Alesia

Sixty-eight.

After the total defeat of his cavalry, Vercingetorix withdrew his infantry from the position which he had taken up in front of the camps, and ordering his baggage train to leave camp quickly and follow him, marched forthwith for Alesia, a stronghold of the Mandubae.

Caesar removed his baggage to a hill close by, and leaving two legions to guard it, kept up the pursuit as long as daylight permitted, killing about three thousand of the enemy's rear guard, and encamped next day in the neighborhood of Alesia.

The enemy were cowed by the defeat of their cavalry, the army in which they had their greatest confidence.

Accordingly, after conordering the position, he called upon the soldiers to brace themselves for an effort and proceeded to form a contravalation.

The men called them spurs.

Chapter 74 When these defenses were completed, Caesar constructed, along the most suitable tracks which the lie of the country enabled him to follow, embracing a circuit of fourteen miles, corresponding works of the same kind, facing the opposite way, to repel the enemy from without, so as to prevent the troops who defended the lines from being hemmed in by any force, however numerous, and in order to avoid the danger of having to leave camp, he directed all the troops to provide themselves with fodder and corn for thirty days.

Chapter 75 While this was going on at Alesia, the Gauls convened a council of their leading men, who decided not to adopt for Siniporix plan of assembling all who could bear arms, but to levy a definite contingent from each tribe, for they were afraid that with such a vast multitude crowding together, they would not be able to control their respective contingents, or keep them apart, or to organize any system for providing grain.

Death is not punishment enough for such a crime.' Mengzi, Mencius, in the Li Louyi, circa 4th century BCE.

'What then is my counsel? To do what our ancestors did in the war against the Cimbri and the Teutones, a war nothing like as grave as this one, when, driven into their towns and brought to the same wants, they kept themselves alive on the bodies of those whose age made them useless for war, and did not give themselves up to the enemy.' Critognatus of the Averni, besieged at Alesia, 52 BCE, in Julius Caesar's The Gallic War.

At dawn on the 5th of September, 1861, the sun and the moon came up over the horizon together, and the five planets visible to the naked eye hung in a single line across the sky, what classic Chinese astrology called The sun and moon joined like a jade disc, the five stars strung like pearls.

Across China, people got up early to see it.

The Prince Bishop's army at Münster starved the city out, sure, but nobody ever came to besiege the besiegers.

A much closer match is 1900 years older.

Alesia in 52 BCE, where Julius Caesar trapped the Gallic king Vercingetorix inside a hilltop town, built one ring of works facing inward to hold him, and then a second ring facing outward against the Gallic relief army he knew was coming.

Two walls back to back.

It took place here, at what is now Alise-Sainte-Reine.

2,000 years ago, you would have seen the great ramparts of Alesia, a massive Gallic hill fort.

Vercingetorix had botched an attack on Caesar's cavalry, and was forced to withdraw here with his 80,000 men.

As Caesar closed the net, Vercingetorix sent out a desperate call for reinforcements.

But it meant the Romans were spread terribly thin.

It wasn't clear who was besieging who.

Alesia was make or break.

There were no half measures with Caesar, and no mercy for the Gauls trapped in the hill fort.

Mengzi, Mencius, in the Liuloyi, circa 4th century BCE What then is my counsel? To do what our ancestors did in the war against the Cimbri and the Teutons, a war nothing like as grave as this one, when driven into their towns and brought to the same wants, they kept themselves alive on the bodies of those whose age made them useless for war, and did not give themselves up to the enemy.

Critognatus of the Avernae, besieged at Alesia, 52 BCE In Julius Caesar's The Gallic War At dawn on the 5th of September, 1861, the sun and the moon came up over the horizon together, and the five planets visible to the naked eye hung in a single line across the sky, what classic Chinese astrology called 日月合璧，五星连珠 The sun and moon joined like a jade disc, the five stars strung like pearls.

Across China, people got up early to see it.

In Beijing, where a comet with a brilliant tail had hung in the northwestern sky through July, the residents had already read the heavens once that summer, and had taken the comet to mean that their emperor would not be coming home.

The Prince Bishop's army at Münster starved the city out, sure, but nobody ever came to besiege the besiegers.

A much closer match is 1900 years older.

Alesia in 52 BCE, where Julius Caesar trapped the Gallic king Vercingetorix inside a hilltop town, built one ring of works facing inward to hold him, and then a second ring facing outward against the Gallic relief army he knew was coming.

Two walls back to back.

Nuestras raíces vienen, vienen de más lejos de lo que muchas veces imaginamos.

Ya estamos terminando, pero, pero si, si ves que hay alguna diferencia o, o alguna similitud entre Numancia y Alesia, que Alesia, bueno, fue el asedio decisivo también, ¿no? De, de Julio César en, en la guerra de las Galias, que no confundir con la Guerra de las Galaxias, en el, en el 51 antes de Cristo, ¿no? Que también fue, pues, eh, un asedio, ¿no? Eh, y, y obviamente la, la época, esto pasó setenta años después, ochenta años después.

Pero, pero bueno, ¿hubo alguna similitud o alguna diferencia?

Bueno, vamos a ver, en el caso de Alesia, claro, la... el cerco fue un cerco absolutamente brutal, que arqueológicamente lo conocemos bien.

El cerco de Numancia, arqueológicamente conocemos los campamentos, pero poco más, poco más.

En el caso de Alesia se conoce bastante bien todo el sistema de fortificaciones, de murallas, de torres, de fosos y de... ¿cómo se llaman? De [chasquido de lengua] campos de, de, de púas hincadas para, para protegerse.

Y en el caso de Alesia había también otra cuestión, y es que fue el punto en donde, eh, buena parte de los galos de la Galia decidieron reunirse para resistir a, resistir a Roma

RomaVale

When Caesar himself saw it at a later time, he smiled, and though his friends urged him to have it taken down, he would not permit it, considering it sacred.

Chapter 27 However, the most of the barbarians who escaped at that time took refuge with their king in the city of Alesia, and while Caesar was besieging this city, which was thought to be impregnable by reason of the great size of its walls and the number of their defenders, there fell upon him from outside the city a peril too great for words to depict, for all that was mightiest among the nations of Gaul assembled and came in arms to Alesia, three hundred thousand strong, and the number of fighting men inside the city was not less than a hundred and seventy thousand.

Thus Caesar, caught between so large hostile forces and besieged there, was compelled to build two walls for his protection, one looking towards the city and the other towards those who had come up to relieve it.

He felt that if the two forces should unite, his cause was wholly lost.

For many reasons then, and naturally, Caesar's peril at Alesia was famous, since it produced more deeds of skill and daring than any of his other struggles.

But one must be amazed above all that he engaged and conquered so many tens of thousands outside the city without the knowledge of those inside.

Nay more, without the knowledge even of the Romans who were guarding the wall that faced the city.

For these did not learn of the victory until the wailing of the men in Alesia and the lamentations of the women were heard, as they beheld in the quarters of the enemy many shields adorned with gold and silver, many corslets smeared with blood, and also drinking cups and tents of Gallic fashion carried by the Romans into their camp.

When Caesar himself saw it at a later time, he smiled, and though his friends urged him to have it taken down, he would not permit it, considering it sacred.

Chapter 27 However, the most of the barbarians who escaped at that time took refuge with their king in the city of Alesia.

And while Caesar was besieging this city, which was thought to be impregnable by reason of the great size of its walls and the number of their defenders, there fell upon him from outside the city a peril too great for words to depict.

For all that was mightiest among the nations of Gaul assembled and came in arms to Alesia, three hundred thousand strong, and the number of fighting men inside the city was not less than a hundred and seventy thousand.

Thus Caesar, caught between so large hostile forces and besieged there, was compelled to build two walls for his protection, one looking towards the city and the other towards those who had come up to relieve it.

He felt that if the two forces should unite, his cause was wholly lost.

For many reasons then, and naturally, Caesar's peril at Alesia was famous, since it produced more deeds of skill and daring than any of his other struggles.

But one must be amazed above all that he engaged and conquered so many tens of thousands outside the city without the knowledge of those inside.