A Short History of the World in 50 Lies

by Natasha Tidd

A now substantially richer Caesar had found a winning formula – go to war, get out of debt, gain power. And so began the Gallic Wars. Yet, Caesar’s plan had one big flaw. To keep climbing the ranks of the Roman Republic, he needed to maintain his image, and going to war as a debt crisis measure wasn’t exactly a good look. He had to offer the Republic a different rendition of the truth, one that made his actions seem beneficial, not just for him, but for all Romans. So Caesar decided to publish his own version of events in a series of ongoing reports, Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War). Here, Caesar explained that he had to pursue the Helvetii as they were planning to migrate next to a Roman Province and as such were a dangerous threat to all Romans (the Helvetii were in fact migrating 320 km (200 miles) away from this area).