Caesar's Gallic campaign redefined Republican Rome by shifting power toward Europe's western hinterland.

Caesar's campaign in Gaul changed the face of Republican Rome's empire, shifting part of its focus from the Mediterranean world to Europe's western hinterland. The effects of that conquest are still with us today. Philip Matyszak examines the situation - political, military and economic - in both Gaul and Rome prior to Caesar's conquest. He then explains how Caesar was able to launch his campaign and what resources he had available.

Thereafter the main body of the text follows the narrative of Caesar's account De Bello Gallico, but substantially supplemented with explanatory digressions as needed and filling in background information which Caesar assumed that his readers would know. The author also takes greater account of the scale of human suffering which the conquest entailed and illustrates where Caesar was disingenuous in his reporting and adapted the narrative for his own purposes. (His book was, after all, a work of propaganda.)

A final chapter summarizes the initial stages of the development of Gaul as a Roman possession, and also briefly recounts what happened to Caesar thereafter.