651

Caesar, like most brutal conquerors and imperialists, had the additional awkward job of coming up with some kind of reason why he wasn't just an evil monster for killing so many people. He came up with lots of stories about how primitive and savage people like the Gauls and Britons were. Vivid tales of human sacrifice taking place in dark bloody sacred groves were spread around that may or may not be true. He also claimed they were nomadic (which wasn't really true, plus who cares?) and that they shared their women across many men ("they are doing sex wrong so they have to die" is always a classic).

Probably the funniest one though is that they didn't have cheese. "Cheeseless societies must be exterminated" really shows how the Romans were proto-Italians. Basically the Romans didn't drink milk (they didn't have many cows and were probably lactose intolerant), and thought anyone who did was a savage. "They are eating food wrong so they have to die" is strangely also not uncommon.

Caesar, like most brutal conquerors and imperialists, had the additional awkward job of coming up with some kind of reason why he wasn't just an evil monster for killing so many people. He came up with lots of stories about how primitive and savage people like the Gauls and Britons were. Vivid tales of human sacrifice taking place in dark bloody sacred groves were spread around that may or may not be true. He also claimed they were nomadic (which wasn't really true, plus who cares?) and that they shared their women across many men ("they are doing sex wrong so they have to die" is always a classic).

Probably the funniest one though is that they didn't have cheese. "Cheeseless societies must be exterminated" really shows how the Romans were proto-Italians. Basically the Romans didn't drink milk (they didn't have many cows and were probably lactose intolerant), and thought anyone who did was a savage. "They are eating food wrong so they have to die" is strangely also not uncommon.