Vercingetorix

All, all through the, the, the war in Gaul, um, Caesar had this, uh, lieutenant called Labienus by his side, who was a brilliant general and, um, was his second in command.

And to- just towards the end of the time as he was, as he was, um, finally defeating Vercingetorix, um, Antony became the, the favored one, and Labienus was kind of sidelined.

Um, and a lot of Caesar, Caesar probably owed a lot of his victories to Labienus.

And so when he crossed the Rubicon, um, Labienus defected to the other side and-

Then in fifty-two came the war that very nearly undid everything.

A young Arvernian noble named Vercingetorix united a large part of Gaul against Rome, and he understood his enemy very well.

He fought Caesar at Gergovia, and Caesar was beaten there, and it's a defeat that Caesar records, though he puts the blame on his men for pushing too far.

And afterward, Vercingetorix withdrew to a hill in the town of Alesia, with Caesar following him.

Archeologists have traced what Caesar built at Alesia, near the village of Alise-Sainte-Reine, and a section of it has been reconstructed there.

He surrounded the town with a ring of siege works, ditches, and ramparts, and towers to starve the defenders out.

So his legion sat between the two walls, besieging a town while they themselves were being besieged.

When the relief army came, the Romans fought on both fronts at once, and the relief army broke.

Uh, but it also plays out very well for Claudius because as you say, you... correct to say that, that usually barbarian leaders form part of a, a great triumphal procession, and they are then ceremonially executed.

Vercingetorix.

Vercingetorix.

Yeah.

Exactly.

Ili Kagan was captured alive at 630, and for all intents and purposes, the Eastern Turkic Khaganate ended right there.

And when Ili Kagan got escorted back to Chang'an to meet his fate, the Taizong Emperor was more magnanimous than Caesar was with Vercingetorix.

Not only did Taizong spare the life of Ilikagan and put him on the payroll as a commander in the Tang army, he didn't annex any territory, didn't leave any occupying force behind.

He resettled Turkic tribes inside Tang-controlled lands, and Eastern Turk nobles were integrated into the new order.

Like four or five minutes, almost no dialogue.

And Vercingetorix is led through Rome and ritually strangled.

And okay, sure, you know, there is an element to the fact that there's probably something about, you know, laying public concerns about our Gauls gonna be granted citizenship, right? All the nerdy, boring stuff we don't wanna talk about.

But what is it really? It's a declaration of authority.

A mediados del siglo XIX.

Hasta el punto, hasta el punto de que hoy día, ¿mhm?, hay una estatua de Vercingétorix, el gran caudillo, el gran caudillo galo, y la estatua de Vercingétorix la esculpió un escultor, un artista francés con la cara de Napoleón III.

Guau.

Y esto que se dice de que en la guerra de las Galias murieron millones de galos, que dicen que, que llegaron a morir incluso tres millones, que había una población de quince millones y tal.