Vercingetorix (52 to 50 B.C.E.)

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In the dead of winter, deep in the forest, the leaders of some of the largest tribes in Gaul met at a sacred grove. Together, they discussed Ambiorix's revolt from the previous year. Some of those present had supported the revolt by sending fighters or supplies, while others had decided to sit back and see how it all played out. But as we know, after some initial success, the revolt had gone down in defeat. The Gallic tribes had been curious to see whether this would be a wake up call to the Romans, but it was kind of the opposite. Caesar doubled down, and attacked any tribal leader that didn't show him blind loyalty. He indiscriminately killed and enslaved Gallic civilians. It was a brutal show of force. Now, the Gallic leadership was in agreement. Caesar was clearly laying the groundwork for full annexation. The time for secrecy was coming to a end. Together, the tribal leaders swore a sacred oath. Gallic independence, or death. Nothing else. The tribes would formally unite against the Roman invaders. One of the people present at this meeting was a tribal leader named Vercingetorix. In only a few months, this man would rise to become the leader of a united Gallic army. It was no coincidence that as soon as these Gallic leaders returned home, things started happening. A Roman trading outpost in central Gaul was stormed, and its inhabitants were massacred. "Coincidentally," a bunch of small Gallic tribes with ties to Caesar suddenly came under attack at the same time. Caesar's right hand man Labienus was in charge of the legions while Caesar was gone south for the winter. When reports of these attacks started coming in, Labienus's had a pretty lazy response. He kept the Roman soldiers in their winter quarters, and instead sent Rome's strongest Gallic ally to go and deal with the problem. These Gauls dutifully marched off, but after a few days they turned around and came back home, claiming that the countryside was too dangerous. That's a thin excuse, if you ask me. It's telling that even Rome's strongest Gallic ally was suddenly unwilling to lift a finger against their fellow Gauls. Back in Roman territory, Caesar was watching the reports come in with growing concern. It was still winter, but just to be on the safe side, he decided to head back north early. As he was making preperations to leave, he learned that there was a Gallic army marching toward Narbo, the largest city in Transalpine Gaul. This was a big deal. Narbo was a major Roman city. If Caesar couldn't prevent attacks like this, the entire rationale behind his intervention into Gaul was thrown into question. The legions in Gaul were too far away, so Caesar grabbed some untrained raw recruits and some people from the local militia, and marched to Narbo's aid. At this time the Alps had a reputation for being impassable during the winter, but after some hard work, Caesar's men were able to clear a path through one of the passes. When the Gauls approaching Narbo heard that a Roman army had made it through the Alps, they pulled back. Caesar reached Narbo, and then sent out his horsemen all over the countryside to cause as much disruption as possible. He hoped that this would convince the Gauls that he had a proper army with him, and not a ragtag group of idiots who couldn't hold their own in a fight. Just to reiterate, three things had just happened. First, Roman merchants in Gaul were being rounded up and massacred. Second, Rome's Gallic allies were under attack. Third, the Gauls were threatening Roman territory for the first time in years. These things had to be related. Gaul was obviously on the march, and Caesar was stuck hundreds of kilometers from his legions. Caesar left Narbo behind, and headed north, accompanied by only a small group of bodyguards. One of our ancient sources makes a passing reference to Caesar riding through enemy territory disguised as a Gaul. There's no context given to this anecdote, so we don't know when it happened, but I read one historian that makes a convincing argument that it happened here. Anyway, the small group rode with urgency, and after several tense and exhausting days, Caesar reunited with his legions. He mobilized all 10 legions, and ordered two - presumably the two inexperienced ones - to guard their food stockpile. Remember, it was still winter, and the Gauls who usually supplied the Romans were under attack. This meant that the food that the Romans had set aside for the winter might have to last them all year. It had to be protected at all costs. Caesar took the remaining 8 legions, and marched straight into central Gaul. By this time all of the internal conflict within the Gallic alliance had been resolved, and Vercingetorix had emerged as the unrivaled leader of a united Gallic army. The Gauls were lucky to have him. Vercingetorix was a brilliant guy, and a student of Roman warfare. He knew how to defeat the Romans. Vercingetorix's strategy was basically the Fabian strategy. The Fabian Strategy is all about attrition. The goal is for one army to deprive the other of food, supplies, and reinforcements, until they become beatable on the battlefield. In short, Vercingetorix's goal was to make Caesar's life as miserable as possible. So when Caesar marched into central Gaul, Vercingetorix ordered over 20 nearby towns evacuated. People were allowed to take whatever they could carry, but anything left behind was burned. Vercingetorix's opening move was to go full scorched earth. Caesar had to be denied the ability to resupply. The refugees flocked to the largest settlement in the region, the fortified city of Avaricum. Caesar and his legions advanced toward the city, and Vercingetorix and his united Gallic army shadowed him. Avaricum was said to be impregnable. The city was protected by strong, high walls, as well as marshes on 3 sides. These marshes were a nightmare for any besieging army, since it was virtually impossible to stop people from sneaking through the marshes whenever they pleased. Even under siege, Avaricum could remain supplied indefinitely. The city would need to be taken by force. The Romans built their camp on the only side of the city with dry land, and settled in. This is known to history as the Siege of Avaricum, and it was miserable. The whole thing would last 27 days, and it would rain the entire time. Caesar ordered his men to begin building two siege towers, and a gigantic wooden frame upon which the Romans could build a ramp out of earth and mud. Once completed, this ramp would allow the Romans to charge up and over the walls of Avaricum. But because of the torrential rain, construction ran into difficulties. At some point during this process, the Romans officially ran out of food. I don't mean they were forced to cut rations, I mean they ate their last meal, and then they were literally out of food. Vercingetorix really hit the nail on the head when he prevented Caesar from looting those towns. Now, the Romans were beginning the slow process of starving to death, and the nearest food was inside the walls of Avaricum. That was a bad place to be. Caesar sent foraging parties out in the rain and the mud, to try to find something edible to take the edge off. When Vercingetorix noticed this, he moved his army nice and close to the Romans, and sent out Gallic patrols all over the countryside, which denied the Romans the ability to forage. Vercingetorix's goal of "making Caesar's life as miserable as possible" was going great so far! Understandably, this made the Romans pretty upset. They to provoke the Gallic army into attacking them, but Vercingetorix didn't take the bait. All he had to do was sit back and wait for the Romans to make a mistake. Now you may be asking yourself, if Caesar's legions were starving, why didn't he send for the food that he was keeping under guard back east? If Caesar sent for it now, Vercingetorix would do everything in his power to intercept the shipment. That food had to last the Romans all year, if they lost it now they would be forced to pull out of Gaul entirely. Still, I think it's reasonable to second guess Caesar's decision to leave the food behind. If he regretted this, he had plenty of time to sit around and beat himself up over it. But despite their hunger, and the relentless rain, the Romans almost finished construction. Vercingetorix could see this, so he turned to his army and asked for 10,000 volunteers. He sent them around the Romans, and through the marsh, into the city. With the help of Vercingetorix's men, the defenders of Avaricum began to improve their defenses. As the Roman ramp approached the height of the wall, the Gauls inside Avaricum began to use wooden planks to extend their wall even higher. It was now a race to see which army could build faster. This back and forth extended the siege for several days. Then, in the middle of the night, the Romans on guard duty discovered to their dismay that their ramp was smoldering, and sinking into the ground. The Gauls were getting creative, and after digging a tunnel under their walls, had had started a fire from underneath the ramp. The wooden frame was slowly starting to cave in on itself. Very clever. Without warning, the Gauls burst from the gates. They were carrying torches and buckets of tar. They started to set all of the Roman siege equipment on fire. If they could completely destroy the ramp tonight, the Romans would be done for. The Romans on guard duty quickly pulled the siege towers back to safety, and then rushed forward to defend the ramp. The rest of the army was roused from sleep, and scrambled to help. The two sides spent the rest of the night fighting for control of the ramp, with the Gauls setting fire and the Romans frantically putting them out. It was chaos. When the sun rose the next day, the ramp was singed and sagging, but still functional. The Romans spent all day patching it up and raising it the last couple of feet. By the time the sun set, they were finally ready to begin the assault. The next day the rain was horrendous. The ground turned into one giant puddle, and every soldier had to fight against the thick, nasty mud with every step. No sane person would take an army out in this. Caesar decided to go ahead with the assault anyway. Remember, the Romans were starving to death. They couldn't give the Gauls another opportunity to destroy their equipment. They had to go now. The Romans fought their way up the ramp and onto the walls of Avaricum. Apparently the Gauls were not expecting an attack in this kind of weather, but nevertheless, they rallied, and fell back to a second defensive line, down on the city streets. Instead of following, the Romans stayed up on the walls, and spread out, eventually surrounding the defenders down below. Each Roman legionary carried two javelins, and this was a pretty good time to use them. The Gauls down on the street could see that escape was no longer an option. After enduring an onslaught of projectiles from the Romans, they started to lose hope. Many ran off to hide in their homes. The Romans came down off the walls, and easily crushed the remaining resistance. Then, the legionaries roamed the streets, and indiscriminately slaughtered civilians. Virtually all of the city's inhabitants were killed. Caesar made no attempt to stop them. With the Romans victorious and recovering their strength in the city, Vercingetorix decided to pull back. He was certainly disappointed with the loss of Avaricum, but he was playing the long game. The Romans had paid a heavy price to take the city. Vercingetorix would sit back and wait until Caesar made his next move. It was now officially springtime, and with Vercingetorix's army out of his hair, Caesar was finally able to send for the two legions back east, and the food that they were guarding. Caesar then took a gamble, and sent a message to Rome's strongest - and last - Gallic ally, asking if they could spare any food. Except he probably didn't phrase it like that, because all Romans were patronizing jerks. This tribe was unreliable. Remember, this was the same tribe that had refused to take up arms against their fellow Gauls earlier in the year. Nevertheless they told Caesar that they would see what they could do. When the legions arrived from the east, Caesar divided his army into two. He gave four legions to his right hand man Labienus, and ordered him to march north. Caesar would take the remaining 6 legions and march south. Between the two of them, maybe they could put an end to this revolt by the end of summer. To the south, Caesar's main target was the Gallic city of Gergovia. This was Vercingetorix's home town, and the capital city of his tribe. If the Gauls lost here, it would be a huge symbolic defeat. As Caesar marched south, Vercingetorix began shadowing his army again, harassing it whenever he could. When Caesar reached Gergovia, he slowly started to realize that this might be tougher than Avaricum. The city of Gergovia had strong walls, and was located on a giant raised plateau surrounded by hills. On the slope leading up to the plateau sat Vercingetorix and 30,000 of his closest friends. Remember, Caesar's food situation was still a problem. They had their supplies from the east, but if that was going to last it had to be supplemented by looting and foraging. They couldn't afford to just sit around for the whole summer. They had a food shipment on its way from their Gallic allies, but these guys were unreliable, so who knew when they would show up. All things considered, they would probably have to to storm the city like last time, which was risky. But before doing that, they would have to fight this Gallic army standing in their way. Uphill. Yeah, this was gonna be ugly. After doing some reconnaissance, Caesar realized that there was Gallic garrison on top of a small hill nearby. Caesar launched a nighttime raid to capture the hill, and was successful. Once they had the hill, the Romans figured out that the garrison had been protecting a small stream, which served as Gergovia's only water source. The Romans cut off the stream, and dug a long defensive trench from the hill all the way back to the Roman camp. Now, the Gauls would have to act, and the Romans were ready for them. But then, a messenger arrived from the northeast. He told Caesar that there was a problem with the food shipment. The Gallic tribe that was going to deliver it - Rome's last Gallic ally - had turned on the them without warning. They were massacring any Romans they could find. This was a bigger deal than you might think. The food shipment were protected by thousands of Gallic cavalry, and now they were threatening the Roman rear. This was bad. After some consideration, Caesar marched off with 4 legions, leaving two behind to continue the siege. By nightfall, he tracked down his rogue Gallic allies. When the Gauls saw Caesar coming, they sent a representative forward, claiming that it was all a misunderstanding. They had received some bad information, and had believed that Caesar was slaughtering members of their tribe. Do you buy this? I don't buy it. This was the same tribe that had refused to march against their fellow Gauls. It seems clear to me that they were at least sympathetic to Vercingetorix's cause, and were looking for an excuse to jump ship. Caesar had no way of knowing if he was being lied to, and frankly he didn't really have time to figure it out. He told the Gauls that if they wanted to prove their loyalty, they could come with him and join the siege. So the next morning Caesar's four legions returned with several thousand semi-treacherous Gauls. When he got back to the siege, he was told that the two legions he had left behind had been under constant attack from the moment he left. They held their ground, but they'd had a rough 24 hours. There were also new developments on the slope leading up to the city. There was a brand new stone wall there, 6 feet high. Also, like half of the Gallic army was missing. Caesar asked one of his legates where everybody went, and the legate said that the Gauls had been systematically fortifying all of the surrounding hills, and were preparing to flank the Roman position. Apart from Labienus, the legates under Caesar's command were not exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer. Two legates thought it was appropriate to sit back and do nothing while the Gauls completed a major piece of construction and occupied all of the high ground. Pretty negligent. That night, Caesar sent his cavalry into the hills. He had them ride back and forth and make as much noise as possible. He wanted to draw the Gauls' attention, and it worked. The next day, he sent his cavalry out to do the same thing, followed by one of his legions. The Gauls believed that this was an all-out attack on the hills, and moved to intercept them. While they were distracted, Caesar silently sent the rest of his legions forward to attack the half-strength Gallic army sitting on the plateau in front of the city. The Gauls on the plateau didn't even realize that the Romans were attacking until they were right on top of them. The legionaries were able to help each other over the stone wall without much difficulty, and before the Gauls could were able to mount a defense the Romans were running amok in their camp. The Gauls on the hills quickly figured out what was happening. They immediately turned away from the decoy cavalry, and started flooding down the hills to meet the Romans on the plateau. When Caesar saw the Gauls coming down the hills, he sounded the signal to retreat. But, half of his men didn't hear the signal, and continued moving forward. The Gauls from the hills crashed into the oblivious Romans, who took heavy losses. They eventually realized that they were out there on their own with no support, and pulled back to rejoin the rest of the Roman army. Caesar says in his commentaries that 700 Roman soldiers died because of this mistake, but later historians have argued that it was probably several thousand. Caesar tries his best to deflect blame for this, calling his men overeager and overconfident, but obviously this was Caesar's fault. It would have been clever if it worked, but the Gauls were too quick. Vercingetorix was making an effort impose some much needed discipline on the Gallic army, and obviously this was starting to pay off. When news spread of Caesar's defeat at Gergovia, Rome's last Gallic ally finally flipped, and went over to Vercingetorix. The Gallic cavalry accompanying Caesar unceremoniously rode off, and any Romans that were found in that tribe's territory were rounded up and killed. Gaul was now united in its opposition to Caesar. Up north, Labienus had actually been pretty successful, and had a few small victories under his belt. Caesar marched north to regroup with him, and caught up somewhere near the Seine river. Together, the 10 legions marched south again. Around this time there started to be reports that a Gallic army was marching toward Transalpine Gaul again, which was a bad sign. Caesar decided to ignore these reports and focus his attention on Vercingetorix and his army. As he was marching south, Caesar sent ambassadors to a bunch of German tribes, politely asking if they would loan him some cavalry. Kinda hypocritical on his part, since whenever the Gauls did this he treated it like a war crime. Some of these tribes were still interested in staying on Caesar's good side, and were glad to help. We don't know the exact number, but maybe a couple thousand horsemen crossed the Rhine to join Caesar's army. While this was going on, Vercingetorix leveraged his victory at Gergovia to squeeze an additional 15,000 cavalry from the tribes under him. Vercingetorix had an idea. He wanted to use some of his new cavalry to overwhelm Caesar's column as it was marching south. He selected his cavalry, and made them swear an oath that they would not return home until they had ridden twice through the Roman column. The Gauls found Caesar's column, and before the Romans even knew what was happening, they charged. They attacked in three large groups, and the Romans responded by frantically getting into three impromptu squares. To their credit, the Roman infantry held their ground against this wave of cavalry. Caesar's new German cavalry was significantly outnumbered, but they were able to use the Roman squares as protection, behind which they could launch hit and run attacks. The Gauls suffered more losses than they had expected, and after a time they pulled back. Vercingetorix decided to regroup at a city called Alesia. Some of you may have heard of the Battle of Alesia, because I did a video on it, all the way back in dinosaur times. If you want a detailed account of what happened, I would encourage you to go and watch that. There will be a link at the end of this video. But for the time being, here's a 1 minute version. Caesar arrived at Alesia and quickly realized that the army inside the walls outnumbered his. He constructed an elaborate series of walls that encircled the entire hillside. This was impressive. But before construction was complete, Vercingetorix sent messengers all over Gaul, asking for assistance. Caesar didn't want to be attacked by a second army, so he built a second series of walls facing outward. This was even more impressive. Eventually, a giant Gallic relief army showed up, and now Caesar was outnumbered at least 3 to 1. On the first day both armies attacked, but the Romans repulsed them. Then the relief army tried to attack at night, but that also didn't work. The next day both armies attacked for a third and final time, and they broke through the outer wall. It got really bad, but in desperation, Caesar lead a cavalry charge around the outer wall and hit the Gauls in the rear, which threw them into chaos. The Gallic relief army fled, and the next day, Vercingetorix surrendered. Phew! When Vercingetorix surrendered, he put on some beautiful ceremonial armour, and rode out of the city. He circled the Roman camp on horseback, then dismounted, stripped off his armour, and sat silently on the ground. The Romans came forward and took him into custody. He would their prisoner for the next 6 years. Over the course of history, Vercingetorix's status in the popular imagination has evolved. For a long time he was considered a minor historical figure, who briefly had his moment in the sun. And then, with the invention of nationalism in the 19th century, French artists began to look back for hints of their national identity in the ancient world. What they discovered was somebody who lead a war in the defence of liberty against that tyrant Julius Caesar. That's how we get paintings like "Vercingetorix," by Henri-Paul Motte. He shows us Vercingetorix's surrender, in front of a French landscape destroyed by the Roman war machine. The Romans in the foreground look sickly and pale, while Vercingetorix sits defiantly atop his horse in golden armour. His hair blows in the breeze like some sort of Greek hero. Blood and discarded Roman weapons litter the ground at his feet. In the distance we see Caesar, menacingly watching on, from some kind of makeshift throne. And here, we get another version of the same event, with "Vercingetorix throws down his arms at the feet of Caesar," by Lionel Royer. Vercingetorix gets a hero's treatment once more, and remains on horseback, even in defeat. His weapons have been thrown to the ground, but if we look closely we see a Roman shield down there too, which offers us a hint of past Gallic victories. By the way, in case we were confused as to who the bad guys were in this painting, look at these faces. One more. Here's "Vercingetorix calls the Gauls to the defence of Alesia," by Francois Emile Ehrmann. Here we've abandoned all pretense. Vercingetorix is just blatantly shown as a young hero straight out of Greek mythology. Instead of wearing a lion skin like Heracles, he's wearing a wolf skin, which makes us think of Rome. He seems to have the support of the people, and of the gods, but this guy knows that it ends in defeat. Speaking of Vercingetorix's defeat, once news of it spread throughout Gaul, most of the remaining Gallic armies disappeared, including that one marching toward Roman territory to the south. Every tribe in Gaul sent ambassadors to Caesar, officially offering their surrender. The Romans were going to be in Gaul for the foreseeable future. The next year, some of the survivors of Alesia regrouped in the city of... (oh boy...) Uxellodunum, in southwestern Gaul, where support for the Romans was the weakest. The Romans besieged the city for most of the year, and eventually figured out how to poison the water supply, after which the Gauls surrendered. In the aftermath, Caesar was particularly cruel. He gathered up everybody from Uxellodunum who had taken up arms against him, and cut off both of their hands. Then, he just released them. This would be Caesar's last atrocity in Gaul. As we wrap up, I just want to take a moment and talk in general terms about the Gallic Wars. The whole thing took place over like 8 or so years, and it might have been the most disruptive thing that ever happened to this region. Plutarch makes the claim that over this period, the Romans killed a million Gauls and sold another million into slavery. Some estimate that this could have accounted a fifth of Gaul's total population. The demographic consequences of this cannot be overstated. It would take centuries for Roman Gaul to return to its pre-invasion population levels. Some historians argue that the best way to describe what happened during the Gallic Wars is to use the word genocide. The use of that word makes others upset, but I don't think there's any question that Caesar deliberately targeted specific Gallic tribes for the purpose of making them cease to exist. He deliberately destroyed Gallic demographics. If that's not genocide, I don't know what is. Anyway, by the year 50 B.C.E. Caesar would extend the boarders of the nearest Roman province all the way north to the English Channel, west to the Atlantic Ocean, and east to the Rhine river. We don't know exactly when this change went into effect, or if he even bothered to ask for Senate approval before doing it, but we know that by the end of Caesar's term as governor, Gaul was officially paying taxes into the Roman treasury. Despite the heroic struggle of the Gallic tribes, full annexation had gone into effect.
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Channel: Historia Civilis
Views: 1,373,291
Rating: 4.9329152 out of 5
Keywords: Historia Civilis, Historical Videos, Educational, Education, History, Ancient Rome, Ancient History, Vercingetorix, Julius Caesar, Caesar, Roman Republic
Id: lMFiED6sAi8
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Length: 30min 9sec (1809 seconds)
Published: Mon Jul 31 2017
Reddit Comments

Vercingetorix is one of the most badass names ever

👍︎︎ 175 👤︎︎ u/HorseNspaghettiPizza 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

These are getting longer and better. Really great stuff

👍︎︎ 409 👤︎︎ u/Professor_ZombieKill 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

Historia Civilis and Baz Battles are the best channels out there for your dose of boxes killing other boxes

👍︎︎ 1204 👤︎︎ u/Rebumai 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

This Youtube channel will go down in history!

👍︎︎ 289 👤︎︎ u/disguys 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

Those 30 minutes went by fast, great video!

👍︎︎ 111 👤︎︎ u/SIMWAK 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

I can't fucking wait for him to finally get to the periods were Rome began to crumble. I am really looking forward to his take on this, the hundred year of civil war, Germanic invasions, the foederati and basically how Rome itself invited the Barbarians into it, until they decided to take it.

I also hope, he continues after the Western Empire has fallen and talks about the Rise of Islam, its conquest and then the Eastern Roman Empire!

👍︎︎ 228 👤︎︎ u/Ynwe 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

Half hour of Historia Civilis when i get home, Monday saved.

👍︎︎ 31 👤︎︎ u/BarnabyJones_ 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

I really prefer Civilis to Baz Battles. I just feel the latter is over produced which takes the fun out of it for me.

👍︎︎ 156 👤︎︎ u/Wallblacksheep 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies

Where does Historia Civilis get his information from? I want to start reading up on Roman history but don't know where to start.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys!

👍︎︎ 40 👤︎︎ u/Gorshin07 📅︎︎ Jul 31 2017 🗫︎ replies
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