Editing Scorched earth (section)

==1st century BCE==
===Gallic Wars===
The system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people when accompanying a military campaign was known as ''vastatio''.{{sfn|Desai|2022}} Two of the first uses of scorched earth recorded happened in the [[Gallic Wars]]. The first was used when the [[Celts|Celtic]] [[Helvetii]] were forced to evacuate their homes in [[Southern Germany]] and [[Switzerland]] because of incursions of unfriendly [[Germanic peoples|Germanic tribes]]: to add incentive to the march, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not bring.{{sfn|Billows|2008}}

The second case shows actual military value: during the [[Battle of Alesia|Great Gallic War]] the [[Gauls]] under [[Vercingetorix]] planned to lure the Roman armies into Gaul and then trap and obliterate them. They thus ravaged the countryside of what are now the [[Benelux]] countries and France. This caused immense problems for the Romans, but the Roman military triumphs over the Gallic alliance showed that the ravaging alone was not to be enough to save Gaul from subjugation by Rome.