Julius Caesar : Gaul (58 - 50 BCE)
From History of the Hellenistic and Roman World
- All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in ours Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae.
- -Gaius Julius Caesar, The Gallic Wars, I.1
The Conquest of Gaul
- Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres...
With these words, Caesar begins the Bellum Gallicum, his own account of the Gallic Wars. The books of this unique work, which were written at the end of each year, were sent to the Senate in Rome, probably as supplements to an eventual application for a Triumph. Caesar was to spend seven years in Gaul and Brittain; through these despatches, public building projects, and donatives to italian communities, he kept himself in the public eye.
And yet in early 58, Caesar could have had no inkling that he would soon be fighting in Gaul. True, there had been some unrest on the gallic frontier in 61-60, but Caesar himself had helped stabilize the situation by concluding an alliance with the German Ariostovius who had invaded Gaul. The real threat, as perceived by Caesar, were the Dacian tribes expanding their power on the north-eastern border of Cisalpine and Illyria, which was why three of Caesar's four legions were stationed in that area.
So Caesar could hardly have been pleased when he learnt that the Helvetii were planning to invade Rome's Transalpine province. But Caesar reacted swiftly, recruiting two new legions and taking the army north to meet the Helvetii. The Helvetii attacked the smaller Roman army and were soundly defeated. Caesar then turned to the cause of the initial problems; the German Ariostovius, forced the Germans to battle and destroyed their army. That in doing so, he laid himself open to charges of misconduct under his own laws did not seem to trouble him.
With his victory against the Germans, Caesar firmly cemented his position as Marius' heir, bringing to mind Marius's victories over the Germannic Cimbri and Teutones. By now, certainly, Caesar had realized the potential in subduing Gaul and sent his legates out to recruit two more legions. In the following year he subdued the Belgic tribes in the north, while his lieutenant Publius Licinius Crassus pacified present day Normandy and Brittany. In just two years of campaigning, the whole of Gaul from the Rhine to the Ocean had submitted to Rome, in the person of Caesar. Caesar's despatches to Rome were greeted with great enthusiasm; the Senate voted him a fifteen-day thanksgiving (Pompey had only got ten). It might have surprised Caesar to learn that the proposer of the motion was - Cicero.
Crisis of the Triumvirate - Lucca
During Caesar's tenure as Consul, Cicero had been sacrificed to his enemy, the young Publius Clodius (of the Clodius scandal) and forced to go into exile. Clodius had then proceeded to set himself up as the people's champion in the absence of Caesar - unhampered by principle or any need for consistency, he had then turned on his former benefactors, the triumvirs. In response, Pompey secured Cicero's return, a decision that only served to antagonize Clodius further. And with the ongoing grain shortage of 57, the mob were only all too ready to be manipulated, resulting in several outbreaks of violence in 57.
Cicero first initiative was to procure the cura annonae (grain distribution rights) for Pompey for a period of five years. This coincided with the arrival of Caesar's despatches and Cicero, for the time being firmly in the camp of the triumvirs, proposed the motion for the fifteen days of thanksgiving. For the time being, it seemed as if the triumvirs were firmly in control.
This was an illusion. In actual fact, Crassus and Pompey had soon returned to their former emnity, falling out over the question of the Egyptian succession (the Egyptian King had been driven into exile at Rome in 57). And as the grain shortage continued, Pompey was becoming increasingly unpopular. Clodius knew how to play on this emnity, and at the trial of Titius Annius Milo, where Pompey and Crassus were both present to speak for Milo, Clodius had his supporters heckle Pompey and praise Crassus. Cicero too, despite his initial gratitude at getting recalled was soon joining Clodius, Cato and Bibulus in attacking Caesar's legislation of 59, and to bring matters to a head, one of the consular candidates threatened to take away Caesar's command.
In April 56, Caesar invited Pompeius and Crassus to a meeting at Lucca just inside the borders of Cisalpine Gaul, where he succeeded in patching up the alliance. Almost 200 senators came north to speak with Caesar, including governors from Sardinia and Spain -- one would be forgiven for thinking the Senate had moved to the provinces. It was arranged that Pompeius and Crassus be Consuls for 55, and Caesar's command in Gaul was prolonged for a further five years. Pompeius received a five-year term in Spain and Crassus a similar tenure in Syria.
Despite bitter resistance from Cato and the Optimates, the elections of Crassus and Pompeius were secured and Caesar's command prolonged. Cicero was brought back in line and even the rebellious Clodius was brought under control. With the situation under control, Crassus travelled to the east leaving Pompeius to handle the duties of Consul alone. But by the end of the year Pompeius had difficulties controlling the Consular elections for 54. However skilled Pompeius might be on the battlefield, his skills did not extend to the political arena.
The Channel Crossings
In late 56, Caesar marched his army into Brittany. The Veneti had revolted against Roman overlordship, supported by the Morini and Menapii from the Lower Rhine region. Caesar destroyed the Veneti and the next year conquored the Morini and Menapii and virtually exterminated two German tribes, the Usipetes and Tencteri, who had crossed the Rhine to help the rebels. He then bridged the Rhine and raided Germany before crossing the Channel to punish the Britons, who had sent help to their Gallic kin. The Roman people, duly impressed by these feats, this time voted him twenty days of public thanksgiving.
The reality was that things were getting out of hand. His expeditions to Germany and Britain had both been brief and Gaul was still far from pacified. It must have been dawning on Caesar that something more than his previous (almost terrorist-like) lightning strikes would be required, if he were to properly subdue the Celts. His first expedition to Britain had failed to achieve any results, and never one to accept defeat, Caesar prepared to launch a new expedition on Britain the next year.
800 ships and 5 Legions were invested in the second Channel crossing, a record which would stand until the Normandy landings of the Second World War. But as Plutarch laconically tells:
He passed thither twice from that part of Gaul which lies over against it, and in several battles which he fought did more hurt to the enemy than service to himself, for the islanders were so miserably poor that they had nothing worth being plundered of. When he found himself unable to put such an end to the war as he wished, he was content to take hostages from the king, and to impose a tribute, and then quitted the island. Plutarch, Life of Caesar
Caesar's return to Gaul from Britain marks a turning point in his life, and a period of deep personal crisis. In the letters waiting upon his return were the news of the deaths of two of the most important people in his life - his daughter Julia, and his mother Aurelia. The short-term effects of his personal loss are visible in the careless dispositions of his armies for winter quarters. This uncharacteristic lapse forces him into a very circumstantial and untrustworthy, but meticulous explanation for the disposition of his troops in the winter of 54. But the facts are unavoidable, his sloppiness cost the lives of 15 cohorts, or at least 10000 men. He drowned his sorrow in the blood of the Gauls, waging a war of extermination against the rebellious Eburones and bridging the Rhine for a second raid in 53. His brutal treatment of the Gauls during this year's campaigning (the leader of the rebellious Senones had been flogged to death) contrasts markedly with his policy of benevolence in earlier years.
Politically, the death of Julia meant that the bonds between Pompey and Caesar were weakened. To strengthen the alliance, Caesar offered to divorce his wife and marry Pompey's daughter from an earlier marriage - Pompey would marry Caesar's niece Octavia. Pompey refused, choosing instead to marry Cornelia, daughter of the optimate Quintus Metellus Scipio. The rift was widened when Crassus was killed at Carrhae. Caesar's enemies had resumed the attacks on his laws, though for the moment, Cicero performed good service in defending Caesar. Buti though it was increasingly clear that Pompey and Caesar were becoming estranged, Pompey readily complied with Caesar's request to help him raise 3 legions for the campaigns of 53.
The riots of 53 were largely the work of the popularis Clodius and Milo, who was supported by both the optimates and Pompey. In January 52, Clodius was murdered by the armed followers of Milo and in the riots that followed, the Senate house burnt down (as a pyre for Clodus's body). Pompey wished for the Senate to appoint him dictator, though Milo and the optimates had other ideas. Finally, sacrificing Milo to the angry populace in an act of political double-dealing, Pompey paved the way for himself to be elected sole Consul, with responsibility for re-establishing law and order.
The Gallic Revolt
The troubles in Rome kept Caesar in Cisalpine Gaul during early 52, while he tried to unravel the tangle that Pompey had helped create, and mend the breach between them. Without a doubt, the Gauls were aware of these troubles, and a young, ambitious Arvenian noble, Vercingetorix, seized the opportunity to raise the peoples of Central Gaul in revolt and have himself crowned King of the Gauls.
Cut off from his troops in Northern Gaul, his career on the line, Caesar re-entered the Gallic scene seemingly untouched by a year and a half of personal crisis. With only a small force, Caesar headed straight into the heart of Gaul, digging his way through snowdrifts in the alps and rejoined his army.
Vercingetorix favored a "scorched earth" policy, but was unable to persuade his countrymen to adopt it wholeheartedly. Instead, the Bituriges insisted on standing siege in their town of Avaricum, which was taken by Caesar within a month. The Romans followed this by besieging Vercingetorix in Gergovia, but their attempt to storm Gergorvia was repulsed with heavy losses -- the first outright defeat that Caesar had suffered in Gaul. After repelling an attack while his army was on the march, he then laid siege to Vercingetorix in Alesia. Like Gergovia, Alesia was a position of great natural strength, but Caesar was adamant and surrounded the city with concentric walls of circumvaliation; one facing toward the besieged, the other facing outwards. A huge Gallic army sent to relieve the city was repulsed and dispersed by Caesar and Vercingetorix was forced to capitulate. The Senate voted a public thanksgiving of twenty days, the third time such an honor had been given Caesar.
The rebellion was by no means over with the defeat of Vercingetorix, and Caesar had to campaign both against the Bituriges, Carnutes and Bellovacci. Caesar's approach in these years was a mixture of reconciliation and terror; the term of his command in Gaul was running out, and he desperately needed to complete his pacification of Gaul. The final scene of Gallic resistance was played ut at Uxellodunum, where Caesar had the hands of every man who had borne arms cut off. Whatever one may feel of his methods, the policy was effective and gave him the peace needed to concentrate on events in Rome and the province of Gaul remained pacified, even during the following decades of civil war.
Caesar's Generalship
There can be no doubt that Caesar was an extremely competent General, probably one of the best ever. He understood strategy and tactics, and he could handle the brutish and greedy legionaries of his time. He was almost always aware of the movements of his enemies and usually secured both communications and supply lines in a masterly fashion. His natural restlessness was turned into the feared celeritas of Caesar, a swiftness of action that stunned his contemporaries. Almost paradoxically, he could combine this swiftness with extraordinary patience, and as a result was almost always able to choose the time and place for his battles, or regain the initiative even in the most difficult situations. His campaigns in Gaul had earned him a large and devoted army; like in 61, Rome now waited with bated breath for the return of a victorius general, Caesar.
