Commentaries on the Gallic War

Commentaries on the Gallic War – Gaius Julius Caesar

(Originally published on 02-20-2009) I finished reading this book, Commentaries on the Gallic War by Gaius Julius Caesar. For many years I had wanted to read this book. I had it written down to buy and read it someday. I had downloaded it from the Internet, but I had never gotten around to reading it. One day I saw it on sale at a bookstore, and I let it pass. Shortly after, I returned and it was no longer on sale. But I remembered that it was the one with the black cover and green back cover; I asked about it and bought one. It is a 2008 edition by Claridad. It is 175 pages long. It is a quick read. It is a quick read due to the clarity of the author's writing. He makes very good descriptions, but mainly regarding military aspects. One cannot get to know in depth the peoples he fought and/or crossed paths with, though that doesn't make it any less interesting. It can be criticized or praised; I leave those value judgments to others. I really liked the book, and it was worth reading. There are moments that reveal the behavior of the barbarian peoples, which seems very childish. The author does not say or imply this directly, but it is the impression one gets from seeing the behavior described. Of course, the other side is missing: the perspective of those peoples and everything that fell outside the conqueror's view. One can clearly see the reason why Rome was an empire: how it imposed itself, its superiority over everyone else, the internal struggles among the others, and the social situation—especially the hunger factor, and how the lack of food drove migrations. Customs that today seem strange or unfamiliar to us, or perhaps not. The topic of hostages caught my attention. What did they do with them? Did they turn them into slaves? Did they return them to their peoples after a certain amount of time? Did they exchange them in other battles? Did they kill them? That question remained unanswered for me. I made a list of all (as many as I could; I might have missed a few) the peoples he mentions. I searched for some of these peoples on the Internet and nothing comes up. Are they known by another name? Was all knowledge about them lost? Does it require access to more complex studies? Beyond the names Caesar gives them, which would be those of the period, were they part of a larger group or groups? I don't know. I am left with questions. But learning the history of those peoples could even prove interesting for those of us who enjoy these kinds of accounts.