Caesar Fights the Celts

Caesar didn’t have any intention of going back to his fields, like Cincinnatus. But he knew that the Roman people wouldn’t make him king yet. Before he could be king, the Romans would have to love him and trust him even more.

So Caesar set out to be the greatest war hero ever. If he won many battles and conquered a great deal of land for Rome, maybe he could convince the people of Rome that he would make a good king.

Caesar took good care of his army. He trained them to fight. He paid them well and gave them plenty to eat. The soldiers weren’t used to being treated so well. Soon they were completely loyal to Caesar. They followed him into battle against Rome’s neighbors. Caesar didn’t always win his battles, but he didn’t let the people of Rome know that. Instead, he only sent them messages about his victories! He pretended that he never lost a fight.

The country Caesar wanted to conquer most was called Britain. Caesar thought that Britain would be easy to conquer. But he had to build ships and sail his army across the water to get to Britain’s shores.

He built the ships, and put the soldiers onto them. The ships set out for Britain. But some of them got lost on the way. And the soldiers who did make it to Britain were cold, wet, and tired. They were sick of the ocean and ready to get back to dry land.

“Look!” one of them shouted at last. “Land!”

The soldiers clustered at the side of the boat, anxious to see Britain for the first time. They saw a misty green island—with an army waiting for them on its shore.

The people who lived in Britain were called Celts. They were tall, muscular, warlike men. They were so proud of their height and strength that they went into battle naked! They wore only metal collars and tall metal helmets that made them look even bigger. They carried heavy iron swords and wooden clubs.

The Romans stared up at these huge, painted warriors. They began to murmur among themselves: “We can never beat them! They are too big and fierce!”

When the boy who held Caesar’s flag heard the soldiers murmuring, he jumped out of his ship, into the shallow water near the beach. He started to wade ashore, holding the flag high. The other soldiers didn’t want to see Caesar’s flag captured, so they leaped in after him. The Celts attacked. They fought there, ankle-deep in the water, for hours. Finally the Celts retreated. The Romans landed triumphantly on the beaches of Britain.

But the Romans only stayed in Britain three weeks. A huge storm wrecked many of the Roman ships. More Roman soldiers were ambushed and defeated. Finally Caesar decided to leave Britain and come back with a bigger army.

He came back a year later with more soldiers. This time he was able to stay in Britain longer. He forced some of the Celts to pay money to the Roman army as tribute. But the other British tribes remained free of Roman control.

Caesar hadn’t exactly conquered Britain. But he didn’t tell the people in Rome about his defeats! Instead, he kept sending messages of victory back to Rome. He even wrote a book about his wars in Gaul and Britain, called The Gallic Wars. In his book, Caesar hardly even mentioned the times when he was defeated. He only talked about his successes. He didn’t exactly tell lies, but he certainly talked about his battles in a way that made him sound even more victorious and successful than he was.