top of page
Writer's pictureCindy Levesque

The Battle of Alesia

Gaius Julius Caesar had been made proconsul of Gaul and was in the midst of his attempts to conquer Gaul. While it began as a rather slow and tedious practice of divide and conquer, it had now shifted into an all-out war. The Gallic tribes had been mostly unified by Vercingetorix who had ripped away all of Caesar’s allies one by one. Caesar had recently tried to take the city of Gergovia but had failed in his attempt to do so. This bolstered Vercingetorix’s reputation as he continued to pursue the Romans.


On the March

Statue of Vercingetorix. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Caesar gathered his entire army, received reinforcements from Germanic tribes across the Rhine, and began marching towards Transalpine Gaul (which bordered Rome). Vercingetorix believed Caesar to be retreating from Gaul, and decided to attack. This would prove to be Vercingetorix’s greatest mistake.


Caesar expected the Gauls to attack him, so he positioned the cavalry at the head and at the sides of the army with the baggage train in the middle. As Vercingetorix led his cavalry to attack, the Roman quickly repositioned themselves to protect the cavalry. It worked. This tactical shift put the Gauls at a significant disadvantage and so they retreated while most of the Roman army pursued. Vercingetorix led his men to take cover in Alesia, with a few cavalry men sent off to get reinforcements. The Roman army then arrived and laid siege to Alesia. Vercingetorix believed that he could use a pincer manoeuvre to defeat Caesar, but he underestimated the engineering capabilities of the Roman army.


Alesia

Caesar ordered his men to create a defence line around the city of Alesia, and when this was complete, they built another defence line behind themselves. These defence lines included siege equipment, an anti-cavalry moat, trenches, towers, and even booby traps. The Roman camp was now protected at the front and the back. Perhaps conscious of the limited food supply, Vercingetorix sent out all the women and children, but the Romans refused to let them pass through the camp. Vercingetorix did not let them re-enter the city, and so they were left outside to starve.


When the reinforcements finally arrived, the Romans found themselves fighting the Gauls on both sides. While the Romans surrounded Alesia, they themselves were also surrounded by the Gallic forces. Caesar would periodically send out the cavalry for attacks and counter-attacks while his men defended the camp from all sides. Day after day, the Gallic forces made no progress against the Romans. They began to lose hope, and when their food supply threatened to run out completely, they abandoned the effort. Vercingetorix was now trapped within Alesia with no hope of relief. He surrendered.

Vercingetorix surrendering to Caesar. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Aftermath

The Gallic rebellion did last a little bit longer afterwards, but without their charismatic and brilliant tactical leader, Vercingetorix, the remaining Gallic tribes fell one by one. In the span of 8 years, 58 to 50 BCE, Caesar had managed to completely conquer Gaul, and make himself fabulously wealthy at the same time. Shortly after, Caesar would cross the Rubicon River: an act of treason against the Roman Republic. This sparked another civil war in which Caesar was victorious due in no small part to the loyalty of his soldiers. Vercingetorix would eventually be put to death in 46 BCE, as part of Caesar’s delayed triumph for his success in Gaul. Caesar himself would be assassinated only 2 years later, in 44 BCE, for making himself dictator for life. The formalization of Gaul being made a Roman province would only be done under Augustus in 27 BCE, though all of the actual hard work was already done.


Bust of Caesar. Image: Wikimedia Commons

Reliability of the sources

It must be noted that few sources survive of these events. The Gauls did not record their own history, so their perspective can never be truly understood. Julius Caesar did write in great detail about his conquest of Gaul. His account is still widely read today for its military tactics. It is, however, a very biased account that always paints the Romans as the heroes and not the military obsessed, culture crushing conquerors that they actually were. Despite this, we are eternally grateful for such a rich and detailed account, even if it is not always accurate.


Text: Cindy G. Levesque. MENAM Archaeology. Copyright 2023.

Images: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain


Further Readings

Allen, George H. "Vie de Vercingetorix by Marius and Ary Leblond - Review." The Classical Weekly (Classical Association of the Atlantic States) 32, no. 1 (Oct 1938): 6.

Caesaris, C. Iuli. Commentarii. Edited by Rice T. Holmes. Oxford University Press, 1914.

Ellis, Peter Berresford. The Celtic Empire. Durham North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, 1990.

Goldsworthy, Adrian. Caesar Life of a Colossus. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2006.

Haywood, John. "Vercingetorix and the Failure of Gallic Resistance." History Today 59, no. 9 (Sep 2009): 42-47.

Holmes, T. Rice. Caesar's Conquest of Gaul. 2nd Edition. London: Oxford University Press, 1931.

Jullian, Camille. Histoire de la Gaule. Paris: Librairie Hachette, 1923.

Malleson, G. B. "Vercingetorix." Transactions of the Royal Historical Society (Royal History Society) 4 (1889): 1-40.



Recent Posts

See All

コメント


bottom of page