Vercingetorix and the Great Revolt — De Bello Gallico - Part 7
The Penultimate Episode of an 8 part series on Caesar's Gallic Wars...
Caesar faces a Gallic Grand Armée through fire and snow, in part 7, the climax of our series on Caesar’s masterwork of psychology, strategy, and propaganda: On the Gallic War (De Bello Gallico).
This is a world-history making story (the conquest of what’s now modern France), told by a world-history making storyteller.
Caesar entered Gaul as a mere politician. He returned 9 years later as a conqueror - and an enemy of the state. He tells how it all happened with his own pen.
In this episode:
Slaughterings begin at Cenabum
The Incendiary Tactics of Vercingetorix
Rebellion amongst Roman Allies
Caesar loses Gregovia…
…but clenches victory at Alesia
Vercingetorix falls, sealing the fate of Gaul
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You can listen to the episode here:
Stay Ancient,
Alex
Transcript
FOR YEARS, the Romans' power has been gradually expanding in Gaul. For years, they've seen uprising after uprising, as this tribe or that revolts, or perhaps bands together with a couple of neighbors. All have been put down, some easily, some with difficulty, but all, definitively.
Right?
Never though... (thankfully) have the Romans had to face ALL of Gaul.
Divide and Conquer. Play them off each other. Make native friends, help them against native enemies. Caesar was a master of executing the Romans' time tested imperial strategy.
Oddly though, as the Romans' control over Gaul has been increasing... so has the rate of revolts seemed to increase. First The Nervii, then Dumnorix, then Indutiomarus and the Treveri, Ambiorix and the Eburones. Lately the Senones and the Carnutes... All these regional flare ups have of course been put down or chased away in their turn...
Yet with the activity increasing like this, I think it's understandable how a regular Roman in Gaul might idly wonder...what if that worst nightmare of everyone, from the rank and file up to the high command...one day were to come true? What if all Gaul just hypothetically, were to rise up in revolt against Caesar's legions?
How would the Romans fare?
Was it even possible ... that one day, they would witness the big one...
I'm Alex Petkas and this is the Cost of Glory, where it is our mission to retell the lives and deeds of the greatest Greek and Roman Heroes, the men of Plutarch's lives. This is part 7 of 8, of our detour series on highlights from On the Gallic War, a text written by one of the greatest Plutarch heroes of all, Julius Caesar.
Book 7 is the climax of De Bello Gallico. It's also the last book of this particular work that Caesar wrote. We have book 8 the final book of the work, that tells the story of the campaign years of 51 and 50... book 8 was written by Caesar's friend Aulus Hirtius (consul of 43), but they're still worth reading and we'll get to it next time1.
The Pieces Line Up
Now then. We haven't heard anything yet of any great revolt at the beginning of book 7, we haven't heard of the great Vercingetorix yet...but already from the first sentences in the book, Caesar's setting the scene, implicitly answering... why did what was about to happen, happen now?
“When Gaul was finally quiet, Caesar set out for Italy, [He means his assigned province of Cisalpine Gaul], as he had determined, to hold the assizes. There Caesar heard of the murder of Clodius; and having been informed of the Senate's decree that all the younger men of military age in Italy should be sworn in, he decided to hold a levy throughout his own province. These events were speedily reported to Transalpine Gaul.”
So the details of what's going on here in Rome we've covered already in the Life of Pompey part 3. One mobster aristocrat, Clodius, got murdered out on the highway by another mobster, Milo, and Clodius' followers basically accused the Roman establishment of putting a hit out on Clodius, and in retaliation, they burn his body on a funeral pyre in the senate house, this burns the whole building down, rioting and lawlessness ensue.
This is a huge social upheaval in Rome, Pompey really has to come in and crack down with his soldiers to reestablish order, there's mass panic, and this includes the senatorial decree that a levy of soldiers should be held throughout Italy, essentially that's all about internal security. Bad signs.
So Caesar's saying he's doing his part here raising some troops in his own province for the sake of the Republic.
And these reports about Roman turmoil, he says, reach Transalpine Gaul. He means they reach the Gauls themselves. Civil Disturbances and Anarchy in Rome eh? Caesar preoccupied eh?
And he tells us, here's the conversation the Gauls are having, as soon as they hear:
"The Gauls added to the reports a circumstance of their own invention, which the occasion seemed to require, that Caesar was detained by the commotion at Rome and, in view of discords so serious, could not come to the army
Now that's A reasonable inference... but remember, Caesar didn't say he was detained by these disturbances. Just that he heard about it, and took action.
"Such an opportunity served as a stimulus to those who even before were chafing at their subjection to the sovereignty of Rome, and they began with greater freedom and audacity to make plans for a campaign of rebellion. The chiefs of Gaul summoned conventions by mutual arrangement in remote spots and complained of the death of Acco.
I neglected to mention this from the last episode, Acco was the arch-conspirator of a rebellion among the Senones and the Carnutes, who are in Central Gaul. Caesar says he exacted punishment "in our traditional fashion" that is, the fashion reserved for traitors. And this means... it's a little gruesome prepare yourself, they tie the guy to a stake, flog him with a whip until he is dead, or unconscious... and then behead him.
As Goldsworthy notes "The head had a great importance in Gallic religion" and so this was a particularly disturbing thing to the Gauls.
And here's what the Gauls are saying, I think it's interesting how Caesar realizes how seriously they took the execution of this guy Acco:
They pointed out that his fate might fall next upon themselves; they expressed pity for the common lot of Gaul; by all manner of promises and rewards they called for men to start the campaign and at the risk of their own life to champion the liberty of Gaul.
First and foremost, they said, they must devise means, before ever their secret designs got abroad, to shut Caesar off from the army. It was an easy task, because the legions would not dare to march out of their forts in the absence of the commander-in‑chief, nor could he without a strong escort reach the legions. Finally, it was better, they urged, to be slain in battle than to fail of recovering their old renown in war and the liberty which they had received from their forefathers."
So that's all Caesar really says as far as the "why now" question - the Gauls want liberty, they always have, and now Caesar's away, and there's chaos in Rome detaining him.
And yet, something seems to have shifted, and it's worth dwelling on this for a moment.
Here's what Napoleon says in his description of how the Revolt began:
"The Romans no longer concealed their ambition of reducing Gaul to a province; in every town they had a faction which they sought by every means to render dominant. The Gauls shuddered to behold the dangers which threatened their liberty."
— from Napoleon's Commentaries on the Wars of Julius Caesar: A New English Translation
So... something has shifted. According to Napoleon the Romans no longer concealed their ambition of reducing Gaul to a province.
Goldsworthy in his biography of Caesar, Colossus, has a good explanation too, which I'll summarize here:
For a while at least, the Gallic chieftains were using Caesar as much as he was using them, they're using Roman alliance as a lever to win at the games they're used to playing, which is, warring amongst themselves and striving to obtain supremacy.
But if the Romans become permanent arbiters of any dispute rather than occasional big brother allies... and the Gauls are now going to get reprimanded simply for doing their thing ... you know, raiding and stealing women and cows, beheading their neighbors now and then, or if a self-respecting chieftain isn't allowed to seize the occasional throne - in his own country of all places... I mean, that's their way of life!
Recall Caesar forcing the Aduatuci to give up their arms back in book two, how reluctant they were. What are they supposed to do?
Caesar himself has already pointed out in his ethnographic digression in book 6 that the single form of influence and power known among the Gauls is how many servants and dependants you have about you, namely how many fighting men you can call up to avenge a wrong or settle a feud. It all depends on them having the freedom to use violence more or less as they please amongst themselves, without reference to some higher power staring at them from across the Alps.
Caesar surely understood... the ultimate plan he had in mind (and of course he had it in mind) that this was going to be intolerable to these people. It was only a matter of time.
And yet apparently, he wasn't expecting it when it happened.
The First Slaughter
Here's how it all started. We're in the same council here he was reporting on earlier.
"When these subjects had been discussed, the Carnutes declared that there was no hazard they refused for the general welfare, and promised that they would be the first of all to make war."
So it's the Carnutes now... the Men of Chartres, as Napoleon calls them, who take the lead. (Remember the Carnutes are the ones in whose territory the Great Druid Gatherings occur, as we discussed in part 6 last time):
And here's how they do it:
"When the day came, the Carnutes, under the leadership of two desperate men, Cotuatus and Conconnetodumnus, rushed at a given signal on Cenabum, and put to the sword the Roman citizens who had established themselves there for trading purposes."
Caesar gives the name of one of these guys, Gaius Fufius Cita, to drive in the pathos of the whole affair. But I think we have to imagine, this was a large scale, bloody slaughter of at least dozens, maybe hundreds of people. Probably including women and children, Roman businessmen, maybe retired veterans who had brought their families...
Cenabum is modern Orléans, maybe 2 hours drive now south of Paris. So, notice now, these Gauls leading the revolt are more in Central France. And these Carnutes haven't come up much over the course of the war (until a minor revolt Caesar discussed briefly in the last book, that was put down very quickly, and Acco, their leader was executed as we've just mentioned).
Most of the other revolts and battles have been close to the fringes... you know, Belgium, Helvetica, Germany, Britain... but this is disturbingly close to the heartland, close to the good old loyal Aedui...
Here's the result:
"Speedily the report thereof was carried to all the states of Gaul. As a matter of fact, whenever any event of greater note or importance occurs, the Gauls shout it abroad through fields and districts and then others take it up in turn and pass it on to their next neighbours; as happened on this occasion. For deeds done at Cenabum at sunrise were heard of before the end of the first watch of the night in the borders of the Arverni, a distance of about one hundred and sixty miles."
(That's about 150 modern miles, that this report travels, over the course of a single day)
To the Arverni. The Men of Auvergne, which takes its name from this powerful tribe... they lived in, well, Auvergne, which is a historical region of central, sort of southern central France. It's 150 miles due south of the Carnutes... which puts the Arverni's territory rather close to the proper Roman province of Transalpine Gaul.
And who does it reach among the Arverni, but our hero, anti-hero, Vercingetorix.
Vercingetorix enters the tale
"There Vercingetorix, son of Celtillus, an Arvernian youth of supreme influence acted in a similar way [details in a moment]. His father had held the chieftainship of all Gaul and consequently, because he aimed at the kingship, had been put to death by his own state.
Vercingetorix, as his name implies, is of a Royal sort of family, like Dumnorix, like Ambiorix, the rix suffix again signifying something like "king". Cassius Dio notes that Vercingetorix and Caesar knew each other before this — it's likely he had served as a leader among Caesar's Auxiliary Cavalry units... the Arverni were a much more civilized, Roman-familiar tribe... they're like the Aedui or the Sequani, not those wild Belgae; Vercingetorix in particular is thus, we have to imagine, a man intimately familiar with Roman ways. Here's what he does:
"Vercingetorix summoned his own dependents and easily fired their spirit. As soon as his design was known there was a general rush to arms. Gobannitio, his uncle, and the rest of the chiefs, who did not think this adventure should be hazarded, sought to prevent him; Vercingetorix was cast out of the town of Gergovia, but he did not give up for all that; and in the fields he held a levy of beggars and outcasts.
Caesar likes to emphasize how desperate and hopeless are the men who are signing up for this revolt... but I think, considering the scale and success of this endeavor, as we'll see, Caesar's probably not to be trusted on that point... going on:
Then, having got together a body of this sort, he brought over to his own way of thinking all the members of his state whom he approached, urging them to take up arms for the sake of general liberty; and having collected large forces, he cast out of the state his opponents by whom he had been expelled a short time before. He was greeted as "King" by his followers. He sent out deputations in every direction, adjuring the tribesmen to remain loyal to him. (listen to this) He speedily added to his side the Senones, Parisii, Pictones, Cadurci, Turoni, Aulerci, Lemovices, Andi, and all the other maritime tribes; by consent of all, the command was bestowed upon him.
He gets hostages from them, tells them how many soldiers and horses and how much grain and arms to supply, etc. Now a little on his leadership style:
To the utmost care he added the utmost strictness of command, compelling waverers by severity of punishment. Indeed for the commission of a greater offence he put men to death with fire and all manner of tortures; for a lesser case he sent a man home with his ears cut off or one eye gouged out, to point the moral to the rest and terrify others by the severity of the penalty.
So Vercingetorix means business. And he quickly gets an army together and immediately takes to the field against a tribe called the Bituriges, who are hesitating to join his rebellion. The Bituriges are between the Carnutes and the Arverni. They call to the Aedui for help (Roman allies) but also, the Aedui are the Bituriges' tribal patrons, and the Aedui for their part reach out to notify the Roman Legates.
And amazingly, tellingly I think, the Roman legates say, hey, they're your clients, you guys got this. And they advise the Aedui to go and help their subordinates out, and the Romans will just sit tight in their forts. (They're clearly not taking this very seriously... but then again, this is still in the winter, maybe February?)
Well, the Aedui ride up to the Loire river which separates their territory from the Bituriges, and they hang out there a few days, sizing up the situation. But then, they decide to ride back, and they claim they were worried the Bituriges would betray them.
And Caesar says here... he never actually found out if they were being honest or not.
But...this seemed to be a bad sign.
As soon as the Aedui ride off, the Bituriges capitulate and join Vercingetorix's rebellion.
Now, Caesar at last hears about all this and realizes... something has gone very wrong.
When these matters were reported to Caesar in Italy, he had already received intelligence that affairs in Rome had been brought by the brave actions of Gnaeus Pompeius into a more satisfactory state.
Yes, Caesar's good friend Pompey is taking care of business in Rome. This will refer to Pompey's unprecedented sole consulship for that year, see his Cost of Glory biography part 3 for that. And this allows Caesar to snap into action:
Caesar therefore set out for Transalpine Gaul. Upon arrival there he was confronted with a great difficulty, as to the means whereby he could reach the army. For if he should summon the legions to the Province, [he means the legions in forts out there in Gallic tribal lands, calling them to southwest gaul to the Roman province proper...] he realised that on the march they might have to fight an action without his presence; if, on the other hand, he himself pressed on to the army, he saw that it was a mistake to entrust his personal safety at that time even to the tribes which appeared to be at peace.
So dangerous to join the legions, dangerous to summon them to him where he is in the province. What to do? Well, he picks the path of most aggression, and here's what I mean.
Caesar cuts through a snow-topped mountain
He follows the border of the Roman province west around to the foothills of the Cévennes mountain range, south central france, this is is a natural barrier between the Roman province and the Arverni's territory. And on this range Caesar says,
Now the range of the Cévennes ... in this the severest season of the year was likely to hinder the march with great depth of snow; however, he cleared away snow six feet deep and, having thus opened up the roads by a supreme effort of the troops, reached the borders of the Arverni. They were caught off their guard, for they thought themselves fortified by the Cevennes as by a wall, and not even a solitary traveller had ever found the paths open at that season of the year; and Caesar then commanded the cavalry to extend on as broad a front as possible so as to strike terror into the enemy.
So he doesn't specify exactly how many troops and cavalry he's scraped together, it's not a whole lot, but... enough to make an impression. And that was precisely the point.
So immediately he orders his men to start ravaging the territory of the Arverni over this large swath. Then, more or less as soon as he arrives, he leaves... he's betting that Vercingetorix is going to get pressured by his countrymen to respond to this, to abandon his campaign against the Bituriges, and, march south. And he bets correctly.
Meanwhile he tells his men in the Arverni territory, "I'll be back in 3 days".
He's not planning to be back in 3 days, but he wants that message to leak to Vercingetorix. Meanwhile he personally, with I think we have to imagine a very modest bodyguard, blitzes Northeast some 200 miles, to where he's got two legions wintering, and takes command of them and musters up several other nearby legions, before the Arverni even know what's going on.
This move, and the whole first part of this campaign, you see Caesar's incredible thunderbolt speed on full display.
But now here's what Caesar's up against: Vercingetorix turns around and attacks a fort of the Boii, nearby-ish, who are Roman allies, through their relationship with the Aedui.
"This action of Vercingetorix caused Caesar great difficulty in forming his plan of campaign. If he were to keep the legions in one place for the rest of the winter, he was afraid that the reduction of the tributaries of the Aedui [the Bituriges and now maybe the Boii] would be followed by a revolt of all Gaul, on the ground that Caesar was found to be no safeguard to his friends. If he were to bring the legions out of their forts too soon, he was afraid that difficulties of transport would cause trouble with the grain supply."
So... stay in camp and avoid the risk of starving and running out of supplies... or go save his allies - what do you think he's going to do?
"However, it seemed preferable to endure any and every difficulty rather than to put up with so dire a disgrace and thus to alienate the sympathies of all his own adherents."
So Caesar is doing everything he possibly can to stop a domino effect. That would be the worst thing...
Now, just summarizing here, Caesar sends word to the Boii, hang tight guys, I'll be there soon, don't capitulate... and meanwhile, in very quick succession he captures several fortresses in the territory of the Senones and Carnutes (it takes him like 2 days each, he actually starts sieging the second before the first has even capitulated, but it does...) these places include Cenabum - that was the place where the revolt started, Orleans, and Cenabum he sacks and completely burns to the ground.
And I love the way Plutarch describes Caesar's speed on this campaign in particular, when so much was on the line:
"For where it would have been hard to believe if one of his messengers or letter-carriers could make his way within a long time span, there Caesar was seen with his whole army, at once ravaging their lands and destroying their strongholds, subduing cities."
— Plutarch (V. Caes 26)
And what do you know, once he gets to the territory of the Bituriges (who, again, have now defected from the Aedui and joined the revolt too), his plan works: because Vercingetorix, as soon as Caesar's around, he abandons his attack on the Boii, and goes to meet Caesar. Caesar meanwhile captures yet another town, Noviodunum.
And then... he makes his way for Avaricum.
The Avaricum Affair
Now, the affair of Avaricum is a kind of early encounter in this year's campaign, but it reveals in fascinating detail the character of Vercingetorix; also it's one of Caesar's most extensive descriptions of an assault on a Gallic stronghold. So it's worth looking at how he handles it here.
Avaricum by the way is modern Bourges. It's in the territory of the Bituriges... who are, you guessed it... the men of Bourges! (Bourges from Bituriges, pretty cool). So we're smack in the center of what's now modern France.
And this is their most fortified town, their most fertile territory, so if Caesar can take this, he figures, he might just bring the Bituriges back over to his side.
Now as Vercingetorix is closing in on Caesar, he pauses and addresses the Gauls in assembly.
Listen to this, because I think for the first time here we really get into the mind of Vercingetorix, and he also offers some fascinating insights on how the Romans do war, and their weaknesses:
"Having experienced three continuous reverses — at Vellaunodunum, Cenabum, and Noviodunum — Vercingetorix summoned his followers to a convention. He pointed out that this campaign must now be conducted in a far different fashion from previously. [what does he mean by that, well] By every possible means they must endeavour to prevent the Romans from obtaining forage and supplies. The task was easy, because the Gauls had an abundance of horsemen and were assisted by the season of the year.
He means, it's around May (again 52 BC...) and the harvest isn't til later in the summer.
"The forage could not be cut [pabulum is the word -that's pack animal fodder]; the enemy must of necessity scatter to seek it from the farm buildings; and all these detachments could be picked off daily by the horsemen.
Now imagine having to ask an entire nation's worth of fighting men to do the following:
Moreover, for the sake of the common good, the interests of private property must be disregarded; hamlets and homesteads must be burnt in every direction for such a distance from the route as the enemy seemed likely to penetrate in quest of forage. The Gauls had a supply of such necessaries, because they were assisted by the resources of the tribes in whose territory the campaign was being carried on. The Romans would not endure scarcity, or else would advance farther from their camp at great risk;
And, listen to this, this man thinks like a great classical commander:
…and it made no difference whether the Gauls killed the Romans or [merely] stripped them of their pack animals, the loss of which rendered the campaign impossible.
So of course he means horses, but also donkeys and mules who will be carting around their battle gear and tents and pots and pans and sword sharpening kits, I imagine maybe oxen are important here... Vercingetorix knows all these pack animals are like the wheels of the Roman war juggernaut. He's clearly intimate with the way they do war, probably because he fought alongside them extensively.
And he's not done making his ask here:
Moreover, any towns which were not secure from all danger by fortification or natural position ought to be burnt, in order that they might not afford the Gauls a refuge for the avoidance of service, nor offer the Romans a chance to carry off plunder and store of supplies. If these measures seemed grievous or cruel, they ought to take into account that it was far more grievous that their children and their wives should be dragged off into slavery, that they themselves should be slaughtered — the inevitable fate of the conquered.
Fires in every direction
Well, Vercingetorix gets them to agree. And then, in a single day, the rebels set more than twenty cities of the Bituriges on fire (that’s the territory they are in).
But they send out riders and do this in the other states as well...
And Caesar, who by this time is pretty much right there nearby, he comments that conflagrations could be seen in every direction.
Imagine the smell of smoke all around, the browning sky... watering eyes... the apocalyptic sight of it all. Imagine how that would steel you for war.
Vercingetorix really was a master of psychology. And we'll see more of this shortly
However...
The Bituriges, seeing their entire world go up in flames... are looking at Avaricum and getting second thoughts.
"In the common council, they especially deliberated over Avaricum, whether to burn or defend it. The Bituriges flung themselves at the feet of all the Gauls, entreating that they might not be compelled with their own hands to set light to almost the fairest city in all Gaul, the safeguard and the ornament of their state. They declared that they would easily defend themselves by its natural strength, for it was surrounded by river and marsh on almost every side, and had a single and a very narrow approach. Vercingetorix at first argued against it, but after hearing continual prayers by the tribesmen and compassion from the multitude, he finally gave in to the Bituriges. Suitable defenders for the town were chosen."
So, they're not going to burn Avaricum, but defend it. Fateful choice.
Now then, the Gauls send defenders into the city just before Caesar and the Romans get there, and Caesar gets busy laying siege to Avaricum / Bourges.
And as he's doing this, Vercingetorix is making life hell for the Romans as they are foraging: the Romans are doing everything they can to make themselves hard to catch, varying the times and the routes for foraging, but they keep getting caught and taking losses, and they are getting very hungry (and those animals are getting hungry).
The besieger in a way has become the besieged... a foretaste of what comes later in this year.
Well, Caesar starts building a siege ramp (he can't encircle the city with a siege wall because it's swampy and there's a river). Meanwhile he keeps dunning the Aedui and the Boii for supplies... but the Boii are puny and poor, and the Aedui are... proving strangely incompetent and not coming through.
And amidst the hunger and deprivation Caesar takes his own turn at flipping the psychological situation:
"[it got so bad that] for several days the troops were entirely without grain, and staved off the actual starvation by driving in cattle from the more distant hamlets. [They're going full carnivore diet, but it's meager]. Yet never a word was heard from their lips unworthy of the dignity of Rome and of their previous victories. Nay more, when Caesar addressed single legions at work, [here he goes] and declared that if the burden of scarcity were too bitter for them to bear he would end the siege, all the soldiers begged him not to do so. They had served, they said, for many years under his command without once incurring disgrace, without anywhere leaving a task unaccomplished; they would regard it as a supreme disgrace if they relinquished the siege they had begun; it would be better to endure any and every bitterness than to fail of avenging the Roman citizens who had perished at Cenabum by the treachery of the Gauls. They entrusted messages in the same spirit to the centurions and tribunes, to be tendered to Caesar through them."
So they want revenge... now, they've already burnt Cenabum to the ground of course but... but, I guess they didn't feel like they had apprehended the real perpetrators? who include some of these gallic rebels in Avaricum.
Well the siege preparations are going OK... but then Caesar hears Vercingetorix has moved his camp up, and an interesting little engagement ensues.
So, like I said, Caesar hears Vercingetorix is camped nearby. However Vercingetorix happens, this morning, to have gone out with the cavalry to set some ambush for the Romans. So Caesar sneaks two legions up...
They basically form up for battle, get real close to each other, the Gauls are on a hill and there's a swamp around the hill, they're in a very superior position... and Caesar decides, we could probably take them, but we'd face heavy losses... and so he ends up just marching away, the soldiers are very disappointed (a fact which reflects well on them Caesar notes, but he explains to them it's the commander's job not just to win at all costs, but to make sure he only takes risks worth taking... Caesar really wants to emphasize that even though he is personally bold and even daring with his own life, he really does aim not to be reckless with the lives of his men).
Vercingetorix’s Speech
But so after this non-battle, then Vercingetorix gets back. And he and catches some heat for basically leaving nobody in charge, and how he handles this situation is fascinating:
When Vercingetorix returned to his followers, he was accused of treachery [1] because he had moved the camp nearer to the Romans, [2] because he had gone off with all the horse and had left so large a force without a commander, and [3] because he had offered the Romans such a great opportunity for attacking them as soon as he was gone. All these circumstances, they said, could not have happened by chance or without design; he preferred [they alleged] to possess the kingship of Gaul by the leave of Caesar rather than by favour of themselves.
So, remember, we mentioned that he knows Caesar somehow, most likely was a high ranking auxiliary cavalry officer fighting with the Romans at one point... they're saying, you've got some trick up your sleeve, this is some 4-d chess with Caesar, we don't trust you.
Well, Here's how he responds:
Accused in such sort, he replied to the charges. [1] As for having moved the camp, it had been done, he said, actually at their own insistence, because they were short of forage; as for having gone nearer the Romans, he had been motivated by the suitability of the new camp's location, where they could more easily protect themselves by the location's natural defences [he means the hill they were on]; [...] furthermore, [2] it was on purpose that he had committed the chief command to no one at his departure, for fear that whoever he left in command might be driven by the collective enthusiasm of the troops to an engagement. Indeed, he saw that all were zealous for a quick decisive engagement through weakness of spirit, because they could not longer endure hardship.
So in other words Vercingetorix is perceiving one of the key advantages the Romans have in these wars: the Gauls love to rush into battle, but it's easy to rush into battle, you get dopamine, adrenaline, you don't have to think, wait, agonize... the hard part is enduring the long toils, the deprivation, the monotony, the weeks and months of fear and uncertainty...
Fascinating psychological insight by Vercingetorix (or Caesar) here... I think you could abstract that to buiding a company, which is a lot more like a long war than just a quick battle. Ok going on to point 3, the accusation that he was somehow in cahoots with Caesar:
If the appearance of the Romans on the scene had been due to chance, the Gauls had fortune to thank; but if they had been summoned thither by some informer, the Gauls had that man to thank for the satisfaction of having been able to learn from their higher vantage point the scantiness of the enemy's numbers, and to despise a [so-called] courage which had not even ventured to fight but had retired disgracefully to camp. He had no need to obtain from Caesar by treachery a title of command which he could enjoy by a victory... a victory which was already assured for himself and all the Gauls.
Nay more, he would give up his present command if they thought that they were bestowing honour on him rather than themselves deriving security from him.
Now watch what he does here:
“That you may perceive," Vercingetorix continued, "the sincerity of this statement on my part, listen to these Roman soldiers." He brought forward slaves [this is funny] whom he had caught foraging a few days before and had tortured with hunger and chains. These had been previously coached on what to state when questioned, and thus they said that they were legionnaires [they're not, right, they're just slaves, probably scrawny looking ones for added effect]; they had been induced by hunger and want to go secretly out of the camp, to see if they could find any corn or cattle in the fields; the whole army was suffering from similar want, no man had any strength left, none could endure the strain of work, and therefore the commander-in‑chief had decided, if they made no progress in the siege of the town, in three days to withdraw the army. "These," said Vercingetorix, "are the benefits you have from me, me whom you accuse of treachery, by whose effort, without the shedding of your own blood, you behold this great victorious army wasted with hunger; while it is I who have seen to it that, when it takes shelter in disgraceful flight, no state shall admit it within its borders."
So these kinds of demonstrations are very characteristic of great Classical generals, Hannibal liked to stage these kinds of demonstrations before his own army, Sertorius too... Caesar's kind of playing this aspect of Vercingetorix up, Caesar's audience will get this impression Vercingetorix is acting like a great world-stage epic military leader, a master not just of military strategy but of psychological tactics, a master of his own men... and sure enough:
"The whole host shouted with one accord, and clashed their arms together in their peculiar fashion, as they always do for a man whose speech they approve. They declared that Vercingetorix was a consummate leader, that there could be no doubt of his loyalty, and that the campaign could not be conducted with greater intelligence."
So they renew their spirits for the fight for Avaricum, they send 10,000 more troops, and sneak them in somehow.
And the struggle to take Avaricum by storm begins in earnest...
Here's Caesar on how that went:
"The matchless courage of our troops was met by all manner of contrivances on the part of the Gauls; for they are a nation possessed of remarkable ingenuity, and extremely apt to copy and carry out anything suggested to them. So now they sought to drag aside the grappling-hooks with nooses, and, when they had caught them, to pull them back inwards with winches; and they tried to under‑cut the ramp by tunneling, in which they were highly skilled, because they have large iron mines in their country, and they habitually use every kind of mining technique. Further, they had furnished the whole wall on every side with a superstructure of wooden turrets, and covered these over with hides. Then they would make frequent sallies by day and night and thereby tried to set fire to the ramp or to attack the troops engaged in the works; and however much we raised our ramp and turrets by day, they matched by connecting with beams and planks the long uprights of their own towers, adding stories to them. And they would break open our own siege tunnels, interrupt their continuation, and keep them from reaching the walls by throwing down wooden beams with fire hardened points, and boiling pitch, and boulders of massive weight."
So it's all out engineering warfare. Caesar describes how the Gauls make incredibly strong walls with perpendicular lattices of huge 40 foot logs strapped together at intervals and then packed with stones and rubble, impossible to knock down with a battering ram, impossible to tear apart with grappling hooks. And, he notes, the masonry is "not unattractive to look at."
The fighting goes on, the Romans finally manage to build a ramp, 330 feet wide, 80 feet high... and who knows how long, Caesar doesn’t even say, they start rolling the towers up, then one night Gauls set fire to the whole thing, with tunnels under it, sallies from their gate, buckets of pitch. It's just incredible the all out contrivance of death and destruction both sides are able to muster.
And once the Gauls see the ramp on fire and the towers on fire, they get excited, and give it the all out assault, "And they were convinced," Caesar said, "That the deliverance of all Gaul depended on what was happening at that very moment."
The Butchery at Avaricum
He gives... a very striking example. Listen... and, maybe pour out a little drink for the men you're going to hear about now. I think Caesar would have.
Then there occurred before our eyes a thing which, as it seemed worthy of record, we have not thought it right to omit. A certain Gaul was standing before the town gate. Clods of tallow and pitch were passed from hand to hand to him. He was pierced by a dart from a "scorpion" in the right side and fell dead.
A scorpion is what they call a mobile artillery device that looks like a heavy crossbow. It's got a long barrel and a cranking wheel at the back, and so it kind of looks like a scorpion. You can fix it in place to hit basically the same target over and over again. You gotta think, the Gauls must realize this... going on:
One of the Gauls near him stepped over his prostrate body and went on with the same work [throwing clods of tallow and pitch]; and when this second man had been killed in the same fashion by a scorpion-shot, a third succeeded, and to the third a fourth; and that spot was not left bare of defenders until the ramp had been extinguished, the enemy cleared away on every side, and a stop put to the fighting.
And, it must have been a really really good spot to throw clumps of fat on the ramp from. But wow, what dogged bravery these Gauls are showing they've got under a commander of the caliber of Vercingetorix.
Well, long story short, the next day the Gallic warriors think about trying to make a break for it, their women won't allow it. Caesar launches a surprise attack, and he ends up capturing the city as many are trying to flee.
The result is horrific.
Of the 40,000 people in Avaricum, Caesar says, only 800 made it out alive. He may have had reason to exaggerate that number a little bit, because the Romans were as a people inclined to demand extreme satisfaction for the kind of treacherous mass murder of Roman citizens the Gauls had shown at Cenabum.
But apparently, motivated by the thought of avenging their countrymen, and I have to imagine too, maybe they're feeling a little crazed from lack of food, from the intensity and violence of the siege and the constant casualties the Gauls have been inflicting on them from these raids... the Roman soldiers spare neither woman nor child nor the elderly in their sack of the city.
Vercingetorix deals with the setback
You may have heard it said that greatness is revealed more in how someone handles defeat than in how someone handles victory. If that were ever true, Caesar thinks it's true of Vercingetorix:
And, before I read this, just imagine, the horror... as a commander, if something like this happens... and try to feel for yourself the kind of nerve it would take to make a speech like this ... and not just to say these words, but to say them with 100% conviction, so that people actually believe you.
"On the next day, summoning a conference, Vercingetorix comforted them, and exhorted them not greatly to lose heart, nor to be disturbed by the disaster. The Romans had not conquered by courage nor in pitched battle, but by stratagem and by knowledge of siege operations, in which the Gauls had had no experience. It was a mistake to expect in war that all events would have a favourable issue. He himself had never agreed with the defence of Avaricum, and of that he had themselves as witnesses [this is really crucial that he bring this up]; but this experience of disaster had been brought about by the short sightedness of the Bituriges and the undue complaisance of the rest [you remember the Bituriges begged them not to burn Avaricum... and they took pity... foolishly]. However, [Vercingetorix said] he would speedily remedy it by greater advantages. He would by his own efforts bring to their side the remaining states which currently stood apart from the rest of Gaul, and thereby create a single will for the whole of Gaul, and when the Gauls were united, not even the world could resist; and already he had almost brought that to pass."
He asks them therefore to get to work fortifying their camp properly, which they amazingly haven't done yet... and I think, maybe that's part of the lesson. In a disaster like this, you might try to just pick something very obvious and concrete that everyone can actually start doing, and it can really change the mood. Anyway here's how they respond... and it drives home how this is such an important lesson for any leader facing a huge setback like this:
"This speech was not unpleasing to the Gauls, especially because Vercingetorix himself had not lost courage after the great disaster they had suffered, nor hidden out of their sight and avoided the gaze of the host; and they considered his foresight and forethought the greater because, while the matter was still open, he had first advocated the burning, and afterwards the abandonment, of Avaricum. And thus, whereas the authority of commanders in general is diminished by reverses, so his position, on the contrary, was daily enhanced by the disaster they had suffered. At the same time they were inclined to be hopeful, by reason of his assurance, about bringing in the remaining states; and on this occasion for the first time the Gauls set to work to fortify the camp, and they were so strengthened in spirit that, although unaccustomed to toil, they thought that they must submit to any commands."
So, once again, the best way to overcome a failure like this is often to throw yourself and your guys into hard work.
Alright. Well, Caesar wants to get to work following up his victory... but he's delayed by some trouble among the Aedui.
There's a quarrel over two candidates for their chief military magistracy, the Vergobret office, involving some specific local laws... and Caesar's busy trying to put down the most serious rebellion he's ever faced, but he decides, if these two factions can't come to a satisfactory agreement, whoever loses is likely to turn to Vercingetorix.
So, Caesar comes and judges between them, and he picks a guy named Convictolitavis (remember that name). (Just so you know, the other guy, Cotus, had a brother who had been Vergobret before, and apparently it's illegal among the Aedui for two brothers to have both held the office at least while both are still living, so that's Caesar's criterion).
So... on the shaky hope that this patches things up, he exhorts the Aedui to put aside controversies and dissensions, and focus on the present challenge of this very frightening revolt. Then he requisitions all their cavalry (several hundred we have to imagine at least) and 10,000 infantry from them.
And he returns to his army.
Onwards to Gergovia
Caesar now decides to make for the capital city of the Arverni, Gergovia. Gergovia was a redoubtable fortress on a hill overlooking what's now the modern city of Clermont-Ferrand, it's about 80 miles due west of Lyons, on the other side of the Rhone, it's a hilly volcanic area.
Napoleon calls our anti-hero "Vercingetorix of Clermont" so, I think we can imagine, this is Vercingetorix' home town. (There's a great equestrian statue of Vercingetorix in Clermont-Ferrand... I mean, he really does look like the kind of man you'd want to die for).
There's an interesting moment in the campaign here where Caesar is on the East bank, the opposite side of a river en route, it's the Allier river, and Vercingetorix is on the West bank, trying to prevent Caesar from crossing. He destroys all the bridges... but then Caesar tricks him one day, hides 2 legions behind a hill where one of the bridges was destroyed, sends the rest of the army ahead, Vercingetorix takes the bait, Caesar rebuilds the bridge on the leftover bridge piles and crosses over before Vercingetorix realizes and can do anything about it. Vercingetorix wants to avoid getting forced into a pitched battle, so he abandons the river and goes to fortify Gergovia itself.
Caesar finds a good spot for his camp, actually he quickly ends up making 2 different camps and connects them with a long trench... which was actually found by archaeologists in the reign of Napoleon III in the middle of the 19th century.
Now, no sooner has Caesar got to work here, when he gets another disturbing report from the Aedui...
A defection brews in the Aedui
And he gives us the background first. Get a load of this:
"While all this was happening at Gergovia, Convictolitavis the Aeduan, to whom, as above mentioned, the magistracy had been adjudged by Caesar [so, the guy he made Vergobret as we just mentioned... after all Caesar's done for him, this guy Convictolavis], was tempted by a bribe on the part of the Arverni [i.e. Vercingetorix] to enter into discussion with certain young men of [his own tribe] the Aedui, among whom the leaders were Litaviccus and his brothers, young scions of a most distinguished house. Convictolavis shared his bribe with them, and urged them to remember that they were born to freedom and command. [And here's what he tells these stylish young men] The state of the Aedui was the only bar to the absolutely certain victory of Gaul; by its influence the rest were held in check; if it were brought over, the Romans would have no foothold in Gaul.
And now I imagine the young guys are like, wait a second, but didn't Caesar just do you a huge favor by ruling in your favor in the dispute over the Vergobret office? and Here's what Caesar says Convictolavis says about that:
It was true that he himself had received some benefit at Caesar's hands, but simply in the sense that he had won an entirely just cause before Caesar's judgment; and [after all] he had a greater duty to the general liberty [of the Aedui]. Why should the Aedui come to Caesar to decide a question of their own right and law, any more than the Romans [should come] to the Aedui? The young men were speedily won over by the speech of the magistrate and by the bribe, and avowed that they would be the very first to support his design. Then they began to seek a means of executing it, because they were not sure that the state could be induced off‑hand to undertake a war"
And yes the Aedui, they reasoned, as a people would not be so easily swayed to revolt against Caesar, who after all as we've mentioned in previous episodes, kind of made them the primo tribe in Gaul.
So I think this whole episode offers some really interesting lessons in how to get a large group of people to revolt, who are not all that disposed to do so. And here's the plan they come up with:
It was resolved that Litaviccus [One of these brothers, probably the oldest] should be put in command of the ten thousand soldiers who were to be sent to Caesar for the war [we mentioned them earlier], and should be responsible for their leading, while his brothers hastened forward to Caesar. They also determined what the plan of action that follows needed to be.
Litaviccus took over the army, and when he was about thirty miles from Gergovia he suddenly called together the troops, and with tears addressed them: [listen to this story, the names he's about to mention you haven't heard yet but it'll become clear what they mean very shortly] "Where, soldiers, are we headed? All our knights, all our nobility is perished; Eporedorix and Viridomarus, chief men of our state, have been accused of treachery by the Romans, and put to death without a trial! This you shall learn from men who actually escaped from that same massacre; for all my own brethren and all my kindred have been put to death, and grief prevents me from declaring what was brought to pass.
So he's basically telling them, I've got horrible news, hear it from men who just brought it to me, there's been a massacre. And here's what they do next:
Men whom Litaviccus had drilled in what to say were presented, and they and set forth to the host the same story in detail — that many horsemen of the Aedui had been put to death because it was alleged that they had held converse with the Arverni; that they themselves had hidden in the general throng of soldiers, and so had escaped from the midst of the massacre.
Well, this has the expected result:
The Aedui shouted with one accord and entreated Litaviccus to determine the best course for their safety. "You are speaking" quoth he, "as if this were a matter to be deliberated, as if it were not obvious what was necessary - namely, for us to make speed to Gergovia and join ourselves to the Arverni! Or can we doubt that after committing an abominable crime the Romans are already hastening here to slay us? Wherefore, if we have any spirit in us, let us avenge the death of those who have perished most shamefully, and let us slay these brigands." Then he pointed to certain Roman citizens, who were accompanying his force and relying on him for pretection; he plundered a large quantity of corn and supplies from them, and put the Romans to death with cruel tortures. He sent messages throughout the state of the Aedui and sought to arouse them by the same falsehood concerning the massacre of horsemen and chiefs, urging them to avenge their own wrongs in the same fashion as he himself had done."
Oh dear. Caesar explains that these guys Eporedorix and Viridomarus were indeed NOT dead... that in fact they had been accompanying Litaviccus and the 10,000 Aedui, but somehow had gotten wind of his plan to trick the army into defecting, and so they rode off to Caesar to tell him and try to put a stop to this.
And this is how Caesar first finds out about the whole mess. Here's what Eporedorix says:
"Eporedorix besought Caesar not to allow the state to fall away from the friendship of Rome through the mischievous designs of the young men; yet this, as he foresaw, would happen if those thousands of troops joined forces with the enemy, for their kindred could not ignore their safety, nor could the state account it of slight importance."
So, if these 10,000 guys end up joining Vercingetorix, the rest of the Aedui will basically have no choice to go along as well - you know, family, patronage, power networks, etc.
Can you imagine being Caesar in that moment? And this guy Litaviccus is right and Caesar would agree: if the Aedui defect as a nation, it would be hard to imagine anything worse happening to Gaul... or to Rome.
Caesar snaps into action. He takes 4 legions with him in light armor, leaves a couple behind at Gergovia, takes ALL his cavalry. He explains to them the gravity of the situation, and the whole arrive at the 10,000 Aedui, about 25 miles away, in a single day.
Litaviccus and his co-conspirators escape, they flee to Vercingetorix at Gergovia.
Caesar produces Eporedorix and Viridomarus before the Gauls, the guys Litaviccus said were murdered... the Aedui realize what's happening, that they've been tricked, and they throw themselves on the ground and beg for mercy. Caesar spares them and says "follow me", and they head back to Gergovia, where Caesar has just heard from the guy he left in charge that Vercingetorix picked exactly that day to storm the Roman camp in full force.
Have you ever had a day like this? Wow.
But this incident isn't over. Because before Caesar got there, Litaviccus and the Aeduan conspirators sent word around to their friends in other cities of the Aedui, "we've joined the revolt" and across the lands of the Aedui, the local townsfolk are now getting whipped up by demagogues to seize the property and persons of Roman businesspeople working in the area locally.
Then they hear that the 10,000 had rejoined Caesar's side, and the leaders backpeddle as quickly as possible, and they send messengers to Caesar to explain, "Oh sorry, this was a misunderstanding, bad men stirred up the mob, we've put them in their place, we've confiscated the property of Litaviccus and his brothers and the other rebels, we've given the Romans their stuff back, you can count on us..."
But, Caesar says:
The purpose of these measures was to obtain the release of their men (the 10,000); but they were stained with crime, and they were tempted now by the profit to be made of plundered goods, as the business concerned a large number of persons; so, as they were alarmed by the fear of penalty, they began to entertain secret designs of war and to sound the other states by means of deputations.
The slope into crime or rebellion really is slippery isn't it... it may start with something small, but once it gets going, it's hard to stop it
Caesar was fully aware of this; nevertheless he addressed the Aeduan deputies as gently as possible, assuring them that the ignorance and inconsequence of the common people did not make him judge more severely of the state, nor diminish any of his personal goodwill towards the Aedui. However, in contrast to what he said, he himself was anticipating a greater rising in Gaul; and that he might not be surrounded by all the states, he began to plan how he might withdraw from Gergovia and once more concentrate the whole army without allowing a departure occasioned by fear of the revolt to resemble flight."
So, I'm going to skip most of the Gergovia episode, which is interesting and worth reading but we've got bigger fish to fry. Here's what happens, in sum.
Caesar’s measured assault at Gergovia
Caesar has just told us, he wants to leave as soon as he can, because he's very exposed at Gergovia, if the Aedui revolt he's kind of surrounded by hostile terrain for some hundred miles in all directions.
But if he just starts marching away, Vercingetorix is going to tell the Gauls, it's because Caesar is afraid, [which is kind of true] and it will look like Caesar's fleeing, in which case the Gauls will chase them with their large forces and attack the Romans while they are retreating, making the withdrawal very dangerous, potentially disastrous.
So Caesar makes a measured assault on Gergovia, including a funny scene where he dresses up a bunch of donkeys and mules like war horses, and puts equestrian war gear on these cart drivers and donkey tamers, and has them all ride around looking tough on one side of the hill, to make a distraction, the Gauls take the bait, then Caesar assaults the main camp of the Gauls out in front of the city of Gergovia.
His troops get too excited and a couple of his legions charge the walls themselves, even though Caesar emphasizes they had EXPLICIT INSTRUCTIONS not to. He ends up losing 700 men, which is a lot.
And he fails to take the city there of course, which wasn't this intention anyway. But then the next 2 days he lines up his troops outside the city and offers battle, and Vercingetorix declines, so, then Caesar marches off - and the Gauls don't follow.
So, mission accomplished. I'd say it's a tactical defeat, but maybe a strategic victory, given that he's able to extricate himself from a dangerous situation with relatively modest losses.
The Aedui go all-in
Now then, Caesar begins making for the Sequani, Roman allies who live near the Roman province, in West/southwest Gaul. But once he's crossed back over the Allied river, by rebuilding anther one of the bridges Vercingetorix tore down, he's approached by some... friends.
"There Caesar was greeted by Eporedorix and Virodomarus, of the Aedui [remember these guys, who rushed to Caesar to tell him about the crisis with the 10,000 Aedui, well they're are riding along in his camp here's what they say]; from them Caesar learnt that Litaviccus had gone with the entire cavalry to incite the Aedui to revolt [Caesar probably means Vercingetorix lent the rest of the Gallic cavalry to Litaviccus to go do this].
"The two men claimed that they themselves needed to go ahead to firm up their nation's loyalty. Although many indications made the treachery of the Aedui obvious to Caesar, and he believed that the departure of these two served but to hasten a revolt of the state; nevertheless, he determined not to detain them, lest he might seem to be inflicting an injury or affording some suspicion of fear.
He knows, they just want to go join the revolt that's already happening... so this is poignant here:
"As they departed he set forth briefly all the favors he had done for the Aedui: their position, their humiliations at the time when he had received them — crowded into towns, deprived of fields, all their resources plundered, a tribute imposed [by the Sequani and Ariovistus], hostages wrung from them with the utmost insolence — the success and the distinction to which he had brought them, with the result that they had not only returned to their ancient position of esteem, but, to all appearance, had surpassed the dignity and influence of all previous ages. Telling the two men to deliver this message, he dismissed them from his presence."
So... we're going to go keep the Aedui from revolting...
Caesar describes next what they actually do:
“Noviodunum was a town of the Aedui [distinct from the Novodunum mentioned earlier] situated in an advantageous position by the banks of the Loire. Here Caesar had concentrated all the hostages of the Gauls, the corn, the state treasury, and great part of his own and the army's baggage; hither he had sent a great number of horses purchased for this war in Italy and Spain.
When Eporedorix and Viridomarus arrived at the town they learnt about the situation with their people as a whole. Litaviccus [the rebel] had been welcomed by the Aedui at Bibracte, the town with the greatest prestige among them; the magistrate, Convictolitavis [after all Caesar did for him, too], and a great part of the senate had gone to join Litaviccus; deputies had been dispatched officially to Vercingetorix to secure peace and friendship."
So these guys are looking at Noviodunum, in their own territory, where Caesar's stashed all the goods.
"So advantageous an opportunity, the two men thought, ought not to be passed up. So they put to the sword the Roman troops on guard at Noviodunum and the Roman traders who had gathered there, and divided the money and the horses between them; they arranged for the hostages of the other Gallic states to be conducted to the magistrate at Bibracte. As they judged that they could not hold the town, they set it on fire, that it might be of no service to the Romans; all the grain that they could handle at once they removed in boats, the rest they either burnt or dumped in thre river."
The Revolt of the Aedui has begun.
Now, I'll skip here a long description Caesar gives of a campaign of Titus Labienus, his man, Caesar sent Labienus to go handle the revolt of the Parisii, there's a campaign where he defeats them at their capital, Lutetia, i.e. Paris, where their commander Camulogenus, proves himself a true son of the Gallic war god Camulus, by dying bravely in battle.
Won't narrate all that, but, just know that, never to disappoint, Labienus at the key moment of the battle does remind his troops once again to "remember their pristine virtue and fight as though Caesar himself were watching." and this works, as usual.
Caesar as soon as he hears about the revolt of the Aedui, speeds north as fast as he can to rendezvous with Labienus, they meet near Agedincum, in the territory of the Senones, north of the Aedui.
And meanwhile, the Romans' worst fears are coming true.
"When the revolt of the Aedui became known the war increased in extent. Deputations were sent round in all directions: with all the power of influence, authority, money, they strove to stir up the states, and having got possession of the hostages whom Caesar had lodged among them, they sought by threatening the execution of these to terrify waverers."
Now listen to this
"The Aedui demanded Vercingetorix to come to them and develop his plans for the war in shared consultation with them. When their request was granted, they insisted that the supreme command should be assigned to them…
So that was their angle, they thought they could take control of this thing. And I think the result here tells you a lot about Vercingetorix
…The matter was disputed, and a convention of all Gaul was summoned at Bibracte…
I can't prove this but I imagine here, Vercingetorix says, I suppose that's a fair request, why don't we let all the Gauls decide. And here's what happens:
…Thither assembled many persons from all quarters. The question was put to the vote of the army, and to a man all approved Vercingetorix as commander-in‑chief.
That gives you a sense of the Charisma, I think, and the pure... kingliness of this man. Caesar is of course very pleased to note how things turned out for the Aedui here
The Aedui were greatly distressed at their rejection from the leadership, complaining of the change in their fortune and feeling the loss of Caesar's kindness towards them; but nevertheless, having undertaken the campaign, they dared not part counsel from the rest. Unwillingly, for they were young and very ambitious, Eporedorix and Viridomarus obeyed Vercingetorix.
And the war expands. Vercingetorix summons fifteen thousand cavalry from all of Gaul. Notably, he explicitly declines to summon more infantry (he's already got 80,000 according to Caesar), but he says, he doesn't want more foot soldiers because his strategy is not to engage the Romans in a pitched battle, but to "kick them in the stomach" as they say, deprive them of grain and pack animal fodder, wear them down...
Meanwhile more tribes are revolting, and he sends out detachments all over Gaul to bring the reluctant along as well.
He's sending contingents to go make war now on the Gauls living in the Roman province of Transalpine Gaul! The Allobroges, the Helvii, The Volcae Arecomici, and others. Caesar has arranged for the defense of Transalpine Gaul, his distant cousin Lucius Caesar is handling it. Fingers crossed...
Meanwhile,
"Caesar was aware that the enemy were superior in cavalry and that, as all the roads were cut off, he could not expect any relief forces from the Province and from Italy [no one is coming to save you...]; accordingly, he sent across the Rhine into Germany to the states with whom he had cultivated peaceful relations in previous years [probably including the Ubii, for example], and he fetched horsemen from them and infantry trained to fight along with the horsemen. [This is funny though] On their arrival he found that the horses they were using were unsuitable [elsewhere he calls the German horses "small and deformed"], and therefore he took the horses from the military tribunes and the rest of the Roman knights and the re‑enlisted veterans, and distributed them among the Germans."
And the German horses must have been unsuitable indeed for Caesar to take this drastic step of depriving proud Romans of their noble steeds, but that's what he does.
And so he's headed for the Sequani's territory again, to try to be close to the Province proper, which is now under attack, and that will give him more strategic options too, like linking up with allies or reinforcements.
Vercingetorix gets a little too confident
Vercingetorix now, Caesar doesn't say this explicitly, but I think he intends us to understand it, Vercingetorix makes perhaps a key mistake.
He's been saying, I don't want to fight it out with the Romans directly. But then, all the cavalry he's summoned from all of Gaul arrive, and... you wonder if he got a little too confident. Well, he addresses his troops with this message:
"Vercingetorix got together a great number of these contingents and established himself in three camps about ten miles from the Romans. He called the cavalry commanders together to a council of war, and stated that the hour of victory was come. The Romans were fleeing to the Province and leaving Gaul. In his opinion that was enough to secure a temporary liberty, but it was too small a gain to give peace and quiet for the future; for they would return when they had collected a large force and would make no end of the war. Therefore, the Gauls must attack them while they were encumbered with baggage on the march; then, if the legionaries hung back to give support to their comrades, they could not keep marching; if, as he felt sure was more likely to happen, they abandoned the baggage and looked to their own safety, they would be stripped at once of necessaries and of reputation."
And he explains that the Romans are weak in cavalry compared to us, they won’t dare to challenge us or leave their column.
"The Gallic knights shouted with one accord that they should be bound by a most solemn oath — that no man should be received beneath a roof, nor have access to children, or to parents, or to wife, who had not twice ridden through the enemy's column."
Well, they fight a battle, and it does not go well at all for the Gauls, Caesar has enough cavalry that, by forming his legionnaires up in a flexible square formation, protecting the baggage, he can send a concentrated cavalry force out to clash with the Gallic cavalry, and they can keep retreating back to the protection of the Legionnaires to regroup.
And, to everyone's suprise, the Romans put the Gallic cavalry to flight, and kill many of them.
In fact Caesar's bet on the Germans proves brilliantly successful.
It's like he went to some the neighborhood kids who got tough fighting with bicycles and baseball bats, and then he gave them motorcycles and machetes... the Germans are brilliant.
And Plutarch has an interesting note here:
"In the main Caesar got the best of the struggle, and after a long time and much slaughter overpowered the Barbarians; but it appears that at first he met with some reverse, and the Arverni show a short-sword hanging in a temple, which they say was captured from Caesar. When Caesar himself saw it, at a later time, he smiled, and though his friends urged him to have it taken down, he would not permit it, considering it sacred."
And so back to Caesar... after this battle, he comments, "The enemy's morale was utterly shaken because the cavalry, the part of their army on which they had placed the greatest reliance, had been routed."
Vercingetorix, I think, kicking himself for changing his strategy and risking a direct engagement, well, I'll let Napoleon take it from here:
"Afraid of being overrun [Vercingetorix] withdrew to Alesia, a strong place in Burgundy, in the Auxois region, near Mont-Bard, a place destined to become famous: it was here that the destiny of Gaul would be decided."
The Final Battle at Alesia
Alesia was a fortified town of the Mandubii tribe, about 25 miles West-Northwest of Dijon. It's on a hilltop, surrounded on 3 sides by a ring of hills, and on one side, the western side, there's a broad plain.
Vercingetorix and the Gauls build a six foot high stone wall and trench out in front of the fort, on the hillside, and camp between it and town walls proper.
Caesar arrives close after them... he sizes up the terrain, and he decides to build a 10-mile fortification, entirely enclosing Alesia.
Vercingetorix doesn't let him get on with this easily - early on in the construction process, he sends down cavalry, and there's a great, fierce battle fougth in the plain... but Caesar, relying on his trusty Germans, (who are just elated fighting with all this new Roman firepower), he manages to turn the battle in the Romans' favor, and ends with a great slaughter of Gauls. The rest of them retreat to the city.
Vercingetorix now has some difficult decisions to make. Caesar explains:
"Vercingetorix now made up his mind to send away all his horsemen by night, before the Romans could complete their entrenchments. His parting instructions were that each of them should proceed to his own state and draft everyone who was of military age for the war. He repeated to them all the services which he had performed for them and urged them to bear his survival in mind and not to deliver to the torture of the enemy one who had done sterling service for the liberty of all. He showed them that if they proved indifferent eighty thousand chosen men were doomed to perish with him. He had calculated that they had grain in short rations for thirty days, but that by economy they could hold out just a little longer. After giving these instructions he sent the horsemen silently away in the second watch, at a point where a gap was left in our works. He ordered all the grain to be brought in to his headquarters; he appointed death as the penalty for any disobedience of the order; the cattle, of which great store had been driven together by the Mandubii, he distributed man by man for safekeeping; he arranged that the grain should be measured out sparingly and gradually; he withdrew into the town all the force which he had posted in front of it. By such measures did he prepare for the conduct of the campaign, in anticipation of aid from the rest of Gaul."
So... the cavalry have all ridden out to go furiously raise support from Gaul, for the salvation of all Gaul. And nobody, but nobody doubts that it all depends on Alesia.
Caesar spends the next few pages describing to us the fortification system he's building.
So, he's constructing this 10 mile ring around Alesia, with camps periodically spaced along the perimeter; and for Vercingetorix and his guys to breach the fortifications and get to the Romans in their camps, here's what they'll have to face.
First, there's a 20 foot wide trench with vertical walls. He doesn't say how deep it is, but modern excavations on the site (carried out by your fellow Rome Bro Napoleon III of France in the mid 19th century) have shown that it was between 8 and 9 feet deep.
Now, once you manage to get past that, with your ladders or maybe wicker work portable bridges... then there's about 400 feet of open space, within easy missile range of the wall that we'll get to in a moment.
Before you get to the wall though, there are two trenches fifteen feet wide, the one closer to the walls flooded with water in most places. Then there's a 12 foot high rampart wall, topped with a wickerwork fence to keep out the arrows, and every 80 feet there are high towers that will be manned by your typical slingstone and bow and arrow troops, as well as trained soldiers operating catapults for 1 pound stones, and heavy crossbow bolt launchers. Scorpions.
But before you even get to those trenches, and while those towers are raining down death on you over that 400 foot stretch... you've got what Adrian Goldsworthy describes here:
"In front of the ditches were a series of obstacles and traps to which the legionaries gave macabre nicknames. The stakes with ends that had been sharpened and fire hardened were 'marker stones' (cippi), those hidden in circular pits covered in foliage were lilies (lilia), from their shape, while caltrops and spikes half buried were spurs (stiumuli). [A caltrop is a kind of road spike thing, constructed such that no matter how it falls, there's always a spike sticking up] Such traps might cause an attacker some casualties, especially if he came under cover of darkness, but their main function was to slow a charge down and rob it of momentum, as men were forced to walk past them somewhat gingerly."
— Caesar: Life of a Colossus; by Adrian Goldsworthy
Caesar has to invest as much as possible in these defenses because he doesn't have a lot of men - the combined strength of his and Labienus' armies is maybe 35-40,000 men. They're going to be spread very thin along the defenses.
And perhaps the most amazing thing of all, is after he builds this 10 mile ring, he realizes what it means that the entire Gallic cavalry has slipped through... and he turns around and builds another 14 mile ring around his 10 mile ring, in the exact same fashion (all those layers we just mentioned) to defend against the inevitable, impending assault from... the entirety of Gaul, bearing down upon the Romans.
And here's how Caesar describes how the Gallic leaders of the rebellion at large are making these arrangements:
"Of the Aedui and their dependents, Segusiavi, Ambivareti, Aulerci Brannovices, and Blannovii, the Gauls required thirty five thousand; an equal number from the Arverni, together with the Eleuteti, Cadurci, Gabali, and Vellavii, who are regularly under the sovereignty of the Arverni; from the Sequani, Senones, Bituriges, Santoni, Ruteni, and Carnutes, twelve thousand each; from the Bellovaci ten thousand, and as many from the Lemovices; eight thousand each from the Pictones, Turoni, Parisii, and Helvetii; five thousand each from the Suessiones, Ambiani, Mediomatrici, Petrocorii, Nervii, Morini, and Nitiobriges; a like number from the Aulerci Cenomani; four thousand from the Atrebates; three each from the Veliocasses, Lexovii, and Aulerci Eburovices; two each from the Rauraci and the Boii; thirty thousand in all from the states touching the Ocean, commonly called by them Armoric, among whom are the Curiosolites, Redones, Ambibarii, Caletes, Osismi, Veneti, Lemovices, and Venelli."
This is what the big one looks like. The rough sum of what they came up with, by Caesar's reckoning, was 250,000 infantry, and 8,000 cavalry.
And Caesar notes with some pain... that even Commius of the Atrebates joined them - a man he's mentioned before, we met him in Britain, Caesar used him as an ambassador, rescued him from the Britons when he was captured.
"This Commius, as we have before mentioned, had rendered faithful and efficient service to Caesar in previous years in the expedition to Britain. For these good offices Caesar had ordered his state to be exempt from taxation, had restored its rights and laws, and had made the Morini tributary to him. Yet so strong was the unanimity of Gaul as a whole for the maintenance of their liberty and the recovery of their ancient renown in war that no benefits, no memory of friendship could influence them, and all devoted themselves with heart and strength to the campaign before them. When eight thousand horsemen and about two hundred and fifty thousand footmen had been collected, the force was reviewed and a muster was taken in the country of the Aedui. Officers were appointed, and the chief command was entrusted to Commius the Atrebatian, Viridomarus and Eporedorix the Aeduans, and Vercassivellaunus the Arvernian, a cousin of Vercingetorix."
Now back in Alesia, the Gauls have a council of war:
"However, when the day on which they had expected reinforcements of their own folk was past, and they had exhausted all their corn, and knew not what was going on in the land of the Aedui, the Gauls besieged in Alesia called a council of war to consider what would be the issue of their own fortunes. Various opinions were expressed, one party voting for surrender, another for a sortie while their strength sufficed; but the speech of Critognatus should not, I think, be omitted, because of its remarkable and abominable cruelty. He was of high lineage among the Arverni, and considered to have great influence.
He counsels against a sortie, it's risky and they've got not just their own necks to think about but the salvation of all Gaul... and he notes:
"What then? Do ye think that the Romans are daily engaged in those outer trenches for mere amusement? If every approach is blocked off, so that you cannot receive reassuring messages from you rallies, then take the Romans here to your witnesses that their coming is imminent; and it is in fear of it that the Romans are busy in their works day and night.
Listen to this, his proposal:
What, then, is my counsel? To do what our forefathers did in the war, in no wise equal to this, with the Cimbri and the Teutones. They shut themselves into the towns, and under stress of a like scarcity sustained life on the bodies of those whose age showed them useless for war, and thereby delivered not themselves to the enemy. [so... in other words, eat the elderly!] "And if we had not a precedent for this, I should still have judged it a most glorious thing for the sake of liberty to set such a precedent and to hand it down to posterity. For how could that war be compared to this one? The Cimbri devastated Gaul, they brought great disaster upon us, yet they departed at length from our borders and sought other countries, leaving us our rights, laws, lands, liberty. But the Romans — what else do they seek or desire than to follow where envy leads, to settle in the lands and states of men whose noble report and martial strength they have learnt, and to bind upon them a perpetual slavery? 'Tis in no other fashion they have waged wars. And if ye know not what is afoot among distant nations, look now on Gaul close at hand, which has been reduced to a province, with utter change of rights and laws, and crushed beneath their axes in everlasting slavery."
They decide not to eat the elderly, not yet at any rate... but to send away all those unfit for battle. Including...
"The Mandubii, whose town had received them, were compelled to leave it with wives and children. When they reached the Roman lines they begged with tears and abject prayers to be received as slaves and helped with food. But Caesar posted sentries on the rampart and prevented their admission."
Caesar wants to force them into starvation, to pressure them to capitulate. No one is allowed to leave.
At last, though, the giant force of Gauls arrives at the plain before Alesia.
"From the town of Alesia, it was possible to overlook the entire plain. At sight of these reinforcements those in the fortress hastened together with mutual congratulation, and all minds were stirred to joy. So they brought out their force and halted in front of the town; they covered over the nearest trench with hurdles and filled it in with earth, and prepared for a sally and for every emergency."
So an attack begins very quickly. The fighting goes on all day, in the valley, where most of the rest of the army can look on from higher above. It goes on from noon to sunset:
"When the Gauls were confident that their own men were getting the better of the battle, and saw ours hard pressed by numbers, with shouts and yells on every side — those who were confined by the entrenchments as well as the others who had come up to their assistance — they sought to inspirit their countrymen. As the action was proceeding in sight of all, and no deed, of honour or dishonour, could escape notice, both sides were stirred to courage by desire of praise and fear of disgrace."
But once again, the Romans turn back the Gauls - Caesar says, the Germans are brilliant, yet again.
The Gauls on the outside spend the next day making wicker bridge structures, ladders, siege hooks... and they make a night assault. We get our first appearance of young Marcus Antonius, the great Mark Antony, manning the defenses here.
But the Gauls on the outside get slowed down by the traps and obstacles, and eventually the Romans fight them off - and Vercingetorix and his men inside Alesia approach to help from the other side a little too late to put a double pressure on the Romans, and they give up and retire.
And finally, the decisive day arrives.
The Gauls on the outside have reconnoitred the fact that there is in fact a break in the Roman fortifications, on the north side, where a steep hill prevented Caesar from making any ramparts and ditches, and instead he put a fortified camp at the base of the hill and manned it with two legions. This was on the northwest end of the perimeter.
Vercingetorix's cousin, Vercassivelaunus, leads 60,000 picked men around in secret, and on a signal, at noon, the Gauls all charge this single fort from multiple sides. Vercingetorix and his men have been watching these developments carefully.
"When from the citadel of Alesia Vercingetorix observed his countrymen, he moved out of the town, taking with him the wickerwork hurdles, poles, mantlets, grappling-hooks, and all the other appliances prepared for the sally. The fighting broke out simultaneously in all places, and all expedients were attempted, with a rapid concentration on that section which was seen to be least strong [which we just mentioned]. With lines so extensive the Roman army was strung out, and at several points defence proved difficult. The shouting which arose in the rear of the fighting line did much to scare our troops, because they realized that their safety from danger depended on other men's courage: [Caesar explains with a very insightful comment here] generally, people's minds are more vehemently disturbed by threats they cannot directly confront."
"Caesar found a suitable spot from which he could see what was proceeding in each quarter. To parties distressed he sent up supports. Both sides felt that this was the hour of all others in which it was proper to make their greatest effort. The Gauls utterly despaired of safety unless they could break through the lines; the Romans anticipated an end of all toils if they could hold their own. The hardest struggle occurred by the entrenchments on the hill, whither, as we have mentioned, Vercassivellaunus had been sent."
When Caesar sees what's happening, he sends Labienus with 3,000 men to shore up the fort and its defense:
"Caesar himself went up to the rest of the troops, and urged them not to give in to the strain, telling them that the fruit of all previous engagements depended upon that day and hour. The enemy on the inner side, despairing of success on the level ground, because of the size of the entrenchments, made an attempt to scale the precipitous parts, conveying thither the appliances they had prepared. They dislodged the defenders of the turrets by a swarm of missiles, filled in the trenches with earth and hurdles, tore down rampart and breastwork with grappling-hooks."
Vercingetorix has breached the wall, toward the southern end of the perimeter! Gauls are pouring in to the space in between. But the Romans are meeting them there with extreme violence. Caesar sends in fresh troops there, to staunch the bleeding... he decides the situation is stable enough. And he rushes to Labienus at the northwest fort, where the entire fate of the battle now depends.
"Where Labienus was engaged, neither ramps nor trenches served any more to resist the rush of the enemy."
The Gauls on the outside are overwhelming the northwest fortifications, they're in the camp.
Caesar himself dives in to the fray.
"Caesar's coming was known by the colour of his cloak, which it was his habit to wear in action as a distinguishing mark, and this made his arrival known to the enemy [it would have been a brillliant reddish purple, nobody but the commander wears that color] and they saw the troops of cavalry and the cohorts which he had ordered to follow him, because from the higher ground these were visible. Thereupon the enemy joined battle: a shout was raised on both sides, and taken up by an answering shout from the rampart and the whole of the entrenchments. Our troops discarded their throwing javelins and got to work with their swords."
The defenses have done their work, thinning out and dulling the sharpness of the Gallic onslaught. But that's all they could do. It was then a matter of pure courage and force on the part of the Romans.
And...
At last...
"The enemy soldiers turned to flee. The enemy cavalry crashed into the soldiers fleeing. A great slaughter ensued."
The Romans kill some of the Gallic commanders, Vercingetorix's cousin Vercassivelaunus the Arvernian they capture in flight.
"Those in the town could see the rout and slaughter of their comrades. Despairing of their own safety, they withdrew their forces from the fortifications."
And with that, the fate of Gaul, for that year, and for the rest of history, was decided.
Gaul, then, would become Roman.
Over the centuries Roman vineyards, and aqueducts would snake their way through the valleys and hillsides of France. Roman Orators would declaim in packed amphitheaters. Roman Christians would wage theological debates in Latin from Roman monasteries throughout the land.
What was going through Vercingetorix's mind when he realized... the inevitable. What did he imagine as the future of his people?
Well, here's Caesar:
"On the morrow Vercingetorix summoned a council, at which he stated that he had undertaken that campaign, not for his own occasions, but for the general liberty; and as they must yield to fortune he offered himself to them for whichever course they pleased — to give satisfaction to the Romans by his death, or to deliver him up alive. Deputies were despatched to Caesar to treat of this matter. He ordered the arms to be delivered up, the chiefs to be brought out. He himself took his seat in the entrenchments in front of the camp: the leaders were brought out to him there."
And I think Plutarch tells best how it happened next:
"And the leader of the whole war, Vergentorix, after putting on his most beautiful armour and decorating his horse, rode out through the gate. He made a circuit around Caesar, who remained seated, and then leaped down from his horse, stripped off his suit of armour, and seating himself at Caesar's feet remained motionless, until he was delivered up to be kept in custody for the triumph."
That triumph... six years later. What a different world it had become by the time Vercingetorix finally was paraded through the streets of Rome, to finally face his execution, according to the Roman custom.
That of course is a story for another day.
Meanwhile, Caesar is declared a thanksgiving celebration of 20 days in Rome. He camps for the winter at Bibracte, in the territory of the faithless Aedui, to star putting all the tattered pieces back together.
We'll cover the aftermath next time.
If you enjoyed this, leave us a good review, sign up for our email list at cost of glory.com. Or better yet, go tell a friend about the noble Vercingetorix, and pour out a hefty libation for this man who loved his country, and did everything he possibly could have, to save her and preserve her ancient liberty.
Stay strong, Stay ancient, this is Alex Petkas, until next time.
and in fact, its final version was written after the death of Caesar (although we can be sure that it was based at least to some extent on reports he sent back to Rome).