My Science School

         Vercingetorix was a Gallic leader. In fact, he was the best known, and most, able leader of the Gallic opposition to Caesar during the Gallic War of 58-51 BC. Vercingetorix became the leader of the great revolt against the Romans in 52 BC.

          Julius Caesar, upon hearing of the revolt, rushed to put it down. Vercingetorix adopted the policy of retreating to heavy, natural fortifications, and burning Gallic towns to keep the Roman soldiers from living off the land. Caesar and his chief lieutenant Labienus lost minor engagements, but when Vercingetorix shut himself up in Alesia and summoned all his Gallic allies to attack the besieging Romans, the true brilliance of Caesar appeared. He defeated the Gallic relieving force, and took the fortress. Vercingetorix was captured, and put to death.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Arminius was a German leader who lived in the 1st century. He had lived in Rome for sometime, and understood Rome’s military strategy. When the Romans invaded German territory, Arminius, along with the leaders of the other German tribes, used this knowledge to defeat the Romans at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest.

 

           The first German leader of whom we have any record is Ariovistus, who was reigning in 58 BC, the year Julius Caesar entered Gaul. Ariovistus was the leader of a Germanic tribe, the Suebi, and he was constantly fighting with the Gauls, whom he defeated. The Romans considered him a ‘king and friend of the Senate’, but things changed when Gaul’s leaders asked Caesar for protection against King Ariovistus. The Gauls claimed he had brought in 120,000 Germans to settle on their lands, and had also taken hostages.

                 Caesar agreed to speak with Ariovistus but Ariovistus, refused this request. Caesar’s response was to tell him not to bring Germans into Gaul, and to restore hostages taken. However, Ariovistus, who had enjoyed military successes as impressive as Caesar’s, saw no reason to obey. Finally, Caesar attacked him at the Battle of Vosges in 58 BC. The Germans responded with vigour, but Roman tactics soon led to panic among them. As they fled, Caesar led the pursuit. Ariovistus managed to escape, but died not long afterwards. 

              Mark Antony was a Roman statesman and general. After Caesar defeated Pompey, Antony became Caesar’s second in command, and Caesar appointed him as Consul of Rome. On Caesar’s death, Antony joined with Caesar’s nephew Octavian to defeat the conspirators who had murdered Caesar. Later however, Octavian became his enemy when Antony married Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt. Octavian sent a fleet that destroyed the navy of Antony and Cleopatra, and Antony committed suicide. 

           Augustus Caesar’s real name was Gaius Octavius .He was the grand nephew of Julius Caesar. In his will, Caesar had adopted Octavius and made him his heir, so Octavius changed his name to Gaius Julius Caesar. Octavian was a shrewd, brilliant, and astute politician. Upon his grand uncle’s assassination in 44 BC, Octavius went to Rome. There, on August 19th, at the age of 19, Octavius was elected Consul.

            In November, Octavius, Mark Antony, and Aemilius Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate and forced the Senate to grant all three of them consular power for five years. Later, Antony left for Egypt, where he married the Queen Cleopatra, even though he was still married to Octavius’s sister in Rome. This outraged Octavius. He had already seized power from Lepidus, and he now defeated Antony and Cleopatra in a sea battle.             

            The world over which Rome presided was now in chaos. To meet this challenge, Octavian strengthened the military. From 31-23 BC, Octavian had himself elected Consul. In 27 BC, the Senate gave him the title of Augustus. From then on, Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus - also known as the Emperor Augustus - ruled Rome until his death in 14 AD.

            In 60 BC, a young and ambitious general by the name of Julius Caesar stepped into political life. He had been very successful on the battlefield, and had greatly expanded Rome’s borders, bringing parts of Gaul and Britain under the control of Rome. He conquered enemies in Spain and Germany, and passed onto Greece. Caesar marched into Egypt also, where he notched up another victory.

             However, these victories made the Roman Senate fear that Caesar would use his army to over throw the republican government. In an attempt to protect this from happening, the Senate ordered Julius Caesar to return to Rome, but to leave his armies north of the Rubicon River.

             Caesar refused to do as he had been ordered. By crossing the Rubicon with his armies, he committed treason against the Senate, and in effect, declared civil war. Caesar eventually defeated opposing forces, and by 45 BC, had taken over control of the entire Roman Empire. Sadly, Caesar’s rule in Rome would be brief. The following year, in 44 BC, he was murdered by members of the Senate.

        Gnaeus Pompey was one of the key figures in the Roman revolution at the end of the period known as the Roman Republic. He rose to prominence serving Sulla in the first major Roman civil war, defeating the forces of Marius in Africa. Pompey quickly learned the political power of an army behind him. He led the Roman army against the rebels in Spain, and returned to Rome in triumph.

          In addition to his early successes, brutal though they are said to have been, Pompey was responsible for subduing the rebellious Spartacus and his army of slaves. This earned him the enmity of Crassus, who had already put down the main force of the slave revolt that had terrorized Italy. Pompey was awarded the task of ridding the pirates from the Mediterranean. He conquered Mithridates, King of Pontus, Tigranes, King of Armenia, and Antiochus, King of Syria, and went on to capture Jerusalem.

            Returning to Rome, Pompey formed a coalition with Julius Caesar and Crassus, called the First Triumvirate. Later on, however, Pompey led his forces in a civil war against Caesar. Pompey’s forces were defeated at the Battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Pompey himself sought the safety of Egypt, where he was murdered by order of the pharaoh’s ministers. 

           Spartacus was a Roman slave and gladiator, and leader of a famous slave revolt. He was sold into slavery, and trained at the gladiatorial school in Capua, north of Naples. He escaped in 73 BC, and took refuge on nearby Mount Vesuvius, where large numbers of other escaped slaves joined him. Leading his army of runaway slaves, which has been estimated to have reached 100,000 men, Spartacus defeated a series of Roman attacks using tactics which would now be called guerrilla warfare.

           In 72 BC, Spartacus and his army marched north towards Gaul. They fought off a series of attacks from Roman forces, but then turned south. The Roman politician and general Marcus Licinius Crassus led an army south, and in the battle that followed, Spartacus is believed to have been killed. Around 6,000 of his followers, who escaped, were hunted down and crucified. Thousands of others were killed by the army of the Roman general Pompey. Though his attempt to win freedom failed, Spartacus’s struggle has been an inspiration to revolutionaries, politicians, and writers to this day.

 

           Mithridates became king when he was only twelve, and so, it was his mother who actually wielded power. However, when he was seventeen, he had his mother imprisoned, and seized power. He also killed off several of his brothers to eliminate any competition for the throne!

            Mithridates invaded Bithynia, which was a Roman ally, and this brought him into conflict with Rome. Later, Roman general Sulla captured Athens, and defeated Mithridates at the Battle of Chaeronea in 86 BC. Mithridates fought three wars against the Romans. Eventually, he lost his kingdom, and died after being overthrown by one of his sons.

            Today, Mithridates VI is remembered as one of the Roman Republic’s most persistent enemies, though he won only one major battle.

 

             Cornelius Sulla came to prominence mainly in the Social War that was fought from 91-89 BC. When in 88 BC, Mithridates, King of Pontus, attacked the Roman province in Asia; the senate decided that Sulla, who was then one of the current consuls, would be commander of the army against Mithridates. After successfully completing his campaign against Mithridates, Sulla returned to Italy, marched to Rome, and took charge politically by force, as a dictator.

             Sulla introduced a new judicial device called ‘proscription’. This meant, the publication of lists of any people he deemed undesirable. Rewards would be made to those who brought them in, be they dead or alive. It goes without saying that Sulla used this device in order to wipe out any political opposition. He introduced a law by which, any new member to be admitted to the Senate had to have at least to have had some experience in an official position. Sulla created new courts for particular types of crime. Only Senators could sit as judges, and this strengthened the Senate. Unusually for a tyrant, Sulla retired in 79 BC.

 

            Gaius Marius was a Roman general and politician. He was a strong and brave soldier, and a skilful general, popular with his troops, but he showed little flair for politics, and was not a good public speaker.

            Gaius was given command of the Roman army in Africa. In recruiting fresh troops, Marius broke with custom, because of a manpower shortage. He recruited volunteers from outside the propertied classes. This was a bold step because till then, only those who owned property could serve in the army. Gaius’ victory in Africa got him elected consul again-he was consul seven times- but he soon had to go to war once more. This time, he showed his foresight by ensuring that his men were excellently trained in commando tactics by gladiatorial instructors. There is no doubt that Gaius’ military reforms and great command led to the growing involvement of the army in politics, and the eventual collapse of the republican system.

  

            Publius Cornelius Scipio was born into one of the great aristocratic families of Rome. Even as a boy, he proved his bravery when, seeing his father wounded and cut off by the enemy during a battle, he charged forward, and saved him. Scipio began his career as a military tribune. In 210, the Romans decided to send an army to Spain against the Carthaginians, but it is said that no senior general would undertake the task, and that young Scipio offered himself as a candidate. He was determined to hold the Carthaginian armies at bay, and prevent them from sending reinforcements to Hannibal in Italy. He was also determined to turn back the tide of war, and to drive the enemy out of the Peninsula.

            Scipio first defeated the Carthaginian commander Hasdrubal Barca in Spain, and then the other two Carthaginian armies still there, making Roman control of Spain complete. However, his greatest achievement was undoubtedly his victory over the Carthaginian leader Hannibal in the great Battle of Zama in Africa, in 202 BC, ending the Second Punic War. For this he won the surname Africanus.

 

          Philip V was one of the last great Macedonian sovereigns ruling from 221 to 179, whose attempt to extend Macedonian influence throughout Greece, resulted in his defeat by Rome.

          Philip became king when his father died in 229 BC. He was just nine years old then, and real power lay in the hands of his cousin, Antigonus Dosun, the regent. Antigonus later declared himself to be the king but he died when Philip was just seventeen. So in effect, Philip became king only in 221.

           Philip’s reign witnessed an expansion of Macedonian power, but it also saw an even greater expansion of the power of Rome. During his reign he was preoccupied with the vain struggle to maintain the old Macedonian supremacy in the Balkan Peninsula, which became hopeless after the intervention of Rome and the decisive Battle of Cynoscephalae.

           Philip devoted the last decade of his life to consolidating his kingdom. He reorganized finances, transplanted, populations, reopened mines, and issued central and local currencies. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Perseus who ruled as the last king of Macedon. 

            Han Xin was a very famous general who lived around two centuries before Christ at a time when China’s first empire, Qin was on the verge of collapsing, because of peasant uprisings. He came from a poor family, but he studied hard and became familiar with military strategy and tactics. In 209 BC, rebellions broke out everywhere in China. Han Xin went to join the rebel army of Xiang Liang, who founded the nation of West Chu. After Xiang Liang was killed in a battle, his nephew Xiang Yu became the ruler of West Chu. However, Han Xin felt he was not being treated well, and left Xiang Liang’s army to join another rebel army called Han under Lord Liu Bang. It was here that Han Xin soon proved that he had a rare military talent.

            In May of 206 BC, the Han army won a major victory against Lord Zhang Han’s army. This was followed by a series of victories. What is amazing is that Han Xin started as a lowly guard for Xiang Liang, and became a general under Liu Bang. Moreover, he achieved outstanding victories repeatedly within just a few years. He was the major figure in deciding the outcome of the war between Han and its enemies, and was praised as an all-powerful military leader and brilliant strategist.

 

            Antiochus III was barely 19 when he became king of Seleucia. By a show of force, and skilful diplomacy, he formed alliances with neighbouring rulers. Once he had his neighbours under his control, Antiochus then turned his attention to Western territories and formed an alliance with Philip V of Macedon against Egypt. In 200 BC, he defeated the Egyptian forces, and claimed control of Palestine and Phoenicia.

            Pressing his military advantage, Antiochus invaded Egypt itself, forcing a peace treaty. But Antiochus did not rest on that victory. He later led his forces to regain the cities of Western Asia Minor that his father had lost. Not content with having extended Seleucia’s control over more territory than any of his predecessors, he crossed into Europe, but was defeated by the Romans and the allies.