⚔️ 52 BC | The Siege of Alesia What you’re seeing: The siege that broke the last united Gallic resistance against Rome (52 BC). The video follows the siege in order: legionaries begin fortifications, cavalry clash on the plain during construction, starvation inside the walls, a relief army assaults the Roman lines and fails, and the Gallic surrender. Where is this? Near modern Alise-Sainte-Reine in Burgundy, France. What are those stakes and trenches? Caesar’s legions built two rings of fortifications: an 11-mile inner ring to keep the Gauls trapped and a 14-mile outer ring to block the relief force. Each included ditches, a timber palisade, guard turrets, and rows of concealed traps the soldiers nicknamed “cippi,” “lilia,” and “stimuli.” What happened inside the walls? Caesar writes that Vercingetorix (the commander of the united Gallic army) rationed cattle man by man and measured corn "sparingly, and by little and little." When food ran out, the Mandubii (the local tribe whose t...