As Abraham Lincoln put it in a speech given in Springfield, Illinois on June 16, 1858, nearly two millennia after Caesar’s campaign in Gaul, “a house divided against itself cannot stand.” Conversely, populations that cannot unite will remain vulnerable to those which can. A tactic that exploits human nature’s preference for independence and autonomy, it is always more practical to engage with part of a whole rather than the whole itself. Throughout Roman history, and indeed the history of every large empire the world has ever known, divide and conquer has been one of the most reliable strategies for expansion and conquest. His only means of success, therefore, against the vast hordes of the Gauls was to ‘divide and conquer.’” During all of his campaigns in Gaul, he had a comparatively small army. “ purpose always was to keep his barbarian forces well scattered.
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