Caesar's Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France: Journeys Through Roman Gaul

by Bijan Omrani

Overview

An intellectual adventure through ancient France revealing how Caesar’s conquest of Gaul changed the course of French culture, forever transforming modern Europe.

Julius Caesar’s conquests in Gaul in the 50s b.c. were bloody, but the cultural revolution they brought in their wake forever transformed the ancient Celtic culture of that country. After Caesar, the Gauls exchanged their tribal quarrels for Roman values and acquired the paraphernalia of civilized urban life. The Romans also left behind a legacy of language, literature, law, government, religion, architecture, and industry.

Each chapter of Caesar’s Footprints is dedicated to a specific journey of exploration through Roman Gaul. From the amphitheatres of Arles and Nîmes to the battlefield of Châlons (where Flavius Aetius defeated Attila the Hun), Bijan Omrani—an exciting and authoritative new voice in Roman history—explores archaeological sites, artifacts, and landscapes to reveal how the imprint of Roman culture shaped Celtic France, and thereby helped to create modern Europe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681776125
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	12/05/2017
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	766,308
File size:	73 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bijan Omrani attended Lincoln College, Oxford. His first book, Ticking Tom and the Tornado, was published when he was 10 years old, which he followed with contributions to The Spectator as an undergraduate. His research interests include Euripides, mysticism, Henry Purcell and the history of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. He is the author and editor of various works on Central Asia including Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road (Odyssey Books & Guides), and also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society. He teaches Classics at Westminster School.
Bijan Omrani attended Lincoln College, Oxford. His first book, Ticking Tom and the Tornado, was published when he was 10 years old, which he followed with contributions to The Spectator as an undergraduate. His research interests include Euripides, mysticism, Henry Purcell and the history of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. He is the author and editor of various works on Central Asia including Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road (Odyssey Books&Guides), and also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society. He teaches Classics at Westminster School.

Table of Contents

List of Maps xi

A Note on Terminology xiii

Introduction 3

I Gaul Before Caesar 9

II Caesar's Command 45

III The Taming of Gaul 81

IV Tales of the Imagination 119

V When in France 145

VI High Life and City Chic 175

VII Country Life 199

VIII The Dignity of Labour 225

IX In Their Own Words 245

X Blood of the Martyrs 277

Epilogue: From an Empire to a Dream 321

Bibliographical Notes 347

Bibliography 357

Picture Credits 371

Acknowledgements 373

Index 375

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2017
The focus of this work is Julius Caesar (100–44 BCE)—not his influence on Rome, but rather his lasting impact on the region of Gaul (encompassing a wide area of present-day western Europe) and its influence on Western culture. Classical scholar Omrani (Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road) writes with a free-flowing narrative style. His engaging historical journey includes descriptions of Gaul prior to Roman involvement and continues to trace Roman conquest in the area and its adaptation to Roman influences. Omrani devotes the majority of this book to Gaul's historical progression; later chapters address Caesar's influence in the region and its links to the modern age. As only a few insights are offered, readers might wonder if more concrete connections could have been made. A good secondary read is Greg Woolf's Becoming Roman, which gives more detail regarding Roman influence in assimilating diverse cultures under one national identity. VERDICT An easy read for those interested in exploring broader cultural and historical connections during the Roman transition into the European continent and its continuing impact on the region.—Mark Hanson, Maranatha Baptist Univ. Lib., Watertown, WI

Library Journal

"Bijan Omrani is an exciting and authoritative new voice in Roman history. Ceasar’s Footprints is an extraordinary tour of the legacy of Roman culture in Gaul. Expertly researched, vividly descriptive, Caesar's Footprints brings history and Roman legacy to life."

The Midwest Book Review

"A poetic sense for spirit of place. Caesar’s Footprints is a learned and romantic reflection on France’s Roman past, one suffused with affection for its present."

Times Literary Supplement (London)

"An educational and enjoyable tour of the ancient Gallo-Roman society that grew out of the ashes of Caesar’s conquest. Omrani provides some sorely needed enrichment for the experience of reading Caesar, contextualizing his narrative in the cultural, historical, and literary landscape of Gaul, yet never losing touch with Caesar’s text itself. Entertaining and edifying."

The New Criterion

"This is a wonderful evocation of how Rome civilised Gaul and through Gaul laid the foundations for European civilisation. Omrani’s golden pen produces prose that is a pleasure to read. He is a polymath who delights us with his learning – in literature, history and geography – but wears it lightly. His sense of time and place and true civilisation is extraordinary."

Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO

"Without the conquests of Caesar there would have been no Roman Empire – and, so many of us believe, no continuing Freudian impulse for a European Union today. This terrific account lays bare the horror and cruelty of Caesar's campaigns – as well as the astonishing achievements of the Romans. Bursting with anecdotes and fizzing with unexpected information, Caesar's Footprints compels us to ask – how much does our continent owe to one man and his naked and cynical lust for glory."

Boris Johnson

"A real delight. Caesar’s Footprints exuberantly marches around France and Britain with the Roman legions, vividly bringing the formation of a shared European identity to life. It pulls no punches on the shocking violence and naked self-interest of Caesar’s northern wars, but is equally candid on the ways he laid the foundations of the medieval and modern West. Striding from Marseille and Arles to Autun and Deal in Kent, the book grippingly blends the unified world the Romans created with the landscapes and cultures two thousand years on. It is a bold vision, elegantly evocative, and an accomplished tribute to year zero of our shared modern European identity."

Dominic Selwood

★ 2017-09-14
A stimulating history of "how the Roman transformation of Gaul laid the foundations of modern Europe."Omrani (Classics/Westminster School, England; Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian & Silk Road, 2010, etc.) displays the facility of a poet, waxing eloquent on the beauty of sites where the Roman influence in Gaul forcefully asserted itself. This book is as much a travelogue as it is a wonderfully simplified lesson on Julius Caesar and his successors. The author effectively shows the full effects of the Roman occupation. The warlike, feuding Gauls had a culture of raiding, so they needed to expand further afield. They attacked Rome in 390 B.C.E., the only sack until Alaric arrived in 410 C.E. Caesar had no intention of expanding the Roman Empire; he was in search of military glory, amassing money and access to more manpower for his army. Initially, the Romans were not at all engaged in nation-building. Thousands of Gauls were killed or enslaved, the land devastated, and their culture obliterated—at least what we know of their culture since we only have Caesar's reports to go on. With their lands divided, the Gallic peoples turned to defining themselves, taking the best of Rome as needed. As the author notes, while the foundations of the French state are to be found in Clovis, the origins of the French people lie before Caesar with the Gauls. Omrani takes us to Roman ruins in many French cities, most of which have public structures, statues, and inscriptions illustrating the Romanitas (Roman-ness) displayed by the Gallic elites to flaunt their wealth and status. After such a thrilling adventure, the author may leave readers wanting more. His electric excitement is consistently contagious as he glories in the unique history of France as she connects to her Roman past.A book for all lovers of ancient history, with something to learn or love on nearly every page.

Kirkus Reviews