Gallic War

The causes

In 58 BC, Caesar became governor of Cisalpine Gaul and Narbonese Gaul. He seized on the migration of the Helvetii as a pretext to intervene beyond his provinces. Personal ambition played a large part: a victorious war brought glory, plunder and a loyal army, all useful to a man aiming for power in Rome.

From the 2nd century BC, Rome controlled southeastern Gaul, Narbonensis, and maintained alliances with certain peoples such as the Aedui. Among the Gauls, power was shared among clan chiefs, assemblies and druids, who played religious and judicial roles, and the cities were often rivals. The Sequani, in conflict with the Aedui, appealed to the Germanic king Ariovistus, who settled in Gaul with his troops and alarmed Rome. In 60 BC, Caesar formed a political alliance with Pompey and Crassus, the First Triumvirate, which led shortly afterwards to his obtaining a military command for several years in Gaul.

The course of the war

Caesar beat the Helvetii and then the Germanic chief Ariovistus in 58, subdued the Belgae in 57 and the Veneti in 56. He crossed the Rhine in 55 and landed in Britain in 55 and 54, without settling there. In 54, the chief Ambiorix destroyed a Roman legion: Gaul began to rise up.

In 52, Vercingetorix, chief of the Arverni, united most of the Gallic peoples. He won at Gergovia, but then fell back to the stronghold of Alesia. Caesar besieged him there, surrounding it with a double line of fortifications, and beat off the Gallic relief army. Vercingetorix surrendered. The last pockets of resistance were put down in 51-50.

In 57 BC, the Nervii, a people of Belgium, attacked by surprise the legions setting up their camp on the Sambre. According to Caesar's account, he himself took up a shield to rally his soldiers, and thereby restored the situation and then received the submission of most of the Belgian peoples. The following year, the Veneti, a maritime people of western Gaul, detained Roman envoys. Caesar had a fleet built, the naval battle that followed secured for him control of the Atlantic coast, and the Veneti surrendered.

In 53 BC, winter was marked by the suppression of the revolt of the Eburones, whose territory was ravaged by the legions and whose people, according to Caesar's account, were virtually annihilated. In spring 52 BC, Vercingetorix imposed a scorched-earth policy: villages and farms were burned to deprive the Romans of supplies. This strategy also ruined the Gallic countryside, whose harvests were destroyed. At Avaricum, the largest town of the Bituriges, the Gauls decided to defend the place against Vercingetorix's advice, but the town fell after a siege and its inhabitants were massacred.

Uxellodunum, in the Quercy region, was the last major stronghold to fall, in 51 BC, after a difficult siege in which the defenders were deprived of their water supply. The peoples who submitted had to hand over hostages. Prisoners were often sold as slaves, a common practice at the time. Caesar, to administer the country, spared the Gallic elites loyal to him: the Aedui, allies of Rome, kept a privileged place. Under Augustus, Gaul was then organized into provinces.

The consequences

Gaul became Roman. It gradually adopted Latin, roads, cities and the customs of Rome: this is known as Gallo-Roman civilisation. Caesar, enriched and famous, led a very loyal army, which set him against Pompey and the Senate and led to civil war. Vercingetorix, imprisoned for six years, was executed in 46 BC.

Gaul gradually became Roman without disappearing: Latin spread, and cities adopted forums, baths and theaters, in a Gallo-Roman civilization. Lyon, founded in 43 BC, became the capital of the Gauls under the Empire. The Romans called the rest of Gaul, beyond Narbonensis, "Long-Haired Gaul". In the 19th century, the figure of Vercingetorix became a national symbol: his statue, erected at Alesia under Napoleon III in 1865, attests to this. Historians long debated the identification of Alesia with Alise-Sainte-Reine, in Côte-d'Or, an identification that most archaeologists now accept.

Timeline

1. 58 BCCaesar enters Gaul, confronting the Helvetii
2. 55 BCFirst landing in Britain
3. 52 BCVercingetorix wins at Gergovia
4. 52 BCSiege and fall of Alesia
5. 50 BCEnd of the last resistance, Gaul is subdued

Key figures

• Julius Caesar, Roman general, conqueror of Gaul and author of The Gallic War
• Vercingetorix, Arvernian chief who united Gaul against Rome in 52 BC
• Ambiorix, chief of the Eburones, who destroyed a Roman legion in 54 BC
• Labienus, Caesar's lieutenant