Dan Carlin is the master of audio historical narrative and he has done a very keen job of pealing back the recorded layers of sissy postmodern academics, jingoistic modern colonials and rapacious ancient Romans.

The Roman business of taking out a few million “war mad” “headhunters” of the “warlike northern European type” was grim indeed. The siege of Alesia was a marvel of military adaptability. Dan’s appreciation for the physicality and psychology of ancient warfare is excellent. His inclusion of the ancient animosity between the Gauls and Romans and the original sack of Rome in 390 B.C. was well-considered and placed. Do note that the Hellenic world also suffered terribly in the 260s B.C. This invasion penetrated into Anatolia, near Pergamon, was finally defeated. Famous Hellenistic art of a Gallic warrior killing himself and his wife reflected a Hellenic sympathy for these people, who were adopted into the empire.