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00:01the year is 52 BC a bloody encounter between two men is about to shape Europe's destiny the name
00:12of one Julius Caesar will echo through history and as the victor he will write that history himself
00:21but the other is almost unknown a young chieftain called Vercingetorix his people
00:29the Gauls are history's victims it was a very bloodthirsty very bloody campaign modern estimates
00:40seem to suggest it may be as many as one in four of the population of Gaul dies if that's
00:48not
00:48genocide I don't know what is the butcher's bill in Gaul stands comparison with any modern conflict
00:56Caesar killed a million men women and children enslaved a million more and destroyed 800 cities
01:05so what does history teach us can we today enter the mindset of Caesar and Vercingetorix I'm quite
01:13happy to allow them off the leash for this occasion this is a chance for the troops to have revenge
01:20if
01:21they wish to destroy the city so be it can you imagine what a city of 40,000 people put
01:31to the
01:31sword by the Roman army looks like there was wholesale uncontrolled butchery men women and children
01:40massacred 40,000 people
01:59Caesar's conquest of Gaul present-day France made his name and changed our world without it the Roman Empire
02:07would have looked very different but was the outcome inevitable
02:17Mark Corby is a Roman historian and former professional soldier Neil Faulkner is an archaeologist with a deep
02:26suspicion of Rome the Roman Empire is held up to us as a model of civilization but Vercingetorix this great
02:35barbarian chieftain united his people and led them in the greatest military struggle in their
02:41history in an attempt to defeat that Empire and keep his country free what drove him why did he fight
02:48so hard what did it mean to be Vercingetorix
02:59for me Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul was one of the epic events of world history but how did he
03:06achieve
03:06it against such enormous odds by following in his footsteps I hope to praise Caesar and not to bury him
03:16in a journey covering more than 2,000 miles Mark and Neil set out to retrace the events that led
03:23to the final clash between Gaul and Rome
03:28in their efforts to understand the long-lost world of Caesar and Vercingetorix they found themselves re-entering it
03:44he's the one thing that I'm slightly worried about but if I can hold him down to a major battle
03:51I think I have a very good chance of annihilating him
03:57Caesar and I play a game and I despise his motives and his intentions here
04:07and I will do everything that I can in order to beat him and drive him out of Gaul
04:16the governorship of Gaul was for Caesar in middle age the great opportunity to make his mark
04:22his family background had been noble but penniless and in the treacherous world of
04:28Roman politics he'd made enemies at every turn
04:34charges of political corruption eventually laid him open to prosecution and possibly ruin
04:41the rombustious political life of Rome means that no man goes untainted
04:46bribery corruption threats of violence every day to us
04:50i do what is necessary what is necessary for caesar will be necessary for rome and for the roman empire
05:00six years of victories in gaul had brought him wealth and the prospect of a return to the political fold
05:08to guarantee no scrap of glory went unnoticed caesar became his own war correspondent writing up each battle
05:15for avid consumption in rome
05:22the romans suffered from an acute and long-standing fear of gaul two centuries earlier 70 000 rampaging
05:32gauls had swept into italy and sacked rome all gauls were seen as quarrelsome and fickle
05:41the tale caesar told was of hard-won conquest he'd found gaul a treacherous minefield of different
05:48and warring celtic tribes his genius had been to cut his way between them making allies of some putting
05:58others to the sword
06:07finally in late 53 bc caesar declared that gaul was completely pacified he took himself back to italy
06:18there is political turmoil in rome um anarchy rioting um and so in that winter of 53 52
06:26his eye is very firmly focused on rome and he announces that gaul has been pacified partly
06:32because he hopes that it's true and partly because he desperately needs it to be true
06:39gaul was far from pacified with caesar away the smoldering resentment of the gauls flared into life
06:48in synabum present-day orlion roman merchants were killed it was the signal for a general uprising
06:57and suddenly at its head there appeared the mysterious figure of vercingetorix
07:04vercingetorix's sudden appearance on the scene is made to seem like lightning from a clear blue sky
07:10but it clearly can't have been that evidently vercingetorix was plotting and planning the rebellion
07:15for a good deal longer than than caesar suggests in his commentaries so essentially caesar is caught on the hop
07:24fighting spirit ran deep within vercingetorix his father had also tried to unify gaul
07:31and was struck down by other tribal leaders for his pains caesar's details are sketchy but he
07:38describes vercingetorix as a young man of tremendous energy and fierce discipline could it be that the
07:45two knew each other of old vercingetorix was clearly a man of great significance in his tribe
07:52so i would suspect that that caesar and vercingetorix would have had personal dealings with each other at
07:58some point and i think it's suggestive that caesar doesn't mention this because it suggests that
08:03vercingetorix had indeed pulled the wool over caesar's eyes whatever their personal history their future
08:11and that of their peoples was about to be determined in three great encounters their duel was beginning
08:27in the depths of winter caesar began a lightning dash back across the alms he meant to nip the rebellion
08:34in the bud and the weapon he would use was the one on which he prided himself above all speed
08:41speed
08:42so often comes out the the speed with which he takes his adversaries by surprise this is somebody who is
08:50moving with with great control through all the woodlands and the rivers of france because the threat
08:56is so great this is the the great crisis in a series of forced marches caesar moved rapidly to reclaim
09:04the rebel city of sunarbu taking other rebel towns on route plundering burning punishing always moving on
09:13he pops up wherever the gauls least expect him and that has always been his method of generalship
09:18is to move at enormous speed he's a great master of blitzkrieg and he does it to devastating effect
09:26nothing it seemed could stand in the face of caesar's progress but vercingetorix had no intention of
09:32standing he meant to withdraw and to destroy everything in caesar's path we have to fight in a different
09:41way by denying his great invading host the food and fodder they need in order to survive
09:49to starve him into submission we're going to have to adopt a policy of scorched earth
09:55we destroy in the path of his army all of the things that might be useful in sustaining it
10:05fields granaries villages and towns were put to the torch cutting off caesar's food supplies
10:12but vercingetorix was about to meet his first test as leader unlike caesar he was not heading a
10:19professional army but a rebellious coalition of tribes and one tribe now refused to accept his authority
10:28the people of avaricum present-day borge would not burn their town
10:35the first thing getrix is the leader of a tribal alliance and so he can't order
10:40his men to do things in the way that caesar can order his legions he needs to persuade and cajole
10:45i have to negotiate i have to compromise i have to keep the alliance together by accepting that our
10:52people are understandably reluctant to make the sacrifices which i think are needed for us to win
10:58the war we have to hope that we can make a successful defense of avaricum but i fear that the
11:05defenses of the
11:06city might not be up to it gauls knew how to build their city walls were a complex construction of
11:18stonework
11:19heavy timbers and iron nails proof against both fire and the battering ram
11:32but to the roman army siege warfare was second nature
11:41caesar's legionaries began to build an immense siege platform to overtop avaricum's walls
11:50all that was needed was time and patience caesar was short of both with 40 000 men i have a
12:00tremendous
12:01labor force but even so it's going to take at least a month of construction work to build a big
12:06enough
12:06rampart to assault this city during this whole operation we've been continually harassed by versing
12:12getrix turning up behind me and sitting across my lines of communication he's taking my food from me
12:17my supply lines are being threatened vercingetorix was still outside avaricum harrying the roman
12:25forage parties as they scavenged for food the gauls camp was hidden in wild marshland
12:35but caesar persuaded prisoners to reveal its location
12:41then he marched his men through the night for a surprise attack
13:01as dawn broke it was clear caesar had been duped
13:07his legions had advanced straight into a quagmire while vercingetorix's camp on high
13:13ground was impregnable caesar it seemed had met his match
13:20gaul is crawling with caesar's spies and informants
13:26we can play the same game and feed him false intelligence and we've drawn part of his army
13:33to this place and i hope that he'll launch an attack on what is an extremely strong defensive position
13:41but caesar for once was strangely reticent he was waiting for vercingetorix to make the first move
13:48my men have marched since midnight to get here and are keen for action however the chances of success
13:55on this sort of battlefield are slim and they are extremely unhappy about this in the past the gauls have
14:02not been noteworthy for their command and discipline they must think i'm in a fairly weak position and a
14:09fairly obvious target and i would hope that they would actually launch a general assault
14:15yet vercingetorix was not like other gaulish commanders it seemed that he too was prepared to bide his time
14:22we have to fight defensively because down there is a an army of professional killers every man down
14:29there is a mercenary fighting for pay trained to be a soldier trained to come and conquer the land of
14:37the gauls most of the men standing in the line on the ridge here are ordinary farmers and they're here
14:44to defend their homes their families their farms and if as caesar would like to have happen we were to
14:54go down onto the plain and to face an open battle with his professional killers we will be cut down
15:01it was a standoff caesar had no choice but to march his troops back to a varicum
15:08a tactical withdrawal but for his legionaries humiliated the roman revenge was swift and bloody
15:22under cover of heavy rain they breached of a varicum's defenses
15:38and with caesar's blessing slaughtered the entire population of that stubborn city
15:48i'm quite happy to allow them off the leash for this occasion this is a chance for the troops to
15:54have revenge and if they wish to destroy the city so be it this is what roman armies do to
16:01make an
16:01example of a city every living thing will be killed can you imagine what a city of 40 000 people
16:14put to the sword by the roman army looks like when the romans broke in they went completely berserk
16:22there was wholesale uncontrolled butchery men women and children massacred 40 000 people
16:42if the massacre was intended to break the gaul spirit it had exactly the opposite effect
16:49vercingetorix found new fire in his followers the use of terror in war can cut in two directions
16:56it can intimidate and break up resistance but it can also fill people with bitterness and anger and
17:04renewed determination to fight back overnight gaul was on the turn with fresh outbreaks of resistance in
17:12and tribe after tribe caesar was forced to split his forces four legions were sent to quell rebels in the
17:20north with the six remaining he headed south for the tribal heartland of vercingetorix
17:28it's a direct insult for a gallic tribal leader the measure of a man is the ability to defend his
17:34territory defend his villages his crops his fields his women his family
17:38cesar knows that that's why he goes and attacks them and he expects that vercingetorix will respond
17:44by attacking him because that's what the gauls always do
17:48but not this time under vercingetorix the gauls were learning patience
17:55the territory of the arverni today's auverne was bounded by the river allier
18:01as caesar marched down one bank vercingetorix simply kept pace on the other he'd already destroyed
18:09the bridges you get vercingetorix not at all cowed not at all put out of his way by the sight
18:18of this
18:18very formidable army this must have been pretty shaking really to caesar must be pretty shaking
18:25to caesar's troops as well they're not used to seeing that sort of confidence we don't march down
18:31the river with our heads held low in silence we march proudly with our trumpets blaring our men
18:40shouting their war cries spears crashing against shields we're prepared to fight if we have to
18:47but i must hold my men back from that fatal collision
18:52if i can hold him down to a major battle i think i have a very good chance of annihilating
18:57him
18:59but so far he's managed to avoid that if it carries on like this i'm going to find that i'm
19:04going to
19:04have quite some problem bringing him to book and i'm worried about my food supplies as well
19:10caesar's troops were feeding off the land but the more tribes turned against him the harder that became
19:17vercingetorix was in no hurry it has to be a strategy of wearing caesar down over time by stripping
19:26him of his allies and his supply bases in gore and starving his army into submission harrying caesar's
19:34foragers trying to bring over the other tribes and isolating him in effect in a barbarian wilderness
19:43what i've got to try and do is still maintain the initiative against vercingetorix keep him on
19:49the hop keep him moving any problem is i'm on the wrong side of the river and i've got to
19:54somehow get
19:55across that river and he has ripped down all the bridges the duel was becoming a battle of wits
20:02with the gauls matching his legion stride for stride caesar tried a different tactic
20:08if he couldn't outpace vercingetorix he would outsmart him
20:16overnight he selected two legions 8 000 men to conceal themselves hard by the river
20:26the next day the main column appeared to march off as normal
20:31and the gauls unsuspecting marched with them
20:39it was short work for caesar to make the river crossing behind them
20:45vercingetorix had been out manoeuvred
20:50and the first he knew was when he found caesar on his tail there was only one way to evade
20:56caesar in
20:57open battle vercingetorix sped south
21:03caesar's forces have crossed the river downstream they've tricked us this isn't a flight this is an
21:11organized retreat to keep our forces intact and hold him in the hills around gergovia
21:36it was a formidable stronghold on a vast natural plateau sheer on three sides
21:43now perched high above the surrounding plain the gaulish army felt a new confidence this is an
21:52immensely strong position we hold not just the main mountain but all of the high ground around this
21:59mountain all of these hills around here are defended by our men caesar and his forces are down there on
22:07the low ground so we command a position which it will be very very difficult for him to surround
22:14down below caesar was uncomfortably aware that with just six legions a full-scale siege was out of
22:21the question here looking at that obstacle behind me and it's one of the most fearsome of all gallic
22:27hill forts i do sense a little fear i am under strength here i've got to come up with something
22:35fast and something decisive and therefore i am going to have to throw the dice yet again
22:42caesar determined to exploit the one weakness he thought he'd found in vercingetorix
22:47he would outwit him once again
22:52the weakest point of gergovia's defenses was on its westerly slopes
22:58he paid on us in getterix's fears of an attack there maneuvering horsemen as if to mount an assault
23:04in fact caesar intended a direct attack up the stronghold's steepest ramparts to attempt to um
23:12take a a site as well fortified as gergovia was obviously a huge gamble but caesar was a gambler
23:39the roman assault hit the gauls hard caesar's troops quickly overran the hillfort's outposts
23:49we simply didn't have enough men on the spot and he broke through the outer defenses and came through
23:55the main encampment
23:59but as vercingetorix recognized the threat he threw reinforcements forward to plug the gap
24:06caesar sounded the recall to his troops but too late
24:13desperate to achieve their objective they didn't heed the trumpets
24:19as the alarm was raised a major battle developed and as our line strengthened we began to get the
24:28better of the romans and then our men began to push them back down the slope
24:35under the gaulish onslaught the romans were unnerved and in disarray in headlong retreat
24:41more and more fell to the slashing swords this was the moment when the discipline of the gauls would be
24:48tested
24:51i could see that caesar had his reinforcements his fresh troops ready
24:57the worry was that as the roman line collapsed and our men began to surge down the slope they would
25:04have
25:04gone into a trap and been hit on both flanks by fresh troops piling in at the last minute and
25:11it could
25:12have turned into a disaster for us and i ordered the retreat signed it the retreat and i'm glad to
25:19say
25:19that our men understood the need for discipline and rallied back in a frenzy of killing more than 700
25:28romans lay dead including almost 50 of the elite centurions a heavy price for a gamble by caesar
25:37which had achieved precisely nothing
25:43caesar can never admit to mistakes therefore the fact that there was a defeat at agovia has to be blamed
25:48on somebody and caesar blames it on the insubordination of his of his own men it has been a reverse
25:55and it's
25:55been caused by over enthusiasm by the men on the ground my enemies will rejoice in it as far as
26:02i'm
26:02concerned it is behind me i wanted speed here and therefore i think it was worth the risk an acceptable
26:09risk with an acceptable level of death but caesar abandoned the siege as his legions marched
26:17disconsolately back northwards there was no disguising the disaster that had befallen them
26:23gegovia is the first open defeat that caesar suffers and therefore it shatters the image of
26:30invincibility the news went like wildfire all across gaul and just as it must have been very damaging
26:36for caesar so equally it must have persuaded enormous numbers of tribes who may have been sitting on the
26:42fence waiting to see how it would go um to throw their lot in with vercingetorix one by one even
26:49the
26:49most loyal of caesar's allies now deserted him for vercingetorix the victory at gargovia marked a turning
26:58of the tide in the fortunes of gaul and a turning of the tables on his rival caesar we're winning
27:05the
27:05war caesar when he came here thought he was chasing us and that we were in flight instead we were
27:11drawing
27:12him here in order to hold him and to raise revolt in the rest of gaul this is a great
27:19gaulish victory
27:21and all the signs are that the romans are going to be driven out of gaul
27:26in a grand council of tribal leaders vercingetorix was proclaimed chief of all the gaulish forces
27:35he had succeeded where his father had failed he now commanded a unified gaul
27:42this was vercingetorix's finest hour hard hit logistically weakened and outmaneuvered
27:50it was time for caesar to think the unthinkable the abandonment of his gallic dream
27:59caesar had rejoined his other legions and now had some 40 000 men but they were trapped deep in
28:07hostile territory without allies and with their supply lines cut morale was becoming shaky
28:14at this black moment some of caesar's officers come to him and they suggest that defeat should be
28:20admitted that they should hack their way back out try and retreat to the south caesar's response to this
28:26is that it would be shameful and humiliating and therefore unthinkable but as the romans made their
28:34way across country to vercingetorix they looked like a beaten army the gauls had tasted blood and they had
28:42an appetite for more a fatal appetite vercingetorix thought that caesar was retreating and that the
28:49romans were defeated and he saw an opportunity to to finish them off once and for all and probably
28:55that's what caesar wanted him to think
29:00vercingetorix abandoned the defensive tactics that had served him so well
29:04his cavalry attacked caesar's column head on
29:15the gaulish horsemen were defeated vercingetorix fell back retreating with 80 000 troops to the hilltop
29:23fortress of alicia for caesar even outnumbered the bait was irresistible
29:31when he retreats to alicia he's probably hoping that caesar will follow him he wants to wipe caesar
29:36out and vercingetorix has shown at gagovia that in situations like this the romans can be defeated
29:48alicia was a rocky stronghold between two rivers
29:58a fortified town never taken by storm or siege caesar was intent on being the first
30:05and he was determined not to repeat the mistakes of gagovia
30:12he was no longer a general in a hurry he set his legionaries to dig
30:19i cannot really assault this fortress as i might have tried at gagovia because 80 000 men would be quite
30:25difficult to dislodge in a major engagement so i'm going to go to start them instead rather
30:31playing his own game against me in fact now he's the one who's going to suffer from lack of rations
30:37caesar's first step was to build camps overlooking the gaulish citadel
30:42next to join them up with the trench system stretching around alacia a full 10 miles
30:49now he had the gauls where he wanted them i have sought this engagement this is exactly what i want
30:58i want to bring his field army to one point and then annihilate it inside the fortress as he watched
31:04caesar's noose titan vercingetorix was sanguine caesar might have him surrounded but surrounding caesar
31:12was the whole of gaul a united gaul
31:23i'm confident that the determination of the gauls now in the rebel alliance to drive caesar out
31:32will ensure that a relief army is raised and his defenses have got to be much much stronger if he's
31:39to resist the attacks both of those inside the fortress and of the relief army when it arrives
31:50if the gauls can get caesar in one spot and then crush him in a vice that's the best way
31:56to get rid of
31:57him so both both men are gambling and in a sense both men want the same thing both men want
32:02the showdown
32:05the prospect of fighting on two fronts gave fresh urgency to caesar's troops he set them digging a
32:12second defensive line to protect their backs the roman fortifications now snaked around alacia a full 25
32:26miles we've got a completed section here of the fortifications that we've just built around alicia
32:32what we're looking at is a wall and palisade in front of it ditches but crucially here where we are
32:38now
32:38we're in the anti-personnel zone
32:42around his siege line caesar laid a spider's web of booby traps a complex minefield of iron spikes
32:50concealed pits and sharpened stakes a killing zone with a single purpose to stop attackers in their tracks
33:00dead our troops will be up there on those tires and these defenses will be covered with fire both
33:08from javelins slings catapults the men there are in protected positions they have a clear view
33:15target area their enemy is going to be slowed down crawling dying whilst they have a clear line of
33:21fire throughout the proceedings
33:27but with the romans now fenced in on two sides there was a nagging question
33:35had caesar himself fallen into a trap every general knows the danger of tying his men down by nailing them
33:45to a fixed position as the relieving army approached he would have no choice but to guard the entire
33:53perimeter while the gauls would be free to strike where they wished
34:02yet sealed off inside elacia vercingetorix had no idea whether the rest of gaul would respond to his summons for
34:10help
34:10he had food for only 30 days and his men were starting to weaken hunger among a besieged garrison acts
34:22like
34:23an acid breaking down the solidarity and the morale that holds fighting formations together
34:29as well as eating away at the physical strength and alertness of an army so we have to take radical
34:40measures
34:40in order to maximize the length of time that we can hold out here as a fighting force
34:56his measures were simple food and shelter would now go only to those who could fight
35:07the townsfolk of elacia would have to fend for themselves
35:12he makes a grim decision that all non-competence women children men who can't fight must be expelled
35:23and i think his assumption is that the romans will then take them as slaves so at least they will
35:27live
35:32but if vercingetorix had expected caesar to discover the milk of human kindness
35:36he was to be disappointed caesar himself tells us of how the the non-combatants are forced out
35:45between the lines they're thrown onto the roman's mercy the romans show no mercy
35:52there's little we can do about it he may expect me to take these idle mouths in which of course
35:57is
35:58absolutely impossible they will have to die in the ditch i'm afraid here and just rot in between the
36:03two lines we cannot afford them one of the horrors of war
36:08trapped in no man's land the town's people of elacia were left to starve by both romans and gauls
36:15alike vercingetorix had proved caesar's equal in ruthlessness
36:26and his cold-blooded calculation was about to be rewarded
36:35on the farthest horizon appeared the beginnings of a dust cloud
36:40the relief army has arrived we heard it first as a low hum in the distance beyond that ridge
36:50and then we began to see them first tens of thousands then maybe a hundred thousand
36:58swarming down the slope on this side maybe two hundred thousand it must be a quarter of a million
37:05the biggest gallic host that has ever assembled for war in the whole of our history
37:13caesar and his 40 000 troops were now beset on two sides by more than 300 000 gauls a daunting
37:21show of
37:22force i am surprised by how many men he has managed to muster i mean my scouts say around a
37:29quarter of
37:29a million men are out there now that is a fantastic achievement for a gallic army and i cannot afford
37:35to
37:35keep fighting this man if he's capable of organizing something on this scale i think caesar is a man of
37:42enormous confidence and ingenuity and sometimes that spills over into arrogance and pride i think his
37:54decision to stand and fight in these lines here will prove to be a mistake
38:02caesar was used to playing for high stakes but never before had a game of chance been so dangerous
38:09it threatened not only the conquests he'd made in gaul but all his hopes and ambitions back in rome
38:17this is not only the climactic battle for the roman conquest of gaul but also a personal climactic
38:23battle if i make a mistake here or are overwhelmed i will disappear i will be thrown into the latrine
38:30of history i will completely lose everything i've got this is a gambler's throw of the dice
38:35it's a throw i'm quite prepared to accept
38:47as the gauls threw themselves forward it seemed they must overwhelm the roman lines but something was
38:53wrong vercingetorix had at last his army of united gauls but no way to command them
39:03vercingetorix is immune within alacia therefore he has no contact with the relief army therefore the
39:09coordination that he's been able to impose on the rebellion up till now is gone and it means that
39:17command of the relief army is in the hands of people who clearly lack vercingetorix's abilities
39:23and self-discipline command and control is our greatest single problem it's extremely difficult for
39:31us to coordinate our attacks the difficulty is that we cannot communicate across the lines
39:38by sunset the gauls were beaten off
39:47but this was only the beginning within 24 hours they attacked again
39:52and this time darkness was their shield
40:03we were roused by a tremendous racket and it turned out that our men of the relief army had begun
40:10a major night attack against the roman lines
40:16there's a tremendous number of men involved many tens of thousands seem to be fighting and the sky is
40:24a blizzard of shot with sling stones arrows javelins flying through the sky the gauls have the advantage
40:33at the moment they have struck first they have to fight their way across the anti-personnel traps that
40:38we have so assiduously laid to them in front of our fortifications but once past there their numbers may begin
40:44to tell
40:48but great as their numbers were again the two gaulish armies proved unable to join forces
41:04the gallic relief army attacked whilst the versinghetrix still remained on his hill fort
41:11unfortunately for him he has no way of communicating with his relief army on the outside and i intend to
41:17keep it like that
41:23the gaulish attacks had failed to break through but they had identified caesar's weak spots
41:30most vulnerable was an outlying camp perched precariously on a steep hillside
41:45with the attack from the relief army versinghetrix saw his opportunity too he ordered troops from inside
41:52the citadel to strike at the roman camp from the rear diversionary raids hindered every attempt by caesar
41:58to kill off the threat this is the moment of crisis the gauls have thrown everything at us that they
42:05possibly can and in fact they're fighting from the top of that hill down onto two of my legions
42:10who are relatively hard pressed at the moment
42:16this is the greatest day of battle in the entire gallic war and this time we succeeded in coordinating
42:23our attacks against the outer defenses and the inner defenses stretching caesar's forces to the limit
42:30and as they attacked we succeeded in coming out in huge numbers from the main defense to support that attack
42:42the gaulish pincer movement had the romans trapped fast three times caesar struggled to send in fresh
42:48troops to no avail as the lights started to fade the question was stark is this the moment when i
42:58throw
42:58my last reserves into the battle the enemy look exhausted we are exhausted they're fighting hand to
43:04hand the fighting here is absolutely ferocious the thrust of steel into unprotected groin absolute mayhem
43:11going on here i have to decide whether i commit my last reserves and i emphasize last reserves once i
43:17throw it i don't have a second chance this is the key moment for both men um total triumph total
43:25defeat
43:28if the romans win gaul will be secured for the republic and caesar will have the glory will have the
43:36reputation that he came to go to seek if first and getrix wins gaul will be freed of rome so
43:44the stakes
43:44could not be higher the whole future of a romanized western europe is hanging in the balance
43:54and on this final greatest gamble caesar was about to stake his own life this is a moment where the
44:02supreme commander has to lead in person it will put a bit of fire back into them they are exhausted
44:07now
44:07they have been fighting for the best part of four to five hours they need something in his red cloak
44:15as
44:16commander-in-chief caesar was unmistakable the most conspicuous figure on the battlefield
44:24his appearance was guaranteed to provoke the enemy to rage and to fear we saw caesar himself leading the
44:33final attack his scarlet cape flying in the wind at the head of his final reserve and we knew that
44:39he
44:40was there because this was the moment of decision this was the last reserve going in at the end of
44:46the battle and that last attack had to be decisive when i saw it the final reserve led by the
44:52roman
44:53commander in person my heart sank at the prospects for the goals suddenly the legionaries cheer because
45:01they see a flash of red mid the the scarlet cloak of their commander caesar is coming and caesar has
45:08come up in the rear of the gauls so now it's the gauls who are caught in the pincer movement
45:11and they're
45:12slaughtered it was like shattering a pane of glass one moment intense combat the next second a terrifying
45:22cry rattled across their army when they felt they had been betrayed and taken from both sides and complete
45:28exhaustion and panic broke out and they fled in all directions an army is a mob trying to get out
45:36they say and at that moment the mob broke out and every man suddenly broke suddenly became a panic
45:45stricken individual desperately trying to escape and the battle ended in our forces thrown back
45:51and defeated the last hope of the gauls
46:08the last hope of vercingetorix too had gone with the rout of his army the short-lived alliance of the
46:16tribes of gaul was also at an end his fellow tribal leaders delivered him into the embrace of their enemy
46:31caesar let it be known that he expected vercingetorix to surrender in person this was a moment of theater
46:38for caesar and his army so vercingetorix put on his best armor and rode to caesar's camp where the romans
46:48were drawn up in parade
46:56he was surrounded by his legionary commanders his centurions his own bodyguard the legionary standards
47:03vercingetorix arrives wearing his finest armor
47:13vercingetorix threw down his arms took off his armor and abased himself
47:24and he said these words
47:26and he said these words
47:27harbe
47:27fortem wiram
47:29via fortissime wikisti
47:33here i am a strong man defeated by an even stronger one
47:38it was an admission of his total and absolute defeat
47:46theater and ritual in peace and in war were everything
47:52ritually caesar had vercingetorix taken back to rome in chains
47:58where in prison ritually he awaited caesar's judgment
48:04the moment
48:05six years on blinking in the sun he found caesar not inclined to mercy
48:10the memory of alacia a battle so nearly lost still raw
48:17julius caesar now had his place in history
48:20he was absolute master of rome
48:23but for vercingetorix rome's rebel
48:26history would have no voice.
48:30Ritually, Caesar had him strangled.
49:09Flipped with a 13th century ago,
49:09and he came to the watchman and saved the status of the event that he had.
49:09Flipped with a great name.
49:12Flipped with a great name.
49:12I'm sorry.