Archaeologists discover site of ancient 'genocide' committed by Julius Caesar

(Image credit: Hulton Archive/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

last updated 10 December 2015

When archaeologists uncovered an ancient battlefield in the Netherlands, they found evidence of a "massacre" there led by Roman general Julius Caesar. Dutch archaeologists have dug up skeletons, swords, spearheads, and a helmet during their excavation of the site in Brabant near Oss over the 30 last years, and they are now confident that they've found the place where Caesar fought the battle of the De Bello Gallico of the Gallic wars.

While historians have known about the 55 B.C. battle because of Caesar's account of the Gallic wars, the site of this particular battle — and the fact that Caesar had ever been present on Dutch soil — was previously unknown. The incident was supposedly sparked when two German tribes came to Caesar asking for refuge. The future dictator of Rome refused, instead ordering his troops to "massacre them," in what Dutch News says "academics say would now be labelled genocide." The ancient historian Plutarch estimated that Caesar killed one million people and enslaved another million as he waged total war across Gaul.