquarters of the I do II was big practic Avast hill fort in North Bergen
day as the migrant tribesmen camped out in the valley Caesar arrived to fight
his first battle in Gaul the battle took place not far from here
Caesar moved forward in classic formation three lines of troops against
the helvetii the tribesmen who were used to fighting man-to-man felt back against
the double hail of javelins towards that mountain over there
Caesar continued to advance 15,000 tribesmen who until that moment had been
standing on the sidelines over on that hill move forward to attack Caesar's
army calmly he ordered his third line to
wheel round and attack the new threat while he continued to advance towards
the Helvetii the result was victory on both flanks a triumph of roman
organization
[Music] over the next few years Caesar sliced
his way through Gaul with each conquest he moved deeper into foreign territory
in 57 BC he conquered the Belgic people's in the northeast they were
threatened by the huge Roman presence to the south and United to fight it thus
giving Caesar the excuse he needed to invade
the next year it was the turn of the Gauls in Normandy and Brittany to be
overrun then Caesar moved across the country
again to fight a German encroachment Over the Rhine in a lightning attack he
stormed the enemy camp and slaughtered men women and children any survivors
were chased to the Rhine where they were cut down or drowned
but the massacre wasn't enough for Caesar he wanted a much bigger and
better PR victory he decided to cross the Rhine and teach the Germans a lesson
the local tribes offered to ferry him across but he wanted something much more
spectacular so he ordered a bridge to be built the Rimes 400 metres wide at
complaints on 6 to 8 meters deep Caesar was determined to intimidate the tribes
with a demonstration of what cutting edge Roman technology could achieve in
just 10 days the Romans spanned one of the greatest
rivers in Europe and when they crossed it what did they do well the Germans ran
away so they spent 18 days destroying their crops and villages and when they'd
ensured famine Caesar retraced his steps destroyed the bridge and returned to
Gaul by 55 BC Caesar was 45 what had started as a bit of troubleshooting had
turned into a major conquest in five extraordinary years he'd more than
rivaled Pompey the great military reputation expanding Roman territory and
for the first time in his life making a personal fortune
he'd gone to the limits of the known world but his quest for glory would take
him beyond those limits to the remote island of Britain
you
Julius Caesar was a brilliant general who conquered all of what's now France
and Belgium how do we know because he tells us the only point of the campaign
for Caesar was to enhance his reputation in Rome military success was key to
popularity with the people news would have filtered out anyway but Caesar
wasn't content with second-hand accounts even though he was a full-time soldier
he spent all his spare time writing up his account of his military exploits in
serialized form a new book came out every year called the Gallic Wars
they're classics of Latin literature but they're also history spun like a
government press release in order to enhance his reputation as Gallic Wars
are a monumental achievement hundreds of pages of history written while fighting
campaigns across the country and not just written written beautifully the
workaholic Caesar also wrote a book on Latin grammar
the Gallic Wars had to be an accurate account of events other Roman soldiers
were writing home from the front and any outright lies would be exposed
instead Caesars interpretation of why events happened and his role in them
puts him in the most favorable light [Music]
even at the time opinion was divided about Caesar and his reputation on the
one hand he was awarded in extraordinary 15 days of Thanksgiving for his
victories on the other there were those who are outraged at his treatment of the
barbarians and demanded that Caesar should be handed over to the German
tribes to be punished for the way he treated them
this is a Roman statue of a dying Gaul although he's recognizably barbarian
with his shaggy hair and the metal talk around his neck
he's portrayed with all the human dignity of a Greek hero there were
contemporary artists and philosophers who had a different attitude to Caesars
ruthless worldview let's not forget that just a few decades after Caesars
assassination Jesus Christ was articulating the message of Christianity
and much of what was adopted by Christianity had already been
articulated by philosophers like Plato so there was an alternative view to this
one of dog-eat-dog on a massive organised and violent scale Caesars
governorship lasted five years in 55 BC his time was up in the Senate
Caesars allies Pompey and Crassus were trying to get his posting extended for
another five years to keep him out of Rome and away from prosecution but
Caesar had to show there was still a job left to do
[Music] there was one undiscovered and
unconquered realm still in Europe a dank Misty Island right on the edge of the
known world we called it Britain one of the warring tribes there had
appealed to Rome for help it was the perfect opportunity Caesar got his
extension and prepared for an invasion
in these days when you can pop across the channel and back in a day it's
difficult to imagine what this meant to the Romans it was like proposing and
moon-landing the channel is only 20 odd miles across but for the Romans who were
used to sailing the millpond of the Mediterranean was a huge barrier in
addition the transports and troop carriers required to mount a full-scale
invasion were a formidable logistical problem just the kind of mission
impossible that Caesar had made his trademark
but in 55 BC it was a desperate gamble for glory it was near the end of the
campaigning season and the winter storms were fast approaching Caesar got
separated from his cavalry by bad weather
heedless he pressed on with justice infantry on this ill-fated mission
British tribes tracked their progress along the coast hurling insults and
weapons
as he reached what's now deal Caesar could see he had a fight on his hands
but his main problem was actually landing the deep bottom boats just
couldn't get near enough the infantryman knew that they'd have to jump into the
water in full kit and wade in under a hail of missiles thrown by the mounted
tribesmen up there just waiting to attack the normally fearless troops
seemed paralyzed but the spell was broken by the standard-bearer who
shouted jump lads if you don't want to lose our standards at least history will
know that one of us did our duty and he went over the side and into the water
the troops followed [Music]
the legions were surprised by the ferocity of the opposition they had no
cavalry to counter the Britons in their speedy war chariots
it wasn't Caesars finest hour the grand invasion turned into a survival exercise
his troops had a tough few weeks foraging for supplies constantly fending
off attacks from the natives before Caesar gave the order to return to go
they were lucky to get back at all Caesars transports hadn't been properly
beached and were wrecked by storms crammed into the surviving vessels the
troops limped back across the channel before winter closed in but Julius
Caesar wouldn't be beaten the British Invasion is the perfect example of
Caesars ability to live life on an epic scale the Suzi was back in Gaul he
ordered 800 newly designed ships to be built before returning to Italy for a
winter of politics and memoir writing then he went back to Gaul the following
spring and ordered a full-scale invasion but he wasn't just driven by wounded
pride Britain was renowned for his gold silver
and enormous pearls although anyone who lived here could have told him that what
he'd actually find most of would be whether he hadn't learned his lesson
from the year before his fleet was again completely wrecked on the beach by
storms undaunted he left his engineers to repair them and ordering replacements
from France he set out
this time it went a bit better but Caesar still spent a frustrating few
weeks marching through Kent and able to engage the Britons who made guerrilla
raids then vanished had they known it all the tribesmen had to do was wait
until caesar's supply lines were so stretched that he had to give up but
they didn't the british army finally gave battle here on the banks of the
Thames at Brentford if there was any where they were going to be able to stop
this strange mechanical fighting machine from an alien country it was here at the
lowest forwarding point of the Thames the British leader arrayed his forces
over there on the far bank in woodland with sharpened stakes in front of them
for protection Caesar knew that if he was going to beat them he was in for a
difficult crossing his cavalry went in first followed by the infantry waiting
in right up to their necks they took everything that the British could throw
at them and when they finally got out the other side dripping and in full
armor they launched such a heavy assault of the British that tribal resistance
virtually crumbled
Caesar had got the victory he wanted but his conquest was insubstantial a PR
exercise rather than a real invasion he had neither the will nor the troops to
keep an occupying force in Britain instead he imposed an annual tax on the
Britons but as soon as they'd wave goodbye to his patched up boats they
promptly forgot all about it it would be 97 years before Roman standards were
seen on British soil again within 15 years Caesar had risen at the top of the
political tree and conquered half of Northern Europe but his greatest
conquests and challenges were still before him the next 10 years would take
Caesar from the killing fields of Greece to Cleopatra's boudoir he'd rise so far
they'd have to coin a new word to describe him Emperor
[Music]