The Bridgemaker

Julius Caesar during the conquest of Gaul led two campaigns against the Germanic peoples. During them he built in succession two wooden bridges over the Rhine, as reported in De Bello Gallico, of similar structure and a short distance from one another, one in 55 B.C. and the other in 53 B.C. They were daring and innovative bridges, magnificent. The short story wants to recall the construction of the bridge, with a fictional narrative structure. At the same time it wants to emphasize that the “Caesar built”, as Brecht pointed out, involved many other people, designers, builders and humble soldiers, united in the enterprise that the name of Caesar made eternal.