The History of Rome, Book V - Theodor Mommsen
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Retaliatory Expedition against the Eburones
Accounts had thus been settled with all the tribes that took part
in the rising; the Eburones alone were passed over but not forgotten.
Since Caesar had met with the disaster of Aduatuca, he had worn
mourning and had sworn that he would only lay it aside
when he should have avenged his soldiers, who had not fallen
in honourable war, but had been treacherously murdered.
Helpless and passive the Eburones sat in their huts and looked on
as the neighbouring cantons one after another submitted to the Romans,
till the Roman cavalry from the Treverian territory advanced
through the Ardennes into their land. So little were they prepared
for the attack, that the cavalry had almost seized the king
Ambiorix in his house; with great difficulty, while his attendants
sacrificed themselves on his behalf, he escaped into the neighbouring
thicket. Ten Roman legions soon followed the cavalry.
At the same time a summons was issued to the surrounding tribes
to hunt the outlawed Eburones and pillage their land in concert
with the Roman soldiers; not a few complied with the call, including
even an audacious band of Sugambrian horsemen from the other side
of the Rhine, who for that matter treated the Romans no better than
the Eburones, and had almost by a daring coup de main surprised
the Roman camp at Aduatuca. The fate of the Eburones was dreadful.
However they might hide themselves in forests and morasses,
there were more hunters than game. Many put themselves to death
like the gray-haired prince Catuvolcus; only a few saved life
and liberty, but among these few was the man whom the Romans sought
above all to seize, the prince Ambiorix; with but four horsemen
he escaped over the Rhine. This execution against the canton
which had transgressed above all the rest was followed in the other
districts by processes of high treason against individuals. The season
for clemency was past. At the bidding of the Roman proconsul
the eminent Carnutic knight Acco was beheaded by Roman lictors
(701) and the rule of the -fasces- was thus formally inaugurated.
Opposition was silent; tranquillity everywhere prevailed. Caesar
went as he was wont towards the end of the year (701) over the Alps,
that through the winter he might observe more closely
the daily-increasing complications in the capital.
Second Insurrection
The sagacious calculator had on this occasion miscalculated.
The fire was smothered, but not extinguished. The stroke,
under which the head of Acco fell, was felt by the whole Celtic nobility.
At this very moment the position of affairs presented better prospects
than ever. The insurrection of the last winter had evidently failed
only through Caesar himself appearing on the scene of action;
now he was at a distance, detained on the Po by the imminence
of civil war, and the Gallic army, which was collected on the upper Seine,
was far separated from its dreaded leader. If a general insurrection
now broke out in central Gaul, the Roman army might be surrounded,
and the almost undefended old Roman province be overrun before Caesar
reappeared beyond the Alps, even if the Italian complications
did not altogether prevent him from further concerning himself about Gaul.
The Carnutes
The Arverni
Conspirators from all the cantons of central Gaul assembled;
the Carnutes, as most directly affected by the execution of Acco,
offered to take the lead. On a set day in the winter of 701-702
the Carnutic knights Gutruatus and Conconnetodumnus gave at Cenabum
(Orleans) the signal for the rising, and put to death in a body
the Romans who happened to be there. The most vehement agitation
seized the length and breadth of the great Celtic land; the patriots
everywhere bestirred themselves. But nothing stirred the nation
so deeply as the insurrection of the Arverni. The government
of this community, which had formerly under its kings been the first
in southern Gaul, and had still after the fall of its principality
occasioned by the unfortunate wars against Rome(45) continued to be
one of the wealthiest, most civilized, and most powerful in all Gaul,
had hitherto inviolably adhered to Rome. Even now the patriot party
in the governing common council was in the minority; an attempt
to induce it to join the insurrection was in vain. The attacks
of the patriots were therefore directed against the common council
and the existing constitution itself; and the more so, that the change
of constitution which among the Arverni had substituted the common
council for the prince(46) had taken place after the victories
of the Romans and probably under their influence.
Vercingetorix
The leader of the Arvernian patriots Vercingetorix, one of those
nobles whom we meet with among the Celts, of almost regal repute
in and beyond his canton, and a stately, brave, sagacious man
to boot, left the capital and summoned the country people,
who were as hostile to the ruling oligarchy as to the Romans, at once
to re-establish the Arvernian monarchy and to go to war with Rome.
The multitude quickly joined him; the restoration of the throne
of Luerius and Betuitus was at the same time the declaration
of a national war against Rome. The centre of unity,
from the want of which all previous attempts of the nation
to shake off the foreign yoke had failed, was now found
in the new self-nominated king of the Arverni. Vercingetorix
became for the Celts of the continent what Cassivellaunus
was for the insular Celts; the feeling strongly pervaded the masses
that he, if any one, was the man to save the nation.
Spread of the Insurrection
Appearance of Caesar
The west from the mouth of the Garonne to that of the Seine
was rapidly infected by the insurrection, and Vercingetorix
was recognized by all the cantons there as commander-in-chief;
where the common council made any difficulty, the multitude compelled
it to join the movement; only a few cantons, such as that
of the Bituriges, required compulsion to join it, and these perhaps
only for appearance' sake. The insurrection found a less favourable
soil in the regions to the east of the upper Loire. Everything
here depended on the Haedui; and these wavered. The patriotic
party was very strong in this canton; but the old antagonism
to the leading of the Arverni counterbalanced their influence--
to the most serious detriment of the insurrection, as the accession
of the eastern cantons, particularly of the Sequani and Helvetii,
was conditional on the accession of the Haedui, and generally
in this part of Gaul the decision rested with them. While the insurgents
were thus labouring partly to induce the cantons that still
hesitated, especially the Haedui, to join them, partly to get
possession of Narbo--one of their leaders, the daring Lucterius,
had already appeared on the Tarn within the limits of the old
province--the Roman commander-in-chief suddenly presented himself
in the depth of winter, unexpected alike by friend and foe,
on this side of the Alps. He quickly made the necessary preparations
to cover the old province, and not only so, but sent also a corps
over the snow-covered Cevennes into the Arvernian territory;
but he could not remain here, where the accession of the Haedui
to the Gallic alliance might any moment cut him off from his army
encamped about Sens and Langres. With all secrecy he went to Vienna,
and thence, attended by only a few horsemen, through the territory
of the Haedui to his troops. The hopes, which had induced
the conspirators to declare themselves, vanished; peace continued
in Italy, and Caesar stood once more at the head of his army.
The Gallic Plan of War
But what were they to do? It was folly under such circumstances
to let the matter come to the decision of arms; for these had already
decidedly irrevocably. They might as well attempt to shake
the Alps by throwing stones at them as to shake the legions by means
of the Celtic bands, whether these might be congregated in huge
masses or sacrificed in detail canton after canton. Vercingetorix
despaired of defeating the Romans. He adopted a system of warfare
similar to that by which Cassivellaunus had saved the insular
Celts. The Roman infantry was not to be vanquished; but Caesar's
cavalry consisted almost exclusively of the contingent
of the Celtic nobility, and was practically dissolved by the general
revolt. It was possible for the insurrection, which was in fact
essentially composed of the Celtic nobility, to develop such
a superiority in this arm, that it could lay waste the land far
and wide, burn down towns and villages, destroy the magazines,
and endanger the supplies and the communications of the enemy,
without his being able seriously to hinder it. Vercingetorix
accordingly directed all his efforts to the increase of his cavalry,
and of the infantry-archers who were according to the mode of fighting
of that time regularly associated with it. He did not send the immense
and self-obstructing masses of the militia of the line to their homes,
but he did not allow them to face the enemy, and attempted
to impart to them gradually some capacity of intrenching, marching,
and manoeuvring, and some perception that the soldier is not destined
merely for hand-to-hand combat. Learning from the enemy, he adopted
in particular the Roman system of encampment, on which depended
the whole secret of the tactical superiority of the Romans;
for in consequence of it every Roman corps combined all the advantages
of the garrison of a fortress with all the advantages of an offensive
army.(47) It is true that a system completely adapted to Britain
which had few towns and to its rude, resolute, and on the whole
united inhabitants was not absolutely transferable to the rich
regions on the Loire and their indolent inhabitants on the eve
of utter political dissolution. Vercingetorix at least accomplished
this much, that they did not attempt as hitherto to hold every
town with the result of holding none; they agreed to destroy
the townships not capable of defence before attack reached them,
but to defend with all their might the strong fortresses. At the same
time the Arvernian king did what he could to bind to the cause of their
country the cowardly and backward by stern severity, the hesitating
by entreaties and representations, the covetous by gold, the decided
opponents by force, and to compel or allure the rabble high or low
to some manifestation of patriotism.
Beginning of the Struggle
Even before the winter was at an end, he threw himself on the Boii
settled by Caesar in the territory of the Haedui, with the view
of annihilating these, almost the sole trustworthy allies of Rome,
before Caesar came up. The news of this attack induced Caesar,
leaving behind the baggage and two legions in the winter quarters
of Agedincum (Sens), to march immediately and earlier than he would
doubtless otherwise have done, against the insurgents. He remedied
the sorely-felt want of cavalry and light infantry in some measure
by gradually bringing up German mercenaries, who instead of using
their own small and weak ponies were furnished with Italian
and Spanish horses partly bought, partly procured by requisition
of the officers. Caesar, after having by the way caused Cenabum,
the capital of the Carnutes, which had given the signal for the revolt,
to be pillaged and laid in ashes, moved over the Loire
into the country of the Bituriges. He thereby induced Vercingetorix
to abandon the siege of the town of the Boii, and to resort likewise
to the Bituriges. Here the new mode of warfare was first to be
tried. By order of Vercingetorix more than twenty townships
of the Bituriges perished in the flames on one day; the general
decreed a similar self-devastation as to the neighbour cantons,
so far as they could be reached by the Roman foraging parties.
Caesar before Arvaricum
According to his intention, Avaricum (Bourges), the rich
and strong capital of the Bituriges, was to meet the same fate;
but the majority of the war-council yielded to the suppliant entreaties
of the Biturigian authorities, and resolved rather to defend that city
with all their energy. Thus the war was concentrated in the first
instance around Avaricum, Vercingetorix placed his infantry amidst
the morasses adjoining the town in a position so unapproachable,
that even without being covered by the cavalry they needed not
to fear the attack of the legions. The Celtic cavalry covered
all the roads and obstructed the communication. The town was strongly
garrisoned, and the connection between it and the army before
the walls was kept open. Caesar's position was very awkward.
The attempt to induce the Celtic infantry to fight was unsuccessful;
it stirred not from its unassailable lines. Bravely as his soldiers
in front of the town trenched and fought, the besieged vied
with them in ingenuity and courage, and they had almost succeeded
in setting fire to the siege apparatus of their opponents.
The task withal of supplying an army of nearly 60,000 men
with provisions in a country devastated far and wide and scoured
by far superior bodies of cavalry became daily more difficult.
The slender stores of the Boii were soon used up; the supply promised
by the Haedui failed to appear; the corn was already consumed,
and the soldier was placed exclusively on flesh-rations.
But the moment was approaching when the town, with whatever contempt
of death the garrison fought, could be held no longer. Still it was
not impossible to withdraw the troops secretly by night and destroy
the town, before the enemy occupied it. Vercingetorix made
arrangements for this purpose, but the cry of distress raised
at the moment of evacuation by the women and children left behind
attracted the attention of the Romans; the departure miscarried.
Avaricum Conquered
Caesar Divides His Army
On the following gloomy and rainy day the Romans scaled the walls,
and, exasperated by the obstinate defence, spared neither age
nor sex in the conquered town. The ample stores, which the Celts had
accumulated in it, were welcome to the starved soldiers of Caesar.
With the capture of Avaricum (spring of 702), a first success
had been achieved over the insurrection, and according to former
experience Caesar might well expect that it would now dissolve,
and that it would only be requisite to deal with the cantons
individually. After he had therefore shown himself with his
whole army in the canton of the Haedui and had by this imposing
demonstration compelled the patriot party in a ferment there
to keep quiet at least for the moment, he divided his army and sent
Labienus back to Agedincum, that in combination with the troops
left there he might at the head of four legions suppress
in the first instance the movement in the territory of the Carnutes
and Senones, who on this occasion once more took the lead;
while he himself with the six remaining legions turned to the south
and prepared to carry the war into the Arvernian mountains, the proper
territory of Vercingetorix.
Labienus before Lutetia
Labienus moved from Agedincum up the left bank of the Seine with
a view to possess himself of Lutetia (Paris), the town of the Parisii
situated on an island in the Seine, and from this well-secured
position in the heart of the insurgent country to reduce it again
to subjection. But behind Melodunum (Melun), he found his route
barred by the whole army of the insurgents, which had here taken
up a position between unassailable morasses under the leadership
of the aged Camulogenus. Labienus retreated a certain distance,
crossed the Seine at Melodunum, and moved up its right bank
unhindered towards Lutetia; Camulogenus caused this town to be
burnt and the bridges leading to the left bank to be broken down,
and took up a position over against Labienus, in which the latter
could neither bring him to battle nor effect a passage
under the eyes of the hostile army.
Caesar before Gergovia
Fruitless Blockade
The Roman main army in its turn advanced along the Allier down
into the canton of the Arverni. Vercingetorix attempted to prevent
it from crossing to the left bank of the Allier, but Caesar
overreached him and after some days stood before the Arvernian
capital Gergovia.(48) Vercingetorix, however, doubtless even while
he was confronting Caesar on the Allier, had caused sufficient
stores to be collected in Gergovia and a fixed camp provided
with strong stone ramparts to be constructed for his troops in front
of the walls of the town, which was situated on the summit of a pretty
steep hill; and, as he had a sufficient start, he arrived before
Caesar at Gergovia and awaited the attack in the fortified camp
under the wall of the fortress. Caesar with his comparatively
weak army could neither regularly besiege the place nor even
sufficiently blockade it; he pitched his camp below the rising
ground occupied by Vercingetorix, and was compelled to preserve
an attitude as inactive as his opponent. It was almost a victory
for the insurgents, that Caesar's career of advance from triumph
to triumph had been suddenly checked on the Seine as on the Allier.
In fact the consequences of this check for Caesar were almost
equivalent to those of a defeat.
The Haedui Waver
The Haedui, who had hitherto continued vacillating, now made
preparations in earnest to join the patriotic party; the body
of men, whom Caesar had ordered to Gergovia, had on the march been
induced by its officers to declare for the insurgents; at the same
time they had begun in the canton itself to plunder and kill
the Romans settled there. Caesar, who had gone with two-thirds
of the blockading army to meet that corps of the Haedui which was being
brought up to Gergovia, had by his sudden appearance recalled it
to nominal obedience; but it was more than ever a hollow and fragile
relation, the continuance of which had been almost too dearly
purchased by the great peril of the two legions left behind
in front of Gergovia. For Vercingetorix, rapidly and resolutely
availing himself of Caesar's departure, had during his absence
made an attack on them, which had wellnigh ended in their
being overpowered, and the Roman camp being taken by storm.
Caesar's unrivalled celerity alone averted a second catastrophe
like that of Aduatuca. Though the Haedui made once more fair
promises, it might be foreseen that, if the blockade should still
be prolonged without result, they would openly range themselves
on the side of the insurgents and would thereby compel Caesar to raise
it; for their accession would interrupt the communication between
him and Labienus, and expose the latter especially in his isolation
to the greatest peril. Caesar was resolved not to let matters come
to this pass, but, however painful and even dangerous it was
to retire from Gergovia without having accomplished his object,
nevertheless, if it must be done, rather to set out immediately
and by marching into the canton of the Haedui to prevent
at any cost their formal desertion.
Caesar Defeated before Gergovia
Before entering however on this retreat, which was far
from agreeable to his quick and confident temperament, he made
yet a last attempt to free himself from his painful perplexity
by a brilliant success. While the bulk of the garrison of Gergovia
was occupied in intrenching the side on which the assault
was expected, the Roman general watched his opportunity to surprise
another access less conveniently situated but at the moment
left bare. In reality the Roman storming columns scaled the camp-wall,
and occupied the nearest quarters of the camp; but the whole garrison
was already alarmed, and owing to the small distances Caesar found
it not advisable to risk the second assault on the city-wall.
He gave the signal for retreat; but the foremost legions, carried
away by the impetuosity of victory, heard not or did not wish to hear,
and pushed forward without halting, up to the city-wall, some even
into the city. But masses more and more dense threw themselves
in front of the intruders; the foremost fell, the columns stopped;
in vain centurions and legionaries fought with the most devoted
and heroic courage; the assailants were chased with very considerable
loss out of the town and down the hill, where the troops stationed
by Caesar in the plain received them and prevented greater
mischief. The expected capture of Gergovia had been converted
into a defeat, and the considerable loss in killed and wounded--
there were counted 700 soldiers that had fallen, including 46
centurions--was the least part of the misfortune suffered.
Renewed Insurrection
Rising of the Haedui
Rising of the Belgae
The imposing position of Caesar in Gaul depended essentially
on the halo of victory that surrounded him; and this began to grow pale.
The conflicts around Avaricum, Caesar's vain attempts to compel
the enemy to fight, the resolute defence of the city and its almost
accidental capture by storm bore a stamp different from that
of the earlier Celtic wars, and had strengthened rather than impaired
the confidence of the Celts in themselves and their leader.
Moreover, the new system of warfare--the making head against the enemy
in intrenched camps under the protection of fortresses--had completely
approved itself at Lutetia as well as at Gergovia. Lastly,
this defeat, the first which Caesar in person had suffered
from the Celts crowned their success, and it accordingly gave
as it were the signal for a second outbreak of the insurrection.
The Haedui now broke formally with Caesar and entered into union
with Vercingetorix. Their contingent, which was still with Caesar's
army, not only deserted from it, but also took occasion to carry
off the depots of the army of Caesar at Noviodunum on the Loire,
whereby the chests and magazines, a number of remount-horses,
and all the hostages furnished to Caesar, fell into the hands
of the insurgents. It was of at least equal importance,
that on this news the Belgae, who had hitherto kept aloof
from the whole movement, began to bestir themselves. The powerful
canton of the Bellovaci rose with the view of attacking
in the rear the corps of Labienus, while it confronted
at Lutetia the levy of the surrounding cantons of central Gaul.
Everywhere else too men were taking to arms; the strength
of patriotic enthusiasm carried along with it even the most
decided and most favoured partisans of Rome, such as Commius
king of the Atrebates, who on account of his faithful services had
received from the Romans important privileges for his community
and the hegemony over the Morini. The threads of the insurrection
ramified even into the old Roman province: they cherished the hope,
perhaps not without ground, of inducing the Allobroges themselves
to take arms against the Romans. With the single exception
of the Remi and of the districts--dependent immediately on the Remi--
of the Suessiones, Leuci, and Lingones, whose peculiar isolation
was not affected even amidst this general enthusiasm, the whole Celtic
nation from the Pyrenees to the Rhine was now in reality,
for the first and for the last time, in arms for its freedom
and nationality; whereas, singularly enough, the whole German
communities, who in the former struggles had held the foremost
rank, kept aloof. In fact, the Treveri, and as it would seem
the Menapii also, were prevented by their feuds with the Germans
from taking an active part in the national war.
Caesar's Plan of War
Caesar Unites with Labienus
It was a grave and decisive moment, when after the retreat
from Gergovia and the loss of Noviodunum a council of war was held
in Caesar's headquarters regarding the measures now to be adopted.
Various voices expressed themselves in favour of a retreat over
the Cevennes into the old Roman province, which now lay open
on all sides to the insurrection and certainly was in urgent need
of the legions that had been sent from Rome primarily for its
protection. But Caesar rejected this timid strategy suggested
not by the position of affairs, but by government-instructions
and fear of responsibility. He contented himself with calling
the general levy of the Romans settled in the province to arms,
and having the frontiers guarded by that levy to the best of its
ability. On the other hand he himself set out in the opposite
direction and advanced by forced marches to Agedincum, to which
he ordered Labienus to retreat in all haste. The Celts naturally
endeavoured to prevent the junction of the two Roman armies.
Labienus might by crossing the Marne and marching down the right bank
of the Seine have reached Agedincum, where he had left his reserve
and his baggage; but he preferred not to allow the Celts
again to behold the retreat of Roman troops. He therefore
instead of crossing the Marne crossed the Seine under the eyes
of the deluded enemy, and on its left bank fought a battle
with the hostile forces, in which he conquered, and among many others
the Celtic general himself, the old Camulogenus, was left on the field.
Nor were the insurgents more successful in detaining Caesar
on the Loire; Caesar gave them no time to assemble larger masses there,
and without difficulty dispersed the militia of the Haedui,
which alone he found at that point