The siege and battle of Alesia in 52 BCE was the most important event in the Gallic Wars, when much of Gaul rose up against their Roman occupiers. The risk of losing the province was very real, with a huge united effort on the part of the Gallic tribes, so their ultimate defeat brought enormous prestige to the commander of the Roman forces – Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BCE). This in turn brought popularity and political power, and was a major factor in the subsequent coup by which Ceasar would make himself sole ruler of all Rome.

This mini set from Linear-A is a little larger than many others in the range as it contains five figures and two horses. Looking at the mounted figures first, we begin with Caesar himself. He is dressed in typical fashion for a Roman commander, which is to say a corselet in the Greek style and pteruges below the waist and at the shoulders. He wears greaves, which is reasonable, but they are highly ornate, being decorated with Victories. They seem to be based on a third century CE example that still survives, but Peter Connelly describes these as sports equipment, and while we could also accept them as parade wear, they seem rather too showy to be normal wear when in the middle of a siege. History does not record Caesar’s wardrobe day-by-day at the siege, but these seemed to us to be rather over the top (although he was certainly vain, and was greatly concerned about his receding hair). He also holds a crested helmet which is not so clearly visible, but looks okay. More perplexing is the cloth hanging down his left side – a sort of part cloak which seems to be achieving nothing in terms of warmth or decoration, but only interfering with his ability to hold the reins.

Beside Caesar is another officer, in similar suitable garb including a muscle cuirass and a much more authentic cloak. He too wears greaves, and while they are highly decorated, they are less lavish than the boss’s. The first foot figure is similar, so another officer, and again has a Greek-style corselet, pteruges and a cloak. Like the other two, he has a sash around the torso denoting his rank, and has a suitable crested helmet, but no greaves. He holds a hinged tablet in his right hand, and points to something, as officers usually do in this hobby.

The fourth man is a lictor; a man who carried the fasces in front of a magistrate or other high official as a symbol of his authority. He wears a simple tunic and cloak, and apart from the symbolic fasces (an axe surrounded by rods) he has no visible weaponry. Caesar certainly was entitled to have a lictor, though as this man’s role also included guarding the commander, we would have expected some more practical weapon to be visible. Like all the figures here, he appears to be relaxed and doing very little, perhaps waiting for his boss to move on. Lastly we have a man wearing just a tunic plus a belt with sword (on the right) and dagger (on the left). So he is a soldier, but wears no armour or other kit, so seems to be merely holding someone’s shield, perhaps ready to help protect Caesar if the need arose. Since he is unarmoured he seems unlikely to be a bodyguard, but perhaps he is more of a batman to Caesar, ready to pass him his shield if he requests it.

For the two mounted men we have two horses. Although neither have any reins, the first is fairly simple, with the bridle, saddle and cloth. The saddle is of the Roman design, with the four horns that helped the rider keep his seat before the stirrup was introduced, although every example we could find has the rear horns more or less vertical, whereas those here are horizontal, and so much less supportive. The saddle is held by a girth round the horse’s belly of course, but there are no other securing straps, so no breast or haunch straps, and to our eye this all looks very insecure. The second horse makes up for the inadequate saddlery of the first by wearing a riot of kit. As well as the bridle he wears a chanfron on the face, a crest above his eyes and what we can only describe as dangly bits down each side of the head. His mane is very carefully combed and plaited, though he has the same incorrect horns on the saddle, but the piece de la resistance is the caparison, which covers the whole of the body and is richly decorated with complex patterns, and with the horse equivalent of pteruges hanging all round. This is a horse at its most dazzling, and while it looks amazing (if more than a little bizarre), we can’t help wondering whether Caesar, in a muddy field, conducting a siege, would have ordered his horse to be decorated in this way, or indeed in any way. This confection might look impressive in a parade or major public event, but did he really dress his mount up like this just to check on the walls or review his troops? Again, perhaps he was vain enough (and mad enough) to do so, but we find it impossible to believe, so this animal seems wholly inappropriate for a major battle, at Alesia or anywhere else.

The poses are all nice and static, as commanders and their staff usually were, and the sculpting is excellent as always. However, the two riders have some cutaways to allow for the horns on the saddles, yet these are not enough. We found it impossible to stretch the legs far enough apart to seat either rider on either horse properly, and the material used for these 3D printed figures has very little flexibility anyway. One other feature which needs to be pointed out is all the figures are very tall for late republic Romans, although for some customers, having a command group that stands out from the rest of the troops might be acceptable.

This set is a nice idea, and beautifully made (apart from the issue with fitting rider to horse), but we thought there were just too many strange design choices to give this set any credibility. The highly-decorated greaves, Caesar’s half-cloak, the poor saddle shape, insecure saddle fixings, missing weaponry of some, and most of all, the pimped up horse for Caesar, all stretched our ability to accept the unusual and unlikely too far. This set felt more like a combination of items and images gleaned from numerous history books rather than a serious attempt to portray the man and his entourage at the Battle of Alesia. Individually, all the figures could perhaps be plausible in other contexts, but to us this looked like figures as they might be produced by AI, with references to draw on but no real concept of what might be realistic.