Gaius Julius Caesar had been made proconsul of Gaul in 58 BCE and had spent several years campaigning around the province. In 53 BCE, he proclaimed that Gaul was now a Roman province and was subject to its laws and religion. This incited a full-blown rebellion led by Vercingetorix in 52 BCE.
Tactics
Now, the thing you need to remember, is that the Romans had a professionally trained army. These men in particular had seen combat under Caesar before. They moved as a single unit with clear purpose and followed every order without hesitation. They were also brilliant engineers and could quickly build bridges and roads as necessary. The Gauls on the other hand, were lethal warriors, but they were never a unified group. They did not blindly follow orders, and their allegiances were not guaranteed. Both sides were familiar with the terrain, so there would be no “home-field” advantage.
Vercingetorix knew he could not face Caesar in open combat, as the Roman troops were unmatched in that style of warfare. Instead, he focused on cutting off Caesar from all of his allies. He began by attacking Roman-friendly tribes to show that the Romans would not be able to protect their allies. This would surely help incite the other tribes to join Vercingetorix’s cause.
Caesar could not let this happen and so he led eight legions to help his allies who were under attack. The difficulties of winters could be felt in the complications with securing enough food for the troops. Caesar first reached Vellaunodunum and besieged the city for three days before they surrendered. Gaining vital supplies, the Romans continued to Cenabum and arrived late at night. The people did not expect Caesar to arrive so quickly and had not finished securing the city. Since it was so late, the Romans decided to wait until morning to attack but still kept two legions on guard to catch the town’s people if they attempted to flee in the night, which they did. Destroying the town, Caesar then confronted the Bituriges. By this time Vercingetorix had abandoned his mission against the Boii, a Roman ally, and was on his way to help protect the Bituriges. The Gauls arrived just as the town of Noviodunum was surrendering and forced them to chase the Romans out of their city. A cavalry battle was fought just outside town and Caesar won with the help of his 400 Germans. The Noviodunum feared the Romans and surrendered for a second time and Caesar continued on his path to Avaricum.
The rebellion unfolded in the winter which meant that there was little to no food surplus. The army would be unable to forage the land in any serious way. The only way to secure enough food to continue the campaign was to either receive supplies from an ally, or defeat a town and take their supplies. As Caesar marched around Gaul and captured various villages and towns, Vercingetorix noticed this pattern and decided to take advantage of it. He realized that he was losing the race to defeat the enemy’s allies, so he changed his focus.
Vercingetorix demanded that his allies burn down every indefensible town so as to not allow the Romans to secure any more food. Vercingetorix must have been incredibly charismatic as his allies acquiesced. The Gauls burned down their own villages and cities so that Caesar could not benefit from defeating them. Avaricum, however, refused to burn its city down. Caesar promptly besieged the city, despite their quickly dwindling supplies. With his allies unable or unwilling to send them more food, and Vercingetorix lurking in the area threatening foraging groups, the Romans were forced to ration their food. While it was certainly a precarious situation, the soldiers were accustomed to rationing and simply focused on the task at hand: take the city.
Siege of Avaricum
Despite the lack of supplies, the Romans continued to build their siege equipment to take Avaricum. Several of the Gauls became seriously concerned that the Romans were not giving up. Vercingetorix, in an effort to encourage his men, presented “captured Romans” who spoke of incredible hardship and starvation in the Roman camps. The Gauls believed the ruse and were thoroughly reinvigorated believing that the end of the Romans was near. They tried to sabotage the siege equipment in the night, but were chased off by the night guards who then moved the siege contraptions to a safer location.
The next day, the siege weaponry smashed a hole in the city wall and the Romans immediately attacked. The stress and fear had clearly gotten to the men as they showed no mercy when taking the city. Caesar was either unwilling, or unable to control his men in their rampage. The city had had a population of about 40 000, but only 800 reached Vercingetorix alive. The Gauls now saw the wisdom in Vercingetorix’s tactics, and the remaining tribes quickly burned down their own cities to avoid Avaricum’s fate. Vercingetorix’s army grew as more joined his cause. Meanwhile, the Roman soldiers rested for a few days while they restocked their supplies from the city.
Deception tactics
Soon enough, the two sides were back to attacking each other in various locations. Both sides sending trusted lieutenants with parts of the army to attack so-and-so. Vercingetorix personally led the group which hounded Caesar’s footsteps. He thwarted Caesar’s attempts to cross a river for some time, until Caesar hid part of his army in the woods, while opening the ranks of the main force. Vercingetorix believed that the main force was ALL of them and continued to pursue them up and down the river. Meanwhile, the smaller force went further down the river and were able to construct a bridge and signal the main force. When Vercingetorix realized he had been deceived, he quickly fled to avoid an open battle. Caesar was now free to move on to his next target.
Throughout the entire rebellion, Vercingetorix continuously tried to turn Caesar’s allies against him. He used everything from threats of violence to outright lies backed up by “actors” to convince them. The Aedui tribe in particular, were perhaps Caesar’s greatest allies, as they provided him with supplies as well as cavalry. Vercingetorix managed to turn the Aedui magistrate who then told the Aedui that the Romans had slaughtered the Aedui cavalry and presented “survivors” of this betrayal. News of this story reached Caesar who raced to the Aedui to expose the lies, but he was too late. The Aedui had already killed the Romans within their grasp. Caesar was in a truly desperate situation as he could not afford to lose the supplies provided by the Aedui, and so he forgave them.
Gergovia
The city of Gergovia proved to be a stalemate. Vercingetorix’s own city was situated on a hill, with several tribes in strategic defence positions. Attacking the city head on would be suicidal. Additionally, Caesar did not have the necessary resources to lay siege to the city. Considering how all of Gaul was watching the Roman leader’s every move, simply retreating would prove disastrous in terms of PR. Caesar needed just a minor victory before he could leave so as to not look like a coward.
One day, Caesar noticed that one area was barely guarded at all compared to previous days. A deserter from the enemy army explained that Vercingetorix was expecting an attack on the hill and was fortifying that area. Deciding to play on this, Caesar placed many slaves on pack horses and mules with helmets to make a mock cavalry. A few real cavalrymen were added to the mix to make them seem more convincing, and they were sent off on the hill to attract the Gauls’ attention. Caesar led the other legions to the poorly guarded area and gave the signal to attack. The terrain was difficult to fight on, but very few soldiers were nearby and so it made fighting easy.
When Vercingetorix realized that the other side of the city was being attacked, he sent his troops to the battle grounds. The Romans were tired by this time and confronting fresh opponents would prove to be difficult. The Romans suffered heavy losses while the Gauls chased them out of the city. Vercingetorix stopped his men from following the Romans to their camp least they suffer a reversal of fortune.
Caesar then challenged Vercingetorix to an open battle. Vercingetorix refused as he knew the Roman army was specially designed for such battles, and would certainly win. Caesar used this as proof that the enemy feared them to raise his soldier’s spirits before ordering the army to leave Gergovia.
Caesar’s retreating from Gergovia following the lost battle made the Gauls believe that Vercingetorix could actually win the war. Many tribes joined the rebellion, including the Aedui, Rome’s greatest ally. Caesar was left in the middle of enemy territory with few to no allies, few supplies, and an ever-growing army intent on destroying him. This would war was not going to be easy.
Reliability of the sources
Most of what we know about this period comes from Caesar’s Commentaries in which he tracks his tactics and progress throughout the campaigns. This work was written in the third person and was clearly used as propaganda to elevate himself. This is why most scholars agree that the numbers of the enemies are almost always exaggerated, and the number of dead Romans are always underrepresented. Caesar’s own writings are certainly not unbiased, but they are invaluable. Roman propaganda during this time period typically emphasized the strength and awesome power of the enemy, in order to make their defeat even more impressive.
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.
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