Today we will talk about one of the most reviled villains of his time, perhaps because the little we really know about him comes from his most bitter adversary, Gaius Julius Caesar , whose Comments on the Gallic Wars they served as a basis for later classical historians such as Livy, Plutarch or Dion Cassius. But… Who was really Vercingétorix ? Let's start by breaking down his name. First, as revealed by numismatics, he was not the only one to be called that among the peoples who inhabited present-day France. He was Arverno, a Gallic town located in what is now Clermont-Ferrand, in the massif that separates the Loire and Rhône basins. We know of the exact name of him from Caesar, who refers to him as VERCINGETORISX . In the Celtic language, ver- would correspond to a superlative, –cingeto – meant warrior and –risx caudillo or king. Thus, a free translation could be “the great king of warriors ”. The image we have of him also comes from Caesar's texts, describing him as a bold, corpulent man with long hair and a bushy moustache.
Vercingetorix
He was probably born in Gergovia or another Arverni city around 80 BC. It is pure deduction, considering that Caesar called him adulescens, which is how they defined in ancient Rome a man under 30 years old... curious. His father was Celtilo , one of the vergobretos (tribal chief) most influential of the Arverni clans, who was eliminated by his own countrymen due to internal disputes. He ended up at the stake accused of wanting to emulate Brennus as the new king of Gaul.
This was in 58 BC, the same year that Caesar, ignoring the directions of the Senate, embarked on his personal adventure in Gaul. In short, Vercingetorix entered as his direct assistant and collaborator when Caesar faced the Germans of Ariovistus and other hostile Belgic tribes on the Rhine. In almost two years, the Eagles had come from Britain to Armorica, and from Belgium to Aquitaine. , fleecing Gaul with excessive taxes dedicated to paying for a war and an ego that Rome was not willing to subsidize.
The excessive Roman avarice ended up revolting half Gaul. An entire legion was massacred by the Eburons. Such a massacre triggered that between Caesar and his legacy Tito Accio Labienus they suffocated the revolt with extreme cruelty. That retaliation caused Vercingétoix and many more like him to rethink their allegiances. Two events unleashed the final revolt. On the one hand, Caesar temporarily moved to Cisalpine Gaul in 53 BC, while, at the other end of the known world, Marcus Licinius Crassus and 20,000 of his men were slaughtered at Carrhae (today Harran, Turkey) at the hands of the Parthian horsemen of Surena in one of the most regrettable episodes of recklessness and arrogance in the history of the Roman army. The evidence of a defeat of the fearsome legions encouraged the Gallic tribes to throw off the Roman yoke.
The first hostile action was the murder of all the Roman merchants of Cenabum (Orléans) in the winter of 53 BC. on the part of the carnutes (the Gallic people that populated the Loire) That event served as a fuse for the rebellion to spread throughout Gaul. This is how César left it written in his comments:
Vercingetorix, son of Celtillos, an Arverni, a young man who was among the most powerful in his country, whose father had become the greatest prince in all Gaul, and who was killed by his countrymen because he aspired to kingship, summoned his customers and easily rioted
No one is a prophet in his land. The same thing happened to Vercingétorix in Gergovia , where he had to face the local pro-Roman oligarchy led by his uncle Gobanitio (probably implicated in the death of his father), being expelled from the city. Exiled, but with the support of many of his countrymen, he appeared again in the city with enough forces to end up being proclaimed king of the Arverni.
Throughout 52 BC, Caesar's twelve legions and the Gauls gathered around their new great chief fought over strategic places such as Avaricum, Gergovia, Cenabum with disparate results. Vercingetorix was well acquainted with Roman techniques and their total reliance on supplies, so he employed a "raw land" tactic preventing the legions from subsisting by foraging in hostile terrain. The war brought both sides face to face with an important oppidum marked to go down in history:Alesia .
The siege of Alesia
Vercingetorix gathered close to 80,000 men intramurally, sending emissaries throughout Gaul to recruit a relief army to encircle Caesar and his 50,000 troops. Gaius Julius Caesar, with an impassive temperament and cold as ice, determined to dust off the siege techniques of Scipio Emiliano in Numancia and surround Alesia with a double wall that would prevent the besieged from leaving and the reinforcements from entering. An army of 250,000 Gauls besieged the Romans days later, greatly complicating the legions' quartermastership. The besieged besieger.
Forty days after the start of the siege, Gauls as famished as Romans, Gallic reinforcements launched an attack on Caesar's defenses that caused a carnage unheard of in Gallic lands. After a fierce fight in which the Indians were the losers, Vercingetorix agreed to parley with Caesar and offer him a deal. His life for the 53,000 who were locked up and starving in Alesia. Caesar accepted, Vercingétorix surrendered before the signifers, tribunes and legates of the legions, being that crucial moment a source of inspiration for many artists throughout the ages.
Surrender of Vercingetorix to Julius Caesar
The great chief of the Gallic warriors did not die in Alesia. He was taken to Rome to parade in chains during the triumph that the Senate granted to Caesar in September 46 BC. for his victories in Greece, Africa and Gaul. He was strangled to death in public at the end of the act, a scene that you will be able to read in full very shortly... but that is another novel.
Sixteenth installment of “Archienemies of Rome “. Collaboration of Gabriel Castelló.