History of Julius Caesar Vol. 2 of 2

Whilst Cæsar adopted these measures, the Gauls, having convoked an assembly of their principal chiefs, probably at Bibracte, decided not to collect all their men able to bear arms, as Vercingetorix wished, but to demand from each people a certain contingent, for they dreaded the difficulty of providing for so large and so confused a multitude, and of maintaining order and discipline. The different states were required to send contingents, the total of which was to amount to 283,000 men; but, in reality, it did not exceed 240,000. The cavalry amounted to 8,000.528

The Bellovaci refused their contingent, declaring that they intended to make war on their own account, at their own will, without submitting to anybody’s orders. Nevertheless, at the instance of Commius, their host, they sent 2,000 men.

This same Commius, we have seen, had in previous years rendered signal service to Cæsar in Britain. In return for which, his land, that of the Atrebates, freed from all tribute, had recovered its privileges, and obtained the supremacy over the Morini. But such was then the eagerness of the Gauls to re-conquer their liberty and their ancient glory, that all feelings of gratitude and friendship had vanished from their memory, and all devoted themselves body and soul to the war.

The numbering and the review of the troops took place on the territory of the Ædui. The chiefs were named; the general command was given to the Atrebatan Commius; to the Æduans Viridomarus and Eporedorix, and to the Arvernan Vercasivellaunus, cousin of Vercingetorix. With them were joined delegates from each country, who formed a council of direction for the war. They began their march towards Alesia, full of ardour and confidence: each was convinced that the Romans would retreat at the mere sight of such imposing forces, especially when they found themselves threatened at the same time by the sallies of the besieged, and by an exterior army powerful in infantry and in cavalry.

Meanwhile, the day on which the besieged expected succour was past, and their provisions were exhausted; ignorant, moreover, of what was taking place among the Ædui, they assembled to deliberate on a final resolution. The opinions were divided: some proposed to surrender, others to make a sally, without waiting till their vigour would be exhausted. But Critognatus, an Arvernan distinguished by his birth and credit, in a discourse of singular and frightful atrocity, proposed to follow the example of their ancestors, who, in the time of the war of the Cimbri, being shut up in their fortresses, and a prey to want, ate the men who were unable to bear arms, rather than surrender. When the opinions were gathered, it was decided that that of Critognatus should only be adopted at the last extremity, and that for the present they would confine themselves to sending out of the place all useless mouths. The Mandubii, who had received the Gaulish army within their walls, were compelled to leave with their wives and children. They approached the Roman lines, begged to be taken for slaves and supplied with bread. Cæsar placed guards along the vallum, with orders not to admit them.

At length Commius and the other chiefs, followed by their troops, appear before Alesia; they halt upon a neighbouring hill, scarcely 1,000 paces from the circumvallation (the hill of Mussy-la-Fosse). The following day they draw their cavalry out of their camp; it covered the whole plain of Laumes. Their infantry establishes itself at a short distance on the heights. The plateau of Alesia commanded the plain. At the sight of the army of succour, the besieged meet together, congratulate each other, yield to excess of joy, and then they rush out of the town, fill the first fosse with fascines and earth, and all prepare for a general and decisive sally.

Cæsar, obliged to face the enemy on two sides at once, disposed his army on the two opposite lines of the retrenchments, and assigned to each his post; he then ordered the cavalry to leave its camps, and to give battle. From all the camps placed on the top of the surrounding hills, the view extended over the plain, and the soldiers, in suspense, waited for the issue of the event. The Gauls had mixed with their cavalry a small number of archers and light-armed soldiers, to support them if they gave way, and arrest the attack of the cavalry of the enemy. A good number of the latter, wounded by these foot-soldiers, whom they had not perceived until then, were obliged to retire from the battle. Then the Gauls, confident in their numerical superiority, and in the valour of their cavalry, believed themselves sure of victory; and from all sides, from the besieged, as well as from the army of succour, there arose an immense cry to encourage the combatants. The engagement was in view of them all; no trait of courage or of cowardice remained unknown; on both sides, all were excited by the desire of glory and the fear of dishonour. From noon till sunset the victory remained uncertain, when the Germans in Cæsar’s pay, formed in close squadrons, charged the enemy, and put them to the rout; in their flight they abandoned the archers, who were surrounded; then, from all parts of the plain, the cavalry pursued the Gauls up to their camp without giving them time to rally. The besieged, who had sallied out of Alesia, returned in consternation, and almost despairing of safety.

After a day employed in making a great number of hurdles, ladders, and hooks, the Gauls of the army of succour left their camp in silence towards the middle of the night, and approached the works in the plain. Then, suddenly uttering loud cries, in order to warn the besieged, they throw their fascines, to fill up the fosse, attack the defenders of the vallum with a shower of sling-balls, arrows, and stones, and prepare everything for an assault. At the same time, Vercingetorix, hearing the cries from without, gives the signal with the trumpet, and leads his troops out of the place. The Romans take in the retrenchments the places assigned to them beforehand, and they spread disorder among the Gauls by throwing leaden balls, stones of a pound weight, and employing the stakes placed in the works beforehand; the machines rain down upon the enemy a shower of darts. As they fought in the dark (the shields being useless), there were in both armies many wounded. The lieutenants M. Antony and C. Trebonius, to whom was entrusted the defence of the threatened points, supported the troops that were too hardly pressed by means of reserves drawn from the neighbouring redoubts. So long as the Gauls kept far from the circumvallation, the multitude of their missiles gave them the advantage; but when they approached, some became suddenly entangled in the stimuli; others fell bruised into the scrobes; others again were transpierced by the heavy pila used in sieges, which were thrown from the tops of the vallum and the towers. They had many disabled, and nowhere succeeded in forcing the Roman lines. When day began to break, the army of succour retired, fearing to be taken in their uncovered flank (the right side) by a sally from the camps established on the mountain of Flavigny. On their side, the besieged, after losing much valuable time in transporting the material for the attack, and in making efforts to fill up the first fosse (the one which was twenty feet wide), learnt the retreat of the army of succour before they had reached the real retrenchment. This attempt having failed, like the other, they returned into the town.

Thus twice repulsed with great loss, the Gauls of the army of succour deliberated on what was to be done. They interrogate the inhabitants of the country, who inform them of the position and the sort of defences of the Roman camps placed on the heights.

To the north of Alesia there was a hill (Mont Réa) which had not been enclosed in the lines, because it would have given them too great an extent; the camp necessary on that side had, for this reason, to be established on a slope, and in a disadvantageous position (see Plate 25, camp D); the lieutenants C. Antistius Reginus and C. Caninius Rebilus occupied it with two legions. The enemy’s chiefs resolved to attack this camp with one part of their troops, whilst the other should assail the circumvallation in the plain of Laumes. Having decided on this plan, they send their scouts to reconnoitre the localities, secretly arrange among themselves the plan and the means of execution, and decide that the attack shall take place at noon. They choose 60,000 men amongst the nations most renowned for their valour. Vercasivellaunus, one of the four chiefs, is placed at their head. They sally at the first watch, towards nightfall, proceed by the heights of Grignon and by Fain towards Mont Réa, arrive there at break of day, conceal themselves in the depressions of the ground to the north of that hill, and repose from the fatigues of the night. At the hour appointed, Vercasivellaunus descends the slopes and rushes upon the camp of Reginus and Rebilus; at the same moment, the cavalry of the army of succour approaches the retrenchments in the plain, and the other troops, sallying from their camps, move forwards.

When, from the top of the citadel of Alesia, Vercingetorix saw these movements, he left the town, carrying with him the poles, the small covered galleries (musculos), the iron hooks (falces),529 and everything which had been prepared for a sally, and proceeded towards the plain. An obstinate struggle follows;, everywhere the greatest efforts are made, and wherever the defence appears weakest, the Gauls rush to the attack. Scattered over extensive lines, the Romans defend only with difficulty several points at the same time, and are obliged to face two attacks from opposite sides. Fighting, as it were, back to back, everybody is agitated by the cries he hears, and by the thought that his safety depends upon those that are behind him; “it lies in human nature,” says Cæsar, “to be struck more deeply with the danger one cannot see.”530

On the northern slopes of the mountain of Flavigny (at the point marked J C, Plate 25), Cæsar had chosen the most convenient spot for observing each incident of the action, and for sending assistance to the places which were most threatened. Both sides were convinced that the moment of the decisive struggle had arrived. If the Gauls do not force the lines, they have no further hope of safety; if the Romans obtain the advantage, they have reached the end of their labours. It is especially at the retrenchments on the slopes of Mont Réa that the Romans run the greatest danger, for the commanding position of the enemy gives them an immense disadvantage (iniquum loci ad declivitatem fastigium, magnum habet momentum). One part of the assailants throw darts; another advances, forming the tortoise; fresh troops incessantly relieve the soldiers who are weary. All strive desperately to fill the fosses, to render useless the accessory defences by covering them with earth, and to scale the rampart. Already the Romans begin to feel the want of arms and strength. Cæsar, informed of this state of things, sends Labienus to their succour with six cohorts, and orders him, if the troops cannot maintain themselves behind the retrenchments, to withdraw them and make a sally, but only at the last extremity. Labienus, encamped on the mountain of Bussy, descends from the heights to proceed to the place of combat. Cæsar, passing between the two lines, repairs to the plain, where he encourages the soldiers to persevere, for this day, this hour will decide whether they are to gather the fruit of their former victories.

Meanwhile the besieged, having abandoned the hope of forcing the formidable retrenchments of the plain, direct their attack against the works situated at the foot of the precipitous heights of the mountain of Flavigny, and transport thither all their materials of attack; with a shower of arrows they drive away the Roman soldiers who fight from the top of the towers; they fill the fosses with earth and fascines, clear a passage for themselves, and, by means of iron hooks, tear down the wattling of the parapet and the palisade. Young Brutus is first sent thither with several cohorts, and after him the lieutenant C. Fabius with seven more; at last, as the action becomes still hotter, Cæsar himself hurries to them with new reserves.

After the fortune of the fight has been restored, and the enemies driven back, he proceeds towards the place where he had sent Labienus, draws four cohorts from the nearest redoubt, orders a part of the cavalry to follow him, and the other part to go round by the exterior lines, to take the enemy in the rear by issuing from the camp of Grésigny. On his side, Labienus, seeing that neither the fosses nor the ramparts can arrest the efforts of the Gauls, rallies thirty-nine cohorts which have arrived from the neighbouring redoubts, and which chance offers to him, and informs Cæsar that, according to what had been agreed, he is going to make a sally.531 Cæsar hastens his march in order to share in the combat. As soon as, from the heights on which they stood, the legionaries recognise their general by the colour of the garment which he was in the habit of wearing in battle (the purple-coloured paludamentum),532 and see him followed by cohorts and detachments of cavalry, they sally from the retrenchments and begin the attack. Shouts arise on both sides, and are repeated from the vallum to the other works. When Cæsar arrives, he sees the lines abandoned, and the battle raging in the plain of Grésigny, on the banks of the Ose. The Roman soldiers throw away the pilum, and draw their swords. At the same time, the cavalry of the camp of Grésigny appears in the rear of the enemy; other cohorts approach. The Gauls are put to the rout, and in their flight encounter the cavalry, who make great slaughter among them. Sedulius, chief and prince of the Lemovices, is slain; the Arvernan Vercasivellaunus is taken prisoner. Seventy-four ensigns are brought to Cæsar. Of all this army, so numerous as it was, few combatants return to their camp safe and sound.

Witnesses, from the top of their walls, of this sanguinary defeat, the besieged despaired of their safety, and called in the troops who were attacking the countervallation.533 As the result of these reverses, the Gauls of the army of succour fly from their camp; and if the Romans, compelled to defend so many points at one time, and to assist each other mutually, had not been worn out by the labours of a whole day, the entire mass of the enemies might have been annihilated. Towards the middle of the night the cavalry sent in pursuit came up with their rear-guard; a great part of them were taken prisoners or killed; the others dispersed, to return to their countries.

Next day, Vercingetorix convokes a council. He declares that he has not undertaken this war out of personal interest, but for the cause of the liberty of all. “Since they must yield to fate, he places himself at the discretion of his fellow-citizens, and offers them, in order to appease the Romans, to be delivered up, dead or alive.” A deputation is at once sent to Cæsar, who requires that the arms and the chiefs be delivered to him. He places himself in front of his camp, inside the retrenchments; the chiefs are brought, the arms are laid down, and Vercingetorix surrenders to the conqueror. This valiant defender of Gaul arrives on horseback, clad in his finest arms, makes the circuit of Cæsar’s tribunal, dismounts, and laying down his sword and his military ensigns, exclaims: “Thou hast vanquished a brave man, thou, the bravest of all!”534 The prisoners were distributed by head to each soldier, by way of booty, except the 20,000 who belonged to the Ædui and Arverni, and whom Cæsar restored in the hope of bringing back those people to his cause.

Dio Cassius relates the surrender of the Gaulish chief as follows: “After this defeat, Vercingetorix, who had neither been taken nor wounded, might have fled; but, hoping that the friendship which had formerly bound him to Cæsar would procure his pardon, he repaired to the proconsul, without having sent a herald to ask for peace, and appeared suddenly in his presence, at the moment he was sitting on his tribunal. His appearance inspired some fear, for he was of tall stature, and had a very imposing aspect under arms. There was a deep silence: the Gaulish chief fell at Cæsar’s knees, and implored him by pressing his hands, without uttering a word. This scene excited the pity of the by-standers, by the remembrance of Vercingetorix’s former fortune compared to his present misfortune. Cæsar, on the contrary, upbraided him with the recollections on which he had hoped for his safety. He compared his recent struggle with the friendship of which he reminded him, and by that means pointed out more vividly the odiousness of his conduct. And thus, far from being touched with his misfortune at that moment, he threw him at once in fetters, and afterwards ordered him to be put to death, after having exhibited him in his triumph.” By acting thus, Cæsar believed that he was obeying state policy and the cruel customs of the time. It is to be regretted for his glory that he did not use, towards Vercingetorix, the illustrious Gaulish chief, the same clemency which, during the Civil War, he showed towards the vanquished who were his fellow-citizens.

When these events were accomplished, Cæsar proceeded towards the Ædui, and received their submission. There he met the envoys of the Arverni, who promised to pay deference to his orders: he required from them a great number of hostages. Afterwards, he placed his legions in winter quarters. T. Labienus, with two legions and some cavalry, among the Sequani (Sempronius Rutilius was given him as a colleague); C. Fabius and L. Minucius Basilius, with two legions, among the Remi, in order to protect them against the Bellovaci, their neighbours; C. Antistius Reginus amongst the Ambluareti; T. Sextius among the Bituriges; C. Caninius Rebilus among the Ruteni, each with one legion. Q. Tullius Cicero and P. Sulpicius were established at Cabillonum (Chalon) and Matisco (Mâcon), in the land of the Ædui, on the Saône, to ensure the supply of provisions. Cæsar resolved to pass the winter at Bibracte.535 He announced those events at Rome, where twenty days of public thanksgivings were decreed.

Details of the Excavations at Mont Auxois.

XIII. The excavations earned on round Mont Auxois, from 1862 to 1863, have brought to light, in nearly all points, the fosses of the Roman retrenchments. The following is the result: —

Camps. – Cæsar debouched upon Alesia by the mountain of Bussy (see Plate 25), and distributed his army round Mont Auxois: the legions encamped on the heights, and the cavalry was established on the lower grounds, near the streams.

There were four camps of infantry, two of them, A and B, on the mountain of Flavigny. Their form depends on that of the ground: they were shaped in such a manner that the retrenchments should, as far as possible, command the ground situated before them. On the side where it could have been attacked, that is, to the south, the camp A presented formidable defences, to judge from the triple line of fosses which surround this part. (See Plates 25 and 28.) We must, perhaps, suppose that it was occupied by Cæsar in person. The camp B is more extensive. The vestiges of its remblai are still visible at the present day, in the greatest part of its circuit, in consequence of this land having never been touched by the plough. It is the only known example of visible traces of a camp made by Cæsar. None of the camps of the mountain of Flavigny having been attacked, the excavations have only brought to light in the fosses a small number of objects. The entrances to the camps are at the places marked by arrows on Plate 25. A third camp of infantry was situated on the mountain of Bussy, at C.

The fourth infantry camp was established on the lower slopes of Mont Réa, at D. It is the one occupied by the two legions of Reginus and Rebilus, and which Vercasivellaunus attacked with 60,000 men. Indeed, it will be observed that the spur situated to the north of Mont Auxois, between the Rabutin and the Brenne, is much farther from Alesia than the other mountains which surround it, and Mont Réa, which is the nearest part of it, is still more than 2,000 mètres distant from it. Hence it follows that Cæsar could not have included Mont Réa in his lines without giving them an excessive development. Consequently, he was obliged to establish one of his camps on the southern slope of that hill. This camp was on the point of being forced, and an obstinate battle was fought there. The excavations have led to the discovery in the fosses of a multitude of interesting objects, and, among them, more than 600 Roman and Gaulish coins. (See the list in Appendix C.)536 The extremity of the upper fosse, represented by dots on Plates 25 and 28, has not been discovered, because earthfalls have taken place on that part of Mont Réa, which would have obliged the excavators to dig too deep to arrive at the bottom of the fosse. The strength of the retrenchments of the infantry camps was very variable, as may be seen by inspecting the various profiles of the fosses. (See Plate 28.) For each camp, they have larger dimensions on the side which is not defended by the escarpments, as may easily be conceived.

There were four cavalry camps, G H I K, placed near the different streams: three in the plain of Laumes, and one in the valley of the Rabutin. The fosses of these camps took greatly varied shapes. (See Plate 28.) In general, their dimensions were decidedly less than those of the fosses of the infantry camps. Camp G, however, had rather deep fosses; no doubt because it was farthest from the lines. The fosse which enclosed camp I towards the side of the Brenne has disappeared by the inundations of the river.

Redoubts, or Castella. – Of the twenty-three redoubts or blockhouses (castella), five only have been discovered; they were the most considerable; they are represented on Plate 25, by the numbers 10, 11, 15, 18, 22. The others, built of wood, and forming blockhouses, would not have left any trace; they are marked by circles on the most convenient places.

Distribution of the Army. Development of the Line of Investment. – We know, from the “Commentaries,” that camp D, on the slopes of Mont Réa, contained two legions. By comparing its superficies with that of the other camps, we may admit that these were occupied in the following manner: in camp A, one legion; in camp B, two legions; in camp C, three legions; total, eight legions. The three remaining legions would have been distributed in the twenty-three redoubts. As we have said, the number of 11,000 paces can evidently only apply to the line of investment formed by the eight camps and the twenty-three redoubts established round Alesia immediately after the arrival of the army, and not, as has been believed, to the countervallation properly so called, which was only constructed subsequently (VII. 72). This number is rigorously exact, for the circuit of ground surrounded by the camps measures a little more than sixteen kilomètres, which represents 11,000 Roman paces.

The Fosse of Twenty Feet. – This fosse has been discovered in its whole extent: it barred the plain of Laumes, following a direction perpendicular to the course of the Ose and the Oserain, and did not go round Mont Auxois. Plate 28 represents two of its most remarkable sections. It was not exactly twenty feet in width, as stated in the “Commentaries;” neither was it everywhere 400 paces distant from the countervallation. This measurement is only exact towards the extremities of the fosse, near the two rivers.

Countervallation. – Vercingetorix, having retired to the plateau of Alesia, could only have escaped by the plain of Laumes, and, at the worst, by the valley of the Rabutin; for the spurs situated to the south, the east, and the north of Mont Auxois are surmounted by a belt of perpendicular rocks, which form insurmountable barriers, and the valleys of the Oserain and the Ose, which divide them, constitute veritable defiles. It became important, therefore, to bar the plain of Laumes with impregnable works. Hence Cæsar accumulated there the means of defence; but he simplified them everywhere else, as the excavations have shown.