Caesar's Greatest Victory by John Sadler

Author:John Sadler
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Bisac Code: HIS002020; HIS010000; HBLA; HBW
ISBN: 9781612004631
Publisher: Casemate
Published: 2016-09-13T04:00:00+00:00

This stirring invocation is a translation of the inscription on the base of the statue of Vercingetorix at Alesia. It tells us rather more about 19th-century French nationalism than it does about the 1st century BC. That in reality is its purpose. Viollet-le-Duc was commenting on the reign of his patron Napoleon III, the unintended irony being that the emperor would soon suffer the same total defeat and exile. Frenchmen in 1871 would come to appreciate how their Gallic forbears might have felt in 52 BC all too well. Napoleon’s nemesis Bismarck was already mustering his legions, as effectively as Caesar marshalled his. History often tends towards cruel irony.

Vercingetorix might have struggled with some of his later hagiography, but it is impossible to tell as we hear nothing from him. We have to rely on his adversary Caesar. As ever, he tells us what he thinks his audience wants to hear and only that which ultimately shows him, Caesar, in a favourable light. He does not admit to knowing Vercingetorix or suggest they ever met until the very end. It is tempting to think he is being disingenuous and that they had certainly crossed paths. The impression he gives in Book VII of the Gallic War is that Vercingetorix erupts from virtual obscurity onto the stage as a major player in 52 BC: ‘He was a son of Celtillus and his father had won dominion over the whole of Gaul; for this reason, namely, trying to gain a kingdom, Celtillus had been put to death by the state.’1

Caesar admits his opponent was a young man of considerable talent; in his abilities ‘second to none’. He apparently launched a bid for individual power within his own tribe the Arverni relying on his personal affinity. Wary presumably because of family history, his uncle Gobannitio and other wise councillors drove the young hothead out of town, ‘… banished him from Gergovia’. Undeterred, Vercingetorix gathered a wider following; ‘a levy of down and outs and desperadoes’. This may be unduly pejorative.

What Caesar was referring to was most likely a company of younger bucks, anxious to make a name and seduced by his undoubted charisma, young warriors tired of skulking in older men’s shadows and chasing renown. Vercingetorix had created his own affinity and in typical Gallic style used his client group to overwhelm the other faction. With these restless blades at his back, Vercingetorix turned the tables, staging a lightning coup. The opposition were sent packing… ‘Vercingetorix was now proclaimed king by his supporters’.2

The present-day Auvergne derives its name from the Arverni, one of the most powerful of the Gallic tribes. In the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC they had held sway over not just their neighbours but most of Gaul. Their lands were fertile and they excelled at metal working with a wide trading network. Their king Luernios was head of a powerful alliance. His successor Bituitus clashed with Rome as the province was being established, losing out to Quintus and Gnaeus Ahenobarbus in 121 BC.

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