Original subtitles

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The Spartacus \h\h\h\hslave rebellion

\hawakens the seething power of the poor and downtrodden.

\h\hBut, ultimately, money still rules, for the most destructive

force in Rome is the \hgrowing greed that

poisons its politics.

[angry yelling]

Now, the lust for power \hreaches a fever pitch,

as three men vie for absolute \h\h\h\hsupremacy in the Roman

Republic.

Only one will emerge the victor, and to him go the spoils--

\hhonor, riches, and the name that will echo through history

as the archetype of ruthless \h\h\hambition and tyranny--

Julius Caesar.

[applause]

[battle cry]

[screaming]

\hIt is the middle of the first century BC,

\hand democracy is breaking down in the Roman Republic.

\hIt is a time of riots and violent political upheaval.

THOMAS R. MARTIN: People saw \hblood and death every day.

Murder was as important \h\h\has the ballot box.

\hViolence was not supposed to be the way that Romans decided

the big political questions that set the course for the country.

But violence breeds violence.

And Rome had descended almost \h\h\hinto a state of anarchy

by Caesar’s time.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: This is the troubled \hworld in which young Julius

Caesar grows up.

\hBy the age of 16, his father has died.

\h\hAnd Caesar knows his life will be a struggle.

\h\h\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN: Julius Caesar inherited

the most distinguished family \hhistory of Roman could have.

\h\h\hBut by the time Julius Caesar was born, in 100 BC,

his family wasn’t as rich \h\hand wasn’t as powerful

as legend said it ought to be.

Julius Caesar wanted to \hrestore to his family

\hthe glory and the leadership position

that his family story said \h\hhis ancestors had had.

[music playing]

\h\h\hNARRATOR: While still a teenager, and sailing to study

on the Isle of Rhodes, Caesar \h\h\his kidnapped for ransom

by notorious pirates.

\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN: These were the biggest pirates and slave

traders in the Mediterranean.

So the Pirates captured Caesar \h\h\hand held him for ransom.

It took a long time to raise the money,

\hso Caesar spent a great deal of time in the Pirates’ camp.

NARRATOR: Holding his own \hagainst these murderers

and thieves, young Caesar proves to be more than his captors

bargained for.

\hDAVID S. POTTER: Caesar isn’t your ordinary Roman.

He’s not going to be terrified.

Pirates are the great threat \h\hto aristocratic society.

\h\h\h\hSo what Caesar is showing is that even when

he’s encountered this \hgreatest of threats,

he’s risen above it.

[music playing]

\hNARRATOR: In the end, Caesar wins his freedom

\h\h\hand the Pirates are brought to Roman justice,

\hcrucified, and left for the Carrion birds.

Caesar matures.

\h\h\h\h\h\hAnd by 65 BC, now an experienced soldier in his 30s,

he is sent to the Roman \h\hprovince of Hispania

to suppress a dangerous \h\h\h\hband of rebels.

[battle cry]

\h\hIt is here that he shows the dynamic leadership and charisma

that would mark his later life.

THOMAS R. MARTIN: Caesar was able to interact with people

from every level of society.

He could be friendly with \h\hhis ordinary soldiers

\hbecause he showed that he had as much courage and as much guts

and as much stamina as they did.

\hNARRATOR: And it is here, as well,

\h\h\hthat Caesar’s military reputation begins to build.

[battle sounds]

If you’re a member of the elite who shows courage,

\h\h\hand clear-headedness, and ability on the field of battle,

that’s going to translate into some political clout in Rome.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Returning \h\hto Rome, Caesar

enters politics using his soaring popularity

in an attempt to win the election for the office

of consul.

To be counsel is to hold Rome’s most prestigious position,

\hand comes not only with the lucrative governorship

of an entire Roman province, \h\hbut the military command

of the legions stationed there.

Caesar is a natural politician.

\h\h\h\hJulius Caesar was brilliant in his ability

\hto relate to people, to make them like him.

But he was also one of \hthe greatest writers

and one of the greatest \h\h\h\hpublic speakers.

Julius Caesar could make you do what he thought you should do

by giving you a speech.

NARRATOR: Among his admirers is Marcus Brutus, the child

of his favorite mistress.

\h\h\hHe quickly becomes Caesar’s loyal protege.

\hBrutus is inspired by his mentor’s populist campaign,

and will one day move into politics himself.

Caesar’s campaign for \hthe office of consul

wins him many supporters.

\h\hBut his appeal to the commoners of Rome

\h\h\h\hand his campaign for change lose him the support

of the conservative aristocrats.

He sets himself up quite deliberately as a person

\h\hwho will try to change the system of government.

And he’s a real threat \h\hto conservatives.

\h\h\hBecause Caesar appears as somebody

who stands for something new.

\hHe stands out in every way as their antithesis,

and there’s very little \hthey can do about it.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Still, even if Caesar is elected consul in Rome,

\hthe conservative senators can deny him the one thing he wants

and needs the most--

\h\hthe governorship of the profitable province of Gaul.

[applause]

Caesar needed money badly.

He was so far in debt that he had literally

to run away from his creditors.

[applause]

NARRATOR: All of Caesar’s \h\hfinancial difficulties

will be over if the Senate \hwill grant him his wish

for the province of Gaul.

For Caesar, it was absolutely crucial to get Gaul assigned

to him by the Senate \h\has his province.

\h\h\hIf Caesar was successful in Gaul,

he could make a lot of money from the enemies

that he captured and sold into \hslavery, and from the booty

that he took.

[chatter]

\hNARRATOR: It is essential that Caesar win the election

and the governorship of Gaul.

He develops a plan to \hensure this happens.

[cheering]

In the brutal arena \hof Roman politics,

one should never fight alone.

[cheering]

\h\hCaesar arranges a meeting with the two most powerful men

in the republic--

one an old friend, Crassus, \h\hthe richest man in Rome.

He funds all of Caesar’s \h\hpolitical campaigns.

[applause]

\h\hThe other is the celebrated General Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus,

\hbetter known as Pompey the Great.

[music playing]

[cheering]

Cunning as a gladiator \h\h\h\hin the arena,

\hCaesar convinces Crassus and Pompey

\h\hto work with him to win the election

and control the Senate.

\h\h\hCaesar really was the third man.

He wasn’t as distinguished \h\has Pompey militarily,

and he certainly wasn’t \h\has rich as Crassus.

\hBut Caesar had that glow, that aura, that

charisma that nobody else had.

NARRATOR: This extraordinary \h\h\h\h\h\halliance becomes

known as the triumvirate.

\h\h\h\h\h\hThe triumvirate is so powerful that they gain control

of the political apparatus.

\hThey’re able to almost, in a sense, bestow offices at will.

And, of course, this is going \hto put the bit in the bridle

on the political freedom of the aristocracy, which it greatly

cherished.

[cheering]

NARRATOR: To seal \hthe deal, Caesar

proposes a marriage contract between his daughter, Julia,

and Pompey.

\h\hMarriages, especially among Roman aristocrats,

are not so much love matches between a husband and wife.

\hIt’s more as if one family is marrying another family.

And the women are simply tokens of the exchange.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: With their newly combined political muscle,

\h\hCrassus and Pompey manipulate the system.

Caesar wins the election for consul, and the two of them

gain immense power for tax \hbreaks and land grants.

\h\hAnd then for Caesar, who has arranged it all,

\h\h\h\h\hthey confer a magnificent assignment--

\h\ha five-year term as the governor of not one

but two provinces in Gaul.

And beyond them, a whole \hcontinent to conquer.

\h\hCaesar heads north in search of glory and gold.

At the same time, on a collision course with Caesar’s army,

a desperate and hungry \hhorde of barbarians

move south, preparing to invade Roman territory.

\hKnown as the Helvetii, they are 300,000 strong,

seeking new lands to settle \h\h\hby force if necessary.

\h\h\hFor reasons that are hard to know-- maybe environmental,

probably because of wars--

the northern barbarians were \hmoving south, lock, stock,

and barrel, with men, \hwomen, and children.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: This, Caesar will not allow.

Along the banks of \hthe Rhone River,

the Romans throw up a barrier--

a wall, 18 miles long.

The Helvetians cannot pass.

\hThey must go instead through the lands of the Aedui tribe,

beyond the imperial border.

But this poses a problem.

[music playing]

Caesar has no authority \h\hto lead his army out

of Roman territory.

To collect the booty, slaves, \hand new territory he craves,

he must convince the Senate \h\h\hthat he has no choice.

He had to construct a threat \hof monumental proportions.

And it so happened that \hthe Helvetians managed

to fill this role for him.

NARRATOR: Sending back reports \h\h\hof this dangerous group

of savages on the march, \h\hCaesar pursues them,

thinking them an easy target.

He is quickly proven wrong.

Without warning, the Helvetians melt back into the forest

and ambush Caesar’s rear guard.

These groups had substantial \h\hmilitary infrastructure.

They had weaponry.

They had military organization.

\hThey organized themselves into units that were ready to defend

themselves.

[music playing]

[battle cry]

NARRATOR: Despite the \hchaos of the moment,

Caesar spots a superior \h\h\hbattle position--

a sloping hillside where \hhe arrays his troops.

\hDAVID S. POTTER: He understood how

to put his men in a position \h\h\h\hwhere they were most

likely to succeed.

He also took very few risks.

\h\h\hHe had a tendency to stake out bold positions,

\hbut always positions where the enemy would

\hbe at a disadvantage in responding to him.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Sure that their overwhelming numbers will carry

the day, the Helvetians rush \hheadlong towards the Roman

hill.

[battle cry]

\h\h\h\hCaesar himself describes the battle.

\hMAN (VOICEOVER): "From our commanding position,

\hthe troops easily broke the enemy’s [inaudible]..

With a single spear, my \hmen could pin together

the Gauls’ overlapping shields, forcing them to drop them.

Then we drew swords \h\h\hand charged."

[battle cry]

NARRATOR: Briefly, \hthe Romans seem

to take the upper hand \h\hbut the Helvetians

\h\h\houtmanned the Romans, five to one.

[music playing]

\hIn 58 BC, the Helvetians, of violent barbarian horde,

turned the tables on the Romans.

\h\h\h\hThey ambushed their rear guard, forcing Caesar to fight.

[battle cry]

Terror sweeps through the Roman ranks as the barbarians attack.

\h\h\h\h\hThey’re already taller than the Romans,

yelling at the top \hof their lungs,

ready to charge in a mass, \h\hseemingly in a frenzy.

I mean, what could be more \hfrightening than trying

to fight someone that you think is crazy, that is frenzied?

[battle cry]

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Though horribly outnumbered,

\h\hthe Romans command the superior position.

\hAs the battle slowly shifts in their favor

they take no quarter, \h\hkilling Helvetians

\has if they would wipe them from the face of the Earth.

\h\h\hGenocide is probably acceptable at this point,

and even preferable.

Because do you really want--

how many would it be-- possibly 200, 300, 400, 500,000 Germans

\hin Italy after the revolt of Spartacus,

\h\hafter we’ve seen what slave populations en mass

can do to Italy?

\h\hThe better technique is simply to exterminate them.

[battle cry]

NARRATOR: But survivors escape.

An expert manipulator, \h\h\h\hCaesar raises

the specter of a German invasion to garner popular support

for his war.

[horse neighing]

But in the Senate, conservatives suspect the real danger

lies in Caesar himself.

\h\h\h\hHe is even seen as a threat to his ally, Pompey.

[chatter]

\h\h\hHe’s beginning to look like somebody who will take Pompey’s

place as the leading \h\hfigure in Rome.

And the difference, of course, \h\hbetween Caesar and Pompey,

at this point, is that Pompey \h\h\hhad supported the status

quo where Caesar has always \h\hstood for his overthrow.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Tension \hfills the city.

The conservatives \htry to convince

Pompey to break with Caesar.

Too late.

His new wife, Caesar’s \h\h\hdaughter Julia,

has completely beguiled \h\h\hthe great general.

\h\hPompey was so in love with his teenage bride,

\h\h\hthat he began neglecting politics so he could spend all

his time with her.

Pompey took his teenage \hlove on constant tours

to visit all the most beautiful gardens and parks in Italy.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: Pompey’s generosity to Caesar even

\hincludes a member of his extended family--

his protege, Marcus Brutus.

\h\hAs a favor, Pompey grants Brutus a lucrative post in one

of the Eastern provinces, \hallowing the young noble

\h\hto rise in the political ranks just like his mentor.

\h\h\hWith Pompey protecting Caesar’s interests in Rome,

Caesar turns his attention \h\hto rumors of invasion

\hfrom the Gallic Kingdom of Aedui.

It is a quiet and pastoral \h\h\hregion, unaccustomed

to violence, Aedui.

[birds chirping]

\h\h\hMost people, most of the time, were not

involved in military activity.

Most people spent most of their time farming,

\hbuilding their houses, making clothing, raising

their children, and so on.

[childish chatter]

\hNARRATOR: In 58 BC, peace is shattered when Caesar reports

that tens of thousands of barbarian warriors

\h\hflood into Aedui, led by the terrifying warlord, Ariovistus.

[battle cry]

DAVID S. POTTER: Ariovistus \hbecomes virtually a Saddam

Hussein figure in the \h\hRoman imagination.

He’s virtually equipped with weapons of mass destruction,

in Roman terms.

\h\h\hHe’s got this terrible violent army that is, again,

\h\h\hevocative of the barbarian leaders of earlier generations.

He is rumored to be oppressing \h\hRome’s allies left, right,

and center, to be in that \h\hway directly attacking

the prestige of Rome.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Such aggression, \h\h\haccording to Caesar,

must not be tolerated.

[screaming]

Caesar learns that \hAriovistus plans

\hto set up his base in the fortified town of Besancon.

\hSwiftly, Caesar marches his men across Gaul to meet them.

[music playing]

The renowned classical biographer, Plutarch.

MAN (VOICEOVER): "The whole army clamored for the fight

\has the men followed Caesar to their camp,

just 20 miles from the enemy."

NARRATOR: With the Roman \h\hlegions closing in,

the barbarians look to their \h\hpagan gods for guidance.

The German army of Ariovistus, \h\h\hlike every ancient army,

\hhad priests and seers and shamans,

in this case, women who were believed to have the ability

to communicate with the gods.

When the time for battle came, \hthen the priests, the seers,

\h\hthe soothsayers would be asked, "Do

the gods say that it’s not prohibited for us to fight

now?"

NARRATOR: Weapons, water, the movement of the stars all may

bear messages from the gods.

Through their totems, \h\h\hthe soothsayers

\h\hdivine that Ariovistus will not win if he fights

before the new moon.

He must not move until then.

\hIt is the kind of intelligence upon which whole battles hinge,

\h\hand it finds its way to Caesar’s ear.

Ancient peoples took these \hdifficult to understand

messages from the gods very, very seriously.

Caesar knows that if he can force the barbarians

into battle when they think \hthe gods are telling them

not to fight, that he will have a great psychological

advantage.

NARRATOR: With the \hgods themselves

\hseeming to lay his path, Caesar seizes the moment.

\h\hCaesar sends his forces right up to the German fortification,

threatening them and shaming \hthem, and forcing, finally

against his will, Ariovistus \h\hto bring his troops out

when they are going to be \hfighting with this dread

in the back of their minds.

We shouldn’t be doing this, \hbut the gods have told us

not to go against Caesar.

\hNARRATOR: Caesar presses his advantage and attacks.

[battle cry]

[music playing]

[swords clashing]

Caesar has no compunction \h\h\habout getting rid

of vast numbers of people.

So in the battle with Ariovistus,

\hhe boasts that he killed 80,000 Germans, including

\htwo of his wives and one of Ariovistus’ daughters.

The other one, he captured.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: Ariovistus himself manages to escape

and flees to Germany, \h\h\h\hleaving Caesar

as the new master of Gaul.

[music playing]

\h\hIn 58 BC, Julius Caesar slaughters tens of thousands

of violent German warriors.

Their leader, Ariovistus, \h\h\hfleas and dishonor,

\h\h\h\hreleasing the Germans’ hold on Gaul.

\h\hNow, as he has planned all along,

Caesar has a free hand to annex the kingdoms of Gaul himself.

He claims to come \has a liberator,

\h\hbut some do not welcome Roman rule.

The principal downside \h\hwas that you lost

your political independence.

And that might not have mattered to some of these elites.

\h\h\h\h\hThe leaders, in particular, got all sorts

\hof political and material benefits.

But, as we know from later \h\hcircumstances in Rome

and elsewhere, lots \h\hof peoples don’t

like being ruled by outsiders.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Over the next three years,

\hCaesar drops his pose of protector.

Not only does he conquer Gallic tribes to the north and west,

but he also crosses the Rhine \h\hand the Channel to invade

Germany and Britain--

the first Roman to do so.

\h\h\h\hIn a combination of self-promotion and newscast,

Caesar sends back the story of his conquest in action packed

dispatches.

MAN (VOICEOVER): "Though surrounded by thousands

\hof natives, my men defended themselves

with the utmost bravery \h\hfor over four hours.

They killed a number of Britons at the cost of only a few men

wounded.

\h\h\h\hAs soon as our cavalry came in sight

the enemy threw down their arms and fled,

\h\hsuffering very heavy casualties."

It’s like he sucks you along into his campaign with him.

They read, for the Romans, like an adventure story--

a story of exploration.

Because Romans had not been to Northern Gaul.

Romans had not been to Britain.

So, for the Romans \h\hin particular,

it would have been a very exciting story.

Caesar’s account is one of the most remarkable

political documents to survive \hfrom any age in the history

of the world.

It’s intended to justify actions that many Romans regarded

\h\has completely illegal and outrageous, and only justified

by their success.

NARRATOR: Even Caesar’s protege, Marcus Brutus,

studies the dispatches with growing concern.

In between Caesar’s \h\heloquent lines,

he perceives greed and overreaching ambition.

\hAll of a sudden people begin to realize Caesar’s gathering

enormous wealth, an enormously \h\hpowerful army behind him.

He’s spending a lot of \hmoney buying support

\h\hthroughout the Italian peninsula.

\hNARRATOR: Brutus is troubled and concerned

for his political position.

A more powerful Caesar means a less powerful aristocracy.

Conservative leaders vow to stop Caesar.

\h\hWhat the Roman upper class fears most of all

\h\h\h\hwill be that one of its members will break ranks and go

directly to the people without the consensus of the governing

class behind him.

They were always afraid that somebody might do something

\h\hto upset the status quo, which was entirely

\h\hdevoted to maintaining their wealth and position.

NARRATOR: To stop the \h\hgrowing challenge,

\h\hCaesar must call in a favor from his longtime ally, Crassus.

\h\h\hHe alone does not fear Caesar’s booming popularity.

\h\hHis own enormous wealth insulates him

from the vacillation \h\h\h\hof politics.

\hWith bribes and guile, he manages

to block Caesar’s enemies \h\h\hand win for himself

\hanother consulship, and his first military command

in nearly 20 years.

Dreaming of lasting \h\h\hglory, Crassus

\h\hheads east to invade the Kingdom of Parthia,

only to die in an ambush.

\h\hCaesar has lost his first protector in Rome.

\h\h\h\hAround the same time, Caesar’s only daughter, Julia,

dies in childbirth.

\hHer husband Pompey, Caesar’s last protector, is devastated.

\h\h\h\hThe baby died a couple of days later.

Pompey was distraught.

And the loss of his love and of his child from his young wife

\h\h\h\hdestroyed his alliance with Caesar.

\h\hHis emotions overcame him and Pompey broke with Caesar.

[music playing]

\h\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: The triumvirate is finished.

Pompey and Caesar \hare now enemies.

\hThe die is cast for an ultimate showdown.

[angry shouting]

As political terror increases, \h\hthe supporters of the two

titans riot in the streets--

\heach side determined to destroy the other.

\h\hTHOMAS R. MARTIN: Rome was in political turmoil.

\hViolence had become the norm in politics.

There were street gangs \h\hfighting each other

in political campaigns.

[angry shouting]

\hNARRATOR: In the mayhem, the Senate building, the very home

of Roman government, burns to the ground.

\hThe situation in Rome is desperate.

Back in Gaul the situation is turning dangerous for Caesar,

as well.

A charismatic Gallic leader named Vercingetorix rallies

the Gauls to unite against the Romans

from his homeland of Auvergne.

[music playing]

\hVercingetorix’s plan is radical--

burn all the supplies, every \h\hlast barn full of corn,

\h\h\h\hand every bit of forage for the animals.

\h\hThen, hunker down in the fortified hill towns

and starve out the Romans.

As their homesteads \h\hgo up in flames,

\hthe cure must seem as bad as the disease to the Gauls.

Yet their self-sacrifice \hastonishes and alarms

the Romans.

Vercingetorix was trying to destroy the logistics

of the Roman army.

Just feeding these people \his an enormous problem.

\hAnd the farther Caesar goes against the Gauls,

\h\h\hthe longer his supply lines become,

\hthe easier it becomes to cut the supply lines

and starve the enemy \h\hinto submission.

NARRATOR: With food supplies plummeting,

the Romans will have \honly two options--

stay and starve or retreat.

Caesar never retreats.

[music playing]

In 52 BC, a courageous warrior \h\hnamed Vercingetorix calls

\hupon his people to rise up against Rome

and burn their barns \hand food supplies.

By winter’s end, the Romans must choose starvation or victory.

[suspenseful music]

But now, as spring \hreturns, Caesar

calls on his troops to rally and strike back

against Vercingetorix \h\h\hand his people.

Among Caesar’s most trusted subordinates is Marc Antony.

\hAntony also has a lot of energy.

He’s a very brave soldier.

He comes to Caesar with a lot \hof experience in the field.

\hThe kind of character that Caesar likes to have around.

\h\h\hNARRATOR: They attacked Gergovia, where Vercingetorix

and his people fight \ha furious defense.

The battle is brutal.

Caesar, fighting shoulder to shoulder with his men,

escapes with his life.

But the battle is a disaster.

Meanwhile, back in Rome, the political situation

deteriorates for Caesar even more

as his enemies gather strength.

\h\hThe conservative Senate declares Pompey sole consul,

placing an army at his disposal.

Then, to add insult \hto injury, Pompey

turns down an offer to marry into Caesar’s family again.

Instead, he weds a young widow \hnamed Cornelia, the daughter

of a senator, Metellus Scipio.

\hPompey probably wants to offset the prestige

that Caesar’s accruing.

\h\hPompey, at this point, for years has

been sitting on his laurels.

He’s been in Rome much of the time.

\h\hAnd so he probably wants to hedge his bets at this juncture

against Caesar.

\hAnd he does this by casting about for political alliances

with the aristocracy.

\h\hNARRATOR: Pompey even gets the Senate

\h\h\h\hto make his new father-in-law co-consul.

\h\hWith this final betrayal, Pompey’s move away from Caesar

and into the conservative camp is at last complete.

The situation is becoming \h\h\hcritical for Caesar.

He must salvage Gaul or \hlose face altogether.

He pursues Vercingetorix \h\h\h\h\h\hand his army

\hto the fortified town of Alesia, and orders his men

to dig a double entrenchment--

one to keep the Alesians \hin, the other to keep

their reinforcements out.

\h\hWhat they did was build up this just wonderful structure

of defense works, which started initially with a thing his men

called stimuli or spears--

\h\htimbers planted in the ground with hooks on them.

Then they built a thing that they jokingly called lilies,

\h\hand these are pits about three feet deep

\hthat have a three inch stake protruding out of the ground.

\hIt’s a phenomenal achievement, and all done with arms swinging

\h\hpicks, a lot of back power, moving earth in wicker baskets.

And you have to imagine about \h15,000 guys digging for days

on end, and just with \h\hsheer back power.

You can just imagine what a chiropractor would have done

for that army.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: As supplies dwindle, \hVercingetorix and his people

are starving and desperate.

\h\h\hThings became so bad in Alesia,

for the Gauls who were there, \h\hthat they were running out

of food.

\hNARRATOR: But just as they must surely

surrender, Caesar’s worst \h\hnightmare comes true.

All of Gaul rises to defend the Alesians.

200,000 fresh barbarian warriors march against the Romans.

\h\h\hThe goals are relatively well organized opposing force.

They can muster a lot of people, and muster them

relatively quickly.

\h\hWe see that with the siege of Alesia,

\h\h\hin which Caesar finds himself, in turn, besieged.

\h\h\h\hNARRATOR: With the arrival of reinforcements,

Vercingetorix finally bursts \h\h\hout of the city gates.

The Romans are surrounded.

The barbarians rush \h\hin for the kill.

[battle cry]

\h\hThe Battle of Alesia was Caesar’s greatest challenge

in 10 years of huge military challenges.

Because in order to \hdefeat the enemy,

Caesar had to fight them both in the front and in the rear.

NARRATOR: Only the most seasoned troops could withstand such

an assault.

\h\h\h\h\h\hYou had to be psychologically prepared

\h\hto confront the enemy, close enough to hack them

to death with a two foot sword.

\h\h\h\hYou had to get into that killing zone that was literally

at arm’s length, where you could as easily be killed as killed.

NARRATOR: In his first-hand account of the Gallic wars,

Caesar describes the battle.

MAN (VOICEOVER): "Neither \h\hramparts nor trenches

could check the Gauls’ \h\hfurious onslaught.

And I knew that the time for the decisive action was at hand."

\h\h\hHe has great lucidity, to the point that sometimes when

his men were losing it he \hwould actually grab them

by the throat and thrust \hthem back into battle.

\hSo a great clear-headedness in the midst of great danger.

MAN (VOICEOVER): "Suddenly, the Gauls saw their cavalry

\h\hin their rear and fresh cohorts coming up in front.

They broke and fled that \h\hwe mowed them down."

\h\hNARRATOR: In 52 BC, in the fields outside Alesia,

the dream of Gaelic \hindependence dies.

\h\h\h\hVercingetorix surrenders to Caesar,

\h\h\hbringing much of Northern Europe into the empire for good.

RAY VAN DAM: Caesar’s campaigns are important because they take

\h\hthe Roman Empire away from the Mediterranean into Central

Gaul, Northern Gaul, he \hcrosses into Germany,

he crosses into Britain.

\h\hSo Northern Europe is now included in the Roman Empire.

And long-term this has really \h\h\himportant consequences.

So Caesar is now taking \hthe Roman Empire away

from this Mediterranean world.

NARRATOR: Now in victory, Caesar can return to Rome.

\hHe has eclipsed all the other nobles, even Pompey.

\hAfter Caesar’s near decade of overwhelming military success

in Gaul, he wants to return to Rome to reap the rewards,

to be recognized by everyone \h\h\has Rome’s leading man.

But his rivals fear and hate him, above all because he’s

put them in the shadows.

\hNARRATOR: In 49 BC, many Roman aristocrats

insist that Caesar release his army and return home.

But Caesar balks.

\hCaesar knows that if he were to disband his army

\h\hand come to Rome, he would be murdered by his rivals who

\hhate his success, and know that Caesar can’t be stopped

because he’s so popular.

\hSo Caesar’s life was literally on the line.

[chatter]

NARRATOR: Caesar and his enemies are headed for a showdown,

and no one can stop it.

[music playing]

By 50 BC, Julius Caesar \hhas no equal in Rome.

\hThe Senate, fearing that he has grown too powerful,

\h\hinsists that he resign his command.

\h\h\hFuming, Caesar leads an army south,

\hcontemplating an invasion of Rome.

He pauses at a small river \hat the boundary of Rome,

the Rubicon.

For Caesar, leaving his men on the shores of the Rubicon

and traveling on to Rome alone \hmeans complete capitulation

to his enemies.

\h\h\hCaesar’s life was literally on the line.

Caesar had to cross the Rubicon River, this little stream that

was a boundary between the provinces and Rome itself.

When he did that, he knew that \hthere would be a Civil War.

But it was that or \hdie in disgrace.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: One side of the power struggle is led by Caesar.

Forged by a decade \hof campaigning,

his army’s belief in him is unshakeable.

Its dedication, absolute.

The other side is led by Pompey.

His army is scattered \h\hthroughout Italy,

and its loyalty is in doubt.

Caesar’s popularity, he knows, is at its height.

\hPopulation of Italy treated Caesar like a returning god.

And soldiers flocked \hto Caesar’s army.

There was no opposition.

Those who feared him were fleeing

like a wave towards Rome.

\hAnd the city became a scene of absolute tumult and panic.

The people of Rome \hwho loved Caesar

are partying in the streets because they

can’t wait for him to return.

NARRATOR: Pompey gathers up the Roman Senate and flees to where

support for him is deep and strong--

Greece.

\h\hIt buys the great general valuable time.

Months pass before \hCaesar can build

an appropriate enough ships and supplies to follow him.

\h\h\h\hBy the time Caesar’s troops disembark in Greece,

Pompey has amassed a great army.

In January 48 BC at Parsalus, \h\hthe most important figures

\hin Rome square off in tragic civil war.

Pompey commands twice as many men as Caesar,

\hyet Caesar’s soldiers come armed with a potent weapon--

confidence.

\hPompey had to fight or had to surrender.

\h\hThat is the way that Caesar worked.

And Caesar’s men knew that \hhe would always put them

in a position where the chances of success were very great.

[battle cry]

He also has a very well trained army.

You reach a certain \hpoint and the army

becomes a well oiled machine.

\h\hThey’re not called veterans for nothing.

And they become a very effective fighting force because they’re

so used to what they’re doing.

\h\hAt Parsalus, Caesar’s long years of campaigning pay off.

\h\h\hHis men utterly destroy Pompey’s army.

Pompey himself escapes.

Caesar chases him to Egypt, but too late.

In the end, the great Pompey is tricked, murdered, and beheaded

by Egyptian [inaudible].

The head is sent back to Caesar.

Classical biographer, Plutarch--

MAN (VOICEOVER): "When Pompey’s head was brought to him,

Caesar refused to look at him.

But he took Pompey’s \h\h\h\hsignet ring,

and grieved as he did so."

Did he really do that?

It’s very anecdotal, and it almost defies plausibility.

But it is possible in a sense.

It’s possible because Pompey had been a colleague and a friend

for a time.

\hAnd maybe, in a sense, Caesar saw

\h\hwhat could happen to himself in the eyes of the dead Pompey.

\hNARRATOR: In 46 BC, with his rivals out of the way,

Caesar has the total power he \hhas craved his entire life.

Rome is his.

Caesar quickly moves to rebuild the city, changes the tax laws,

and establishes colonies.

\hHe becomes the first leader of Rome to conceive an empire.

\h\hCaesar essentially becomes the new state.

Caesar replaces the republic.

\h\hNow, this is a great preview of what’s going

to happen under the emperors.

\hBut Caesar does it in such a way that he seems to disregard

the traditions of the republic.

\h\h\h\hAnd, as a result, he essentially cuts himself off

and isolates himself.

NARRATOR: Unwilling to share his rule with lesser nobles,

\h\h\h\h\hhe proclaims himself a dictator for life, King of Rome

in everything but the name.

\hThe fear is, if Caesar becomes a King the rights of the people

to vote, to choose, to express their opinion,

will be taken away from them.

\h\hNARRATOR: Outrage over Caesar’s tyranny

\hseeps like poison through the Senate.

\h\h\hEven Caesar’s own protege, Marcus Brutus,

is persuaded to betray him.

\h\hBrutus was a complex and frankly not very attractive

man.

Caesar had made him his close companion and promoted Brutus’

career.

But I think Brutus \h\hcouldn’t stand

being second banana to Caesar.

\h\h\hAnd Brutus had this romantic notion of himself

as the defender of Roman liberty by leading the conspiracy

against Caesar.

NARRATOR: Finally, in 44 BC on the Ides of March, in the name

of liberty, 40 conspirators take matters into their own hands,

led by Brutus.

Classical biographer, \h\h\h\h\hSuitonius--

\h\hMAN (VOICEOVER): "23 dagger thrusts went home

as Caesar stood there.

He did not utter a sound \hafter the first blow.

Though some say that when he saw Marcus Brutus about to deliver

the second blow, he reproached \hhim in Greek with, ’You too,

my child?’"

\h\h\h\h\h\hMany of them were his friends, some from a long time.

Some perhaps thought that Caesar had destroyed the republic s

most cherished tradition, \h\h\hthat no one man can

be the leader of Rome.

And there was surely spite \h\hand jealousy and just

\hhuman passion, and perhaps some notions

that this was what freedom required.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: Caesar’s death spawns not a rebirth of the republic,

as the conspirators hoped.

\h\h\h\h\hOnly anarchy, more violence, eventually empire.

\h\hI think long-term, the infusion of obscene riches

\h\h\h\hinto Roman politics, the turning of the army into clients

\hof the general as a patron, and the intense rivalry among

\h\hthe aristocrats to defeat each other instead of serving

the country, meant that the \h\hRepublic was doomed even

without the genius, the \hfire of Julius Caesar.

It was his relative, \h\h\hAugustus, who

found a way to make that work \hand create the Roman Empire.

[music playing]

\hNARRATOR: The age of emperors begins,

\h\h\h\h\hand with it bloody conquest, brutal repression,

and endless war.