Part 7: THE LAST TIME THAT WE'LL BE IN A CLASSROOM WITH WOJO! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I. Introduction
II. Presenting them as enemies of Rome
III. Misrepresenting customs 
IV. Trying to rise to power
V. Conclusion


Through out Caesar's Gallic Wars, Caesar tries to captivate his audience through his tales of his defeat of the Gauls.  He does this by making the Celts out to be much worse than they are, and creates himself as a hero.  While the true story of the Gallic Wars is impressive, Caesar wanted to leave no doubt in anybody's mind that he had defeated people that would have harmed Rome.  Caesar portrayed the Celts as barbarians and made them the enemy of Rome, he taught people of customs that they had that simply were not true, and did it because he wanted power in Rome.


Caesar cut all ties to the Celts by doing something seemingly unproductive; pointing out that they had allies among the tribes.  However, he makes his point when he says "Is sibi legationem ad civitates suscipit. Ineo itinere persuadet Castico, Catamantaloedis filio, Sequano,cuius pater regnum in Sequanis multos annos obtinuerat et asenatu populi Romani amicus appellatus erat, ut regnum incivitate sua occuparet."  He is showing that while Rome and the Celts once had a friendly relationship, the new sovereignty was violent in overthrowing the old and was not with Rome any longer.  He is portraying this rise to power, which he would soon attempt, as a barbaric thing, which it was not, to get the Romans on his side.


While Caesar spent much of his time plundering cities and taking men as prisoners and women as sex slaves, he accused the Celts of doing the same as though they were the only ones.  " Vbi ea dies venit, Carnutes Cotuato et Conconnetodumnoducibus, desperatis hominibus, Cenabum signo datoconcurrunt civesque Romanos, qui negotiandi causa ibiconstiterant, in his Gaium Fufium Citam, honestum equitem Romanum, qui rei frumentariae iussu Caesaris praeerat,interficiunt bonaque eorum diripiunt." Caesar made the attacks sound much more violent by naming names and bringing it back to Rome.  He hypocritically points out that they are plundering land and killing people, while he makes himself sound heroic.  



Caesar's main reason for making the Celts out to be so bad was simple: power.  He had been assigned to Gaul because the senate had forced him to a place where they thought he would stay out of their way.  Instead, Caesar proved them wrong by defeating an nonexistent enemy.  This can be compared to fighting a war against Iraq because of one man in order to gain power.  Instead of looking at what had to be done, Caesar created a problem in order to have something to solve.


The Celts were not as barbaric as Caesar portrayed them to be, and they were a worthy adversary.  The reason thatr Caesar has to make them seem so bad was because he wanted the credit for defending Rome.  If Caesar had not wanted to gain power, the Romans and Celts would not have had to fight, but Caesar picked a fight and won, just to prove that he could.