Armies of Julius Caesar 58–44 BC
Gaius Julius Caesar remains the most famous Roman general of all time.
Although he never bore the title, historians since Suetonius have judged him to be, in practice, the very first 'emperor' – after all, no other name in history has been synonymous with a title of imperial rule. Caesar was a towering personality who, for better or worse, changed the history of Rome forever. His unscrupulous ambition was matched only by his genius as a commander and his conquest of Gaul brought Rome its first great territorial expansion outside the Mediterranean world.
His charismatic leadership bounded his soldiers to him not only for expeditions 'beyond the edge of the world' – to Britain – but in the subsequent civil war that raised him to ultimate power. What is seldom appreciated, however is that the army he led was as varied and cosmopolitan as those of later centuries, and it is only recently that a wider study of a whole range of evidence has allowed a more precise picture of it to emerge.
Drawing on a wide range of up-to-date research, the authors examine the armies of Julius Caesar in detail, creating a detailed picture of how they lived and fought.
Raffaele D’Amato, PhD, is the author of some 40 books and numerous articles on the military of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, Byzantium and the Middle Ages. For two years he taught at Fatih University, Istanbul as a visiting professor. He currently works as a lawyer and as an external researcher for the Laboratory of the Danubian Provinces at the University of Ferrara, Italy.
Florent Vincent was born in 1973, and studied Applied Arts, History of Art and Archaeology. An illustrator specializing in historical and military subjects, he works with many French and Foreign publishers and museums (Museum of National Antiquities of St-Germain-en-Laye, Museum of the Army of Paris, Archaeological Museum of Frankfurt, etc.). He is also the co-author of two books on the Gallic Wars.