... f personal crisis. In the letters aiting upon his return are nes of the deaths of to of the most important people in his life - his daughter Julia, and his mother Aurelia. The short-term effects of his personal loss are visible in the careless dispositions of his armies for inter quarters. This uncharacteristic lapse forces him into a very circumstantial and untrustorthy, but meticulous explanation for the disposition of his troops in the inter of 54. But the facts are unavoidable, his sloppiness cost the lives of 15 cohorts, or at least 10000 men. He droned his sorro in the blood of the Gauls, aging a ar of extermination against the rebellious Eburones and bridging the Rhine for a second raid. Politically, the death of Julia meant that the bonds beteen Pompeius and Caesar ere eakened. Pompeius refused further offers of marriage ith omen ithin Caesars family, choosing instead to marry Cornelia, daughter of the Optimate Metellus Scipio. Pompeius lingered in his villa on the outskirts, making no effort to stop the groing anarchy. Street violence made elections impossible, and as early as 54, there as talk of making him Dictator. The next year, Crassus died at the battle of Carrhae, effectively dissolving the triumvirate. Hoever, neither Pompeius nor Caesar felt ready for the break that the Optimates ere hoping for, and Pompeius readily complied ith Caesars request to raise 3 Legions for his campaigns against the Gauls in 53. In January 52, Clodius as murdered by the armed folloers of the Optimate Titius Annius Milo and in the riots that folloed, the Senate house burnt don. Finally, Pompeius intervened and forced the Optimates to choose beteen himself and Milo. He as elected sole Consul, ith responsibility for re-establishing la and order. The Gallic RevoltIn the meantime, Caesar as forced to devote his full attention to the Gallic tribes. At last, the people of central Gaul had found a leader ho could unite them - the Arvernian Vercingetorix. Although Caesars career is on the line, he re-enters the Gallic scene seemingly untouched by a year and a half of personal crisis. Vercingetorix favored a scorched earth policy, but as unable to persuade his countrymen to adopt it holeheartedly. Instead, the Bituriges insisted on standing siege in their ton of Avaricum, hich as taken by Caesar ithin a month. The Romans folloed this by besieging Vercingetorix in Gergovia, but their attempt to storm Gergorvia as repulsed ith heavy losses -- the first outright defeat that Caesar had suffered in Gaul. After repelling an attack hile his army as on the march, he then laid siege to Vercingetorix in Alesia. Like Gergovia, Alesia as a position of great natural strength, but the relieving force as repulsed and dispersed by Caesar and Vercingetorix as forced to capitulate. This rebellion occurred at a time hich as most fortunate for Caesar, so much that one may be tempted to allege that Vercingetorix as a Caesarean agent. In any case, the suppression of this revolt and others in 51 BC as so efficient that the province of Gaul remained pacified, even during the folloing decades of civil ar. Caesars approach in these years as a mixture of reconciliation and terror. hen he captured the natural fortress of Uxellodunum he had the survivors hands cut off. hatever one may feel of his methods, the policy as effective and gave him the peace needed to concentrate on events in Rome. . !a ... Download