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Caesar's Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France: Journeys Through Roman Gaul Paperback – April 9, 2019

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 47 ratings

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An intellectual adventure through ancient France revealing how Caesar’s conquest of Gaul changed the course of French culture, forever transforming modern Europe.

Julius Caesar’s conquests in Gaul in the 50s b.c. were bloody, but the cultural revolution they brought in their wake forever transformed the ancient Celtic culture of that country. After Caesar, the Gauls exchanged their tribal quarrels for Roman values and acquired the paraphernalia of civilized urban life. The Romans also left behind a legacy of language, literature, law, government, religion, architecture, and industry.

Each chapter of
Caesar’s Footprints is dedicated to a specific journey of exploration through Roman Gaul. From the amphitheatres of Arles and Nîmes to the battlefield of Châlons (where Flavius Aetius defeated Attila the Hun), Bijan Omrani—an exciting and authoritative new voice in Roman history—explores archaeological sites, artifacts, and landscapes to reveal how the imprint of Roman culture shaped Celtic France, and thereby helped to create modern Europe.
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A stimulating history. Omrani displays the facility of a poet, waxing eloquent on the beauty of sites where the Roman influence in Gaul forcefully asserted itself. This book is as much a travelogue as it is a wonderfully simplified lesson on Julius Caesar and his successors. The author effectively shows the full effects of the Roman occupation. His electric excitement is consistently contagious. A book for all lovers of ancient history, with something to learn or love on nearly every page." ― Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"Omrani writes with a free-flowing narrative style. His engaging historical journey includes descriptions of Gaul prior to Roman involvement and continues to trace Roman conquest in the area and its adaptation to Roman influences. An easy read for those interested in exploring broader cultural and historical connections during the Roman transition into the European continent and its continuing impact on the region." ―
Library Journal

"An educational and enjoyable tour of the ancient Gallo-Roman society that grew out of the ashes of Caesar’s conquest. Omrani provides some sorely needed enrichment for the experience of reading Caesar, contextualizing his narrative in the cultural, historical, and literary landscape of Gaul, yet never losing touch with Caesar’s text itself. Entertaining and edifying." ―
The New Criterion

"A poetic sense for spirit of place.
Caesar’s Footprints is a learned and romantic reflection on France’s Roman past, one suffused with affection for its present." ― Times Literary Supplement (London)

"Bijan Omrani is an exciting and authoritative new voice in Roman history.
Ceasar’s Footprints is an extraordinary tour of the legacy of Roman culture in Gaul. Expertly researched, vividly descriptive, Caesar's Footprints brings history and Roman legacy to life." ― The Midwest Book Review

"A real delight.
Caesar’s Footprints exuberantly marches around France and Britain with the Roman legions, vividly bringing the formation of a shared European identity to life. It pulls no punches on the shocking violence and naked self-interest of Caesar’s northern wars, but is equally candid on the ways he laid the foundations of the medieval and modern West. Striding from Marseille and Arles to Autun and Deal in Kent, the book grippingly blends the unified world the Romans created with the landscapes and cultures two thousand years on. It is a bold vision, elegantly evocative, and an accomplished tribute to year zero of our shared modern European identity." -- Dominic Selwood

"Without the conquests of Caesar there would have been no Roman Empire – and, so many of us believe, no continuing Freudian impulse for a European Union today. This terrific account lays bare the horror and cruelty of Caesar's campaigns – as well as the astonishing achievements of the Romans. Bursting with anecdotes and fizzing with unexpected information,
Caesar's Footprints compels us to ask – how much does our continent owe to one man and his naked and cynical lust for glory." -- Boris Johnson, British Foreign Secretary

"This is a wonderful evocation of how Rome civilised Gaul and through Gaul laid the foundations for European civilisation. Omrani’s golden pen produces prose that is a pleasure to read. He is a polymath who delights us with his learning – in literature, history and geography – but wears it lightly. His sense of time and place and true civilisation is extraordinary." -- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG LVO, author of Ever the Diplomat

About the Author

Bijan Omrani attended Lincoln College, Oxford. His first book, Ticking Tom and the Tornado, was published when he was 10 years old, which he followed with contributions to The Spectator as an undergraduate. His research interests include Euripides, mysticism, Henry Purcell and the history of the Afghan-Pakistan frontier. He is the author and editor of various works on Central Asia including Asia Overland: Tales of Travel on the Trans-Siberian and Silk Road (Odyssey Books & Guides), and also a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Royal Geographical Society. He teaches Classics at Westminster School.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Pegasus Books; Reprint edition (April 9, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1643130382
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1643130385
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.1 x 8.75 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 47 ratings

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Bijan Omrani
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Bijan Omrani is a classicist and historian. He read Classics and English at Lincoln College, Oxford, before going on to write and research on the history of Afghanistan, the Silk Road and Central Asia, as well as Roman history and the development of Greek thought. He has taught Classics at Eton College and Westminster School, and currently edits the Asian Affairs Journal. He also writes Latin and English verse; his Horatian Ode on the London 2012 Olympics was endorsed by the Mayor of London and covered in the Evening Standard.

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2018
    “Caesar’s Footprints” should be read by those who have struggled translating Caesar’s Commentaries from Latin to English and appreciate the evolution of Roman Gaul from Caesar’s time to the collapse of the empire in the fifth century. For those who have traveled to Provence, this book's depth, and insight, adds to the traveler’s wanderings in Arles, Saint Remy de Provence, Lyon, the Roman ruins of Glanum, the walls of Autun, and elsewhere. This melding of two peoples into one resulted in the success of the empire through its energy, conquests, architecture, governance and its undeniable contribution to Western Civilization. Bijan Obrami is a sensitive, learned scholar of the period and its people whose writing intrigues and whose feel for the times and events fascinates.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2020
    I enjoy both travel narratives and Roman history. This book worked for me on both levels. It even made want to go to France and explore Roman ruins.
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2018
    Wonderful book, well-written, very readable and fascinating. Really fleshes in the history I've studied since I was a child in Latin class in the 1960's. Very glad I bought it.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on November 9, 2018
    The book a good description of Ceasat on France with places and ruins listed. About the middle of the book it went other places in Europe in which I wasn't interested.
  • Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2019
    I learned so much detail about the conquest of Gaul. The author walked the path of history and provided fascinating details.
  • Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2018
    Fun to read for Latin enthusiasts or anyone interested in history.
  • Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2018
    This is a great and important book: scholarly but highly readable.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2017
    Bijan Omrani's "Caesar's Footprints" ranks up there with Charlotte Higgins' "Under Another Sky" as a journey through a Roman province, in this case, Gaul. I called Higgins' book "a stunning accomplishment" and I have to say the same of Omrani's effort. Omrani himself pays tribute to Higgins, calling it "an excellent recent introduction" to Roman Britain.

    In Caesar's Footprints, Omrani begins at the ancient Greek port of Marseilles (ancient Massalia), taking us first on a journey through pre-Roman Gaul, Cisalpine and Transalpine, explaining to us how little of Gallic culture remains to us after the forceful and very violent assimilation into the Roman world (Romanitas, or "Roman-ness"). Omrani makes no apologies for Caesar or his motives. Nor does he stint in describing the positive results of the Roman conquest, not only to Romans but especially, to the Gauls themselves.

    The ancient antipathy of Mediterranean cultures to the "barbarian" is well-described as is the Roman ability to tie foreign cultures into their own, to welcome Gauls (and later Germans) into that Roman-ness. Omrani describes eloquently the result, including the late-Roman flowing of the Gallic elite (including the fourth century's Ausonius and the fifth century's Sidonius). Omrani has traveled through Gaul and provides almost poetic descriptions of the sites mentioned in the text, reminding me very much of Canadian novelist Guy Gavriel Kay's own descriptive powers (high praise indeed).

    In the process, Omrani brings to life Roman Gaul, much as Higgins did Roman Britain, and in the same way, tying the ancient to the modern, and drawing lessons from it: Rome's ability to translate across cultures and modern Europe's own inability to repeat this process). It is a remarkable accomplishment and so compelling was his writing that I was scarcely able to set the book aside for meals and sleep.

    If I have a complaint, it is his indulgence in Christian martyrdom stories surrounding alleged persecutions in Lyons during the reign of Marcus Aurelius. As historian T.D. Barnes has pointed out, the dating of the disturbance to 177 is based on “inadequate evidence.” James Westfall Thompson pointed out as early as 1912 that "The evidence for the persecution of the Christians at Lyons in 177 consists solely of the apparently circumstantial letter of ‘the Servants of Christ’ living at Vienne and Lyons in Gaul to the brethren throughout Asia and Phrygia." He made the additional point that "Eusebius is our only source of information for this event. The argument from silence is very impressive. It is not recorded by any pagan or Christian writer, Greek or Latin, before Eusebius (ca. 280-340), nor was it known in the West before the beginning of the fifth century. The silence of pagan historians like Julius Capitolinus, Dion Cassius, Herodian, Libanius is absolute."

    Westfall doesn't forget Christian writers: "That of Christian writers is quite as profound, such as Tertullian, Cyprian, Sextus Julius Africanus, Sextus Rufus, Arnobius, and Lactantius, the probable author of the de mortibus persecutorum, who once dwelt at Treves."

    So yes, the "persecutions" Omrani spends so much time discussion may very well have never happened.

    I am disappointed that Omrani did not delve further into the accuracy of these stories (many martyrdom stories are problematic). However, that lapse aside, I find very little to complain about other than some problems with the Kindle version mangling the text in several areas. I highly recommend "Caesar's Footprints" not only to anyone interested in Roman provinces especially but in Roman history in general. Five stars.
    9 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Kyle Rae
    1.0 out of 5 stars An Historically themed monograph without reference notes!!!
    Reviewed in Canada on June 2, 2019
    Would it have been so hard to reference the passages in Caesar's Gallic War that were referenced in this text? Even the extended references to Napoleon III's desperation to relate his regime with Caesar's have not been referenced.
    This current crop of authors (I just purchased the Dan monograph about Theodore Roosevelts' 1915 libel case and it is bereft of references too. Similarly the recent monograph concerning the Last Gutenberg Bible was also missing notes and references ) seem to think that no one cares about the sources any longer, no opportunity to follow up on the sources, check the sources, or verify the gloss of the author. Something is deteriorating in scholarship and standards of publication. Are we supposed to believe an author's assertions without question without references...as we are supposed to believe the lies flowing from Trump's mouth? My last three so called historically based purchases from Amazon have fallen short of my expectation of scholarship and haven't been read in their entirety. I will be more cautious in the future. Perhaps a warning to purchasers about the shortcomings of history texts would be useful.
  • Simon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating subject, brilliantly written
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2017
    This is a fantastic book that covers a fascinating period in the history not only of Rome but also that of modern Europe. It is clear that the author is excited by his subject and his passion is infectious as you read. In fact the idea that someone would give up their job in order to prove their point is brilliant (you will see what I mean when you read the introduction).
    I must confess that I am only 3/4 of the way through but felt compelled to review now as I feel this is a book that should have a wide audience. It is very readable but still manages to have weight and is not a basic broad history. From what I can see the author is a travel writer as well as a historian and this comes across in the way he brings both ancient Gaul and modern Europe to life in equal measure. Both classicists and general historians alike will find this book extremely enjoyable and if you are spending any time in France this summer this would make a brilliant companion!
  • Porters Perfection
    5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent background
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 28, 2020
    I read much of this book on a train journey from Oxfordshire to Languedoc via Burgundy and down the Rhône valley, so very much crossing the area described in the text (it so happens that I left one hilltop “oppidum” in southern England and ended up by another one adjacent to the Canal du Midi!). I loved the author’s descriptive style and was especially intrigued by the relationship between the Romans and the Celtic tribes during the times of the conquest and occupation, so much of which is evident in France even today. This filled in a lot of gaps for me in a readable yet authoritative way. Much enjoyed.
  • Michael K
    5.0 out of 5 stars ... cover or just dip in there is much to delight. The descriptions of place are evocative and the ...
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 14, 2017
    Whether you read this book from cover to cover or just dip in there is much to delight. The descriptions of place are evocative and the historical details transport one across a range of emotions, from amusement to horror. Never less than fascinating this book will not disappoint either the general reader or one more focused on travel. Bijan Omrani has produced a timely and enjoyable book which adds some background to our relationship with Europe.
  • Ioannis Damianos
    4.0 out of 5 stars Four Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 5, 2017
    Its always interesting to read a book trying to get behind the self advertising writings of so called authorities.