Julius Caesar's Greatest Military Victory [video] | Hacker News Reader

Julius Caesar's Greatest Military Victory [video]

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106 pointssamsolomon18 comments

This victory is among the top military engagements in all of history...it's beautiful even.

But, I'd argue that Caesar's crossing of the Rhine was his most impressive victory. He built a bridge over an impassible river, marched his army across, walked around a bit, crossed back over and dismantled the bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNPnBVHSeZc

He didn't really "walk around a bit" per se. More like raided villages. But the Rhine Bridges are amazing, much like Xerxes' crossing of the Hellespont.

This (longer) version [0] is more precise (e.g. Historia Civilis' one mentions "messengers sent out to call reinforcement", while on [0] it correctly states that about 15,000 cavalry units were sent out to call reinforcements).

[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut9GdMywFj0

"Beef and Corn" Really? Corn wasn't in Europe until after the Americas were discovered.

"Corn" can be used in British English to mean any cereal:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_%28disambiguation%29

Alright then. Though I would say that using the word "grain" or "cereal" would be less confusing.

Or even other things in granular form, like salt. (As in "corned beef".)

The word 'corn' has Germanic roots (German still has 'Korn' and Dutch 'koren'; see http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=corn, which also claims the American 'corn' is shorthand for 'Indian corn')

So yes, corn existed in Europe long before Columbus.

Romans would not have gone out for corn, though. They had the word 'granum', from which we derived 'grain'.

> "Beef and Corn" Really? Corn wasn't in Europe until after the Americas were discovered.

The use of the word "corn" to refer exclusively to maize and not other cereal grains is a quirk of North American English that apparently has also spread to Oceania, but is not shared by much of the rest of the English-speaking world.

From this reddit thread, which is pretty entertaining: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/46x2sl/what_was_...

One minor quibble: the narrator keeps saying "gaulic". There's no such word. He could say "Gaulish", but probably meant "Gallic". Rhymes with phallic.

Sounds like an expensive military strategy with all that walls.

The local Gauls might have lost a forest, but I am sure there was no shortage of forest at the time. It would have cost JC nothing. The real cost was borne by the grunts who had to chop the trees down, move them, dig trenches and erect the walls.

The Roman army was very adept and building, and then tearing down, temporary fortifications.

Also I think I remember that the Roman soldiers had a general command to entrench if they had nothing to do. (Like a, you know, "take the broom and clean the floor if you got nothing to do" kind of rule)

Indeed. Roads, bridges, aqueducts, and many other kinds of infrastructure works was being done by the roman military when they weren't marching (i.e. stationing and "resting").

Best YouTube channel on military strategy I know of.

Know any good channels on cold war history, political science or related fields? I came across this 2 part MIT lecture on Nuclear Weapons Proliferation a little while ago and it was the most entertaining non programming lecture I have ever seen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clG-JuzTxrI . I don't mind if its in the style of the OP's post or university lectures

Unfortunately, it's dead.

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