Under Siege

As resistance to the Roman invasion of Northern Europe collapsed, the Gallic warrior Vercingetorix marshaled 100,000 troops against the formidable and ruthless Roman legions led by Julius Caesar. The extraordinary siege works constructed by the Romans not only kept Vercingetorix's army penned in but also managed to keep an enormous Gallic relief army out.

Here at Ciudad Rodrigo, there was the bloody business of siege warfare where civilians and soldiers share the same conditions and privations.

Union forces should have seized Petersburg in June 1864, but through a mixture of confusion and incompetence they failed and a year-long siege followed.

Almost 700,000 French and German troops had been killed or wounded in this hellish protracted siege that earned the chilling nick-name "The Mincer."

The grim, powerful story of the "Hero City" that lost one million of its citizens as it steadfastly withstood a 900-day German siege.

The battles for the strategically-vital town in Nottinghamshire, England are classic examples of how a siege was conducted during the long and bitter English Civil War.