Gaul.
Caesar's conquest of Gaul, apart from being in some respect an accident of history, can also be seen as an exercise in adaptation. On the level of geopolitical strategy, Caesar adapted long-established Roman policy toward relationships with allies to provide justification and leverage for the expansion of Roman power across Gaul. There was no overt, Alexander-style sweeping campaign of conquest. Instead, attacks on Roman allies were used as pretext for the subjection of those allies' neighbors. Likewise, the rise of anti-Roman factions within allied tribes was used to justify the forcible re-imposition of pro-Roman leaders, under conditions that invariably strengthened the Roman hold on these tribes. In this respect, Caesar's conquest of Gaul reproduced in miniature the policy by which Roman rule had been spread across the Mediterranean basin. Time after time, the Romans had intervened on behalf of an ally, or to force an ally back into line; Rome had in effect defended its way across Italy, then to Sicily, Spain, and North Africa, then ac
...