Seven Days: From Rome to the Rhône

March 58 BC: the Helvetii set out west, and Caesar rides from Rome to the Rhône in seven days. An animated map.

Transcript

March, fifty-eight BC. News reaches Rome from the north.

The Helvetii burn their own towns and villages and set out west, toward the Rhône.

Caesar’s provinces lie just beyond the river: Cisalpine Gaul, Illyria and Transalpine Gaul.

Caesar sets out at once. He rides day and night. A counter marks the days: from one to seven.

On the seventh day he is at the Rhône, where it flows out of the lake.