Cato the Younger

A Coleman white gas lantern mantle glowing at full brightness

The Wilton Diptych, c. 1395 –1399. Each panel is 53 cm × 37 cm (21 in × 15 in) .

01Caesar's inner wall (contravallation) was 11 miles; his outer wall (circumvallation) was 14 miles — both built in under six weeks.
02The relief army of roughly 250,000 Gauls attacked both walls at once; Caesar personally rode to plug a breach, his red cloak used as a field signal.
03When the relief army failed, Vercingetorix surrendered 80,000 starving survivors — and the 20,000 Mandubii civilians Caesar had refused to feed died in the gap between the walls.

He sliced open his own abdomen, was sewn up by a doctor, then tore the stitches out with bare hands. Cato the Younger refused Caesar's pardon not once but twice — from the inside.