Vercingetorix, on his return to his army, was accused of treason, for having placed his camp nearer to that of the Romans, taken away with him all the cavalry, left his infantry without a head, and facilitated, by his departure, the sudden and so well-calculated arrival of the enemy. “All these incidents,” they said, “could not be the effect of chance; evidently Vercingetorix preferred owing the empire of Gaul to Cæsar than to his fellow-citizens.” As the improvised chief of a popular movement, Vercingetorix had to expect one of those fickle demonstrations of the multitude, who are rendered fanatical by successes, and unjust by reverses. But, strong in his patriotism and in his conduct, he justified easily to his followers the dispositions he had taken. “The scarcity of forage only has decided him, at their entreaties, to change the position of his camp; he has chosen a new position, which is impregnable; he has employed the cavalry, which is useless in a marshy place, to advantage. He has transferred the command to nobody, for fear that a new chief, to please bands without discipline, incapable of supporting the fatigues of war, might let himself be persuaded to give battle. Whether it were chance or treason which had brought the Romans before them, they ought to thank Fortune for it, since they had retired with disgrace. He has no desire to obtain the supreme authority from Cæsar at the price of a guilty defection: victory will soon give it him. It is now no longer doubtful. As to himself, he is ready to lay down an authority which would be only a vain honour, and not a means of delivery;” and, to prove the sincerity of his hopes, he brought forward slaves who had been made prisoners, whom he represents as legionaries, and who, at his instigation, declare that in three days the Romans will be obliged by want of provisions to raise the siege. His discourse is received by the acclamations of the army, and all signify their applause by the clang of their arms, according to the Gaulish manner. It is agreed to send 10,000 men to Avaricum, taken among the different contingents, so that the Bituriges alone should not have the glory of saving a town upon which depended in a great measure the fate of the war.
The Gauls, endowed with the genius of imitation, struggled by all means possible against the wonderful perseverance of the Roman soldiers. They turned away the rams with pointed heads (falces)473 by means of nooses, and, when they had once caught hold of them, they dragged them up by means of machines.474 Accustomed to work in the iron mines, and to the construction of subterranean galleries, they skilfully countermined the terrace, and also provided their walls with towers of several stories, covered with leather. Day and night they made sallies, and set fire to the works of the besiegers. As the daily increase of the terrace heightened the level of the towers, the besieged raised theirs to the same height by means of scaffoldings; they stopped the progress of the subterranean galleries, prevented them from being advanced to the walls by trying to break them open with pointed stakes hardened in the fire (apertos cuniculos prœusta ac prœacuta materia … morabantur),475 and by throwing molten pitch and blocks of stone.
The Gauls constructed their walls in this manner: beams were placed horizontally on the ground, in a direction perpendicular to the line of the enclosure,476 at intervals of two feet from each other; they were bound together on the side of the town; by cross-beams, usually of forty feet in length, firmly fixed in the ground, and the whole covered with a great quantity of earth, except on the exterior side, where the intervals were furnished with large blocks of rock, and formed a facing. After this first layer had been well fixed and rendered compact, they raised upon it a second, absolutely similar, taking care that the beams were not exactly above each other, but corresponded with the intervals filled in with stones, in which they were, as it were, enchased. The work was thus continued until the wall had attained the required height. These successive layers, in which the beams and stones alternated regularly, offered, by their very variety, an agreeable appearance to the eye. This construction had great advantages for the defence of places: the stone preserved it from fire, and the wood from the ram; held together by the cross-beams, the beams could be neither torn down nor driven in. (See Plate 20.)
Notwithstanding the obstinacy of the defence, and the cold and continual rains, the Roman soldiers surmounted all obstacles, and raised in twenty-five days a terrace 330 feet wide by 80 feet high. It already nearly touched the town wall, when, towards the third watch (midnight), clouds of smoke were seen issuing from it. It was the moment when Cæsar, according to his custom, was inspecting the works, and encouraging the soldiers at their labour; the Gauls had set the terrace on fire from the gallery of a mine. At the same instant cries arose from the whole extent of the rampart, and the besieged, rushing out by two gates, made a sally on the two sides where the towers were; from the top of the walls some threw dry wood and torches on the terrace, others pitch and various inflammable materials; nobody knew whither to run nor where to give help. As two legions, however, generally passed the night under arms in front of the camp, whilst the others relieved each other alternately for the work, they were soon able to face the enemy; meanwhile some drew back the towers, and others cut the terrace to intercept the fire; the whole army, in fact, hurried to put out the latter.
When day broke, they were still fighting on every point; the besieged had the more hope of conquering, as the penthouses which protected the approaches to the towers were burnt (deustos pluteos turrium),477 and as then the Romans, compelled to march without cover, could with difficulty arrive at the burning works. Persuaded that the salvation of Gaul depended on this critical moment, they replaced incessantly the troops which were weary. Then happened a fact worthy of notice: before the gate of the oppidum there was a Gaul who threw balls of grease and pitch into the fire opposite a Roman tower; a dart shot from a scorpion478 struck him in the right side and killed him. The next man immediately takes his place, and perishes in the same manner; a third succeeds him, then a fourth, and the post is only abandoned after the extinction of the fire and the retreat of the assailants.
After so many fruitless efforts, the Gauls resolved next day to obey the order of Vercingetorix, and evacuate the place. His camp not being far off, they hoped, by favour of the night, to escape without great loss, reckoning on a continuous marsh to protect their flight. But the women, in despair, struggle to retain them, and, seeing that their supplications had no effect, to such an extent does fear extinguish pity, they give warning to the Romans by their cries, and thus compel the Gauls to renounce their intended flight.
The day following Cæsar caused a tower to be advanced, and the works to be prosecuted with vigour; an abundant rain, and the negligence of the enemy in guarding the wall, engaged him to attempt an assault. He thereupon ordered the work to be slackened without entirely stopping it, in order not to awaken suspicions, assembled his legions under arms, sheltered behind the covered galleries (vineas), and informed them that they were going to reap the fruit of so many fatigues. He promised rewards to those who should be first to scale the wall of the town, and gave the signal. The Romans at once rushed forward from every side, and reached the top of the ramparts.
The enemies, terrified by this unexpected attack, and thrown down from the tops of the walls and towers, sought refuge in the public places, and formed in wedges, so as to offer a resistance on all sides; but when they saw that the Romans, instead of descending into the town, went round it on the ramparts, they were afraid of being shut in, and threw down their arms and fled towards the other extremity of the oppidum (where are at present the faubourgs Taillegrain and Saint-Privé). (See Plate 20.) Most of them were killed near the gates, the narrow passage of which they blocked up; the others by the cavalry outside the town. No one among the Roman soldiers thought of plunder. Irritated by the remembrance of the massacre of Genabum, and by the fatigues of the siege, they spared neither old men, women, nor children. Of about 40,000 combatants, scarcely 800 fugitives were able to join Vercingetorix. He, fearing that their presence, if they came in a body, might excite a mutiny, had, in the middle of the night, sent trusty men and the principal chiefs a long way out, to distribute them in fractions among the camps belonging to the different tribes.
The next day Vercingetorix sought, in a general assembly, to revive the courage of his countrymen, by ascribing the success of the Romans to their superiority in the art of sieges, which was unknown to the Gauls. He told them that this reverse ought not to dishearten them; that his advice, they well knew, had never been to defend Avaricum; that a signal revenge would soon console them; that, through his care, the countries separated from the common cause would enter into his alliance, animate Gaul with the one thought, and cement a union capable of resisting the whole world. Then this fearless defender of the national independence shows his genius in taking advantage even of a misfortune to subject his ill-disciplined troops to the rough labours of war, and succeeds in convincing them of the necessity of retrenching their camp in the manner of the Romans, so as to protect it from surprise.
The constancy of Vercingetorix, after so great a reverse, and the foresight which he had shown in recommending, from the beginning of the war, to burn, and afterwards to abandon Avaricum, increased his influence. So the Gauls, for the first time, fortified their camp, and their courage was so much confirmed, that they were ready to undergo all trials.
Vercingetorix, true to his engagements, exerted himself to the utmost to gain over to his cause the other states of Gaul, and to seduce the chiefs by presents and promises; and, for this purpose, he sent to them zealous and intelligent agents. He caused the men who had fled from Avaricum to be clothed and armed anew, and, in order to repair his losses, he required from the divers states a contingent at a stated period, and archers, who were very numerous in Gaul. At the same time Teutomatus, son of Ollovico, King of the Nitiobriges, whose father had received from the Senate the title of friend, came to join him with a numerous corps of cavalry, raised in his own country and in Aquitaine. Cæsar remained some time in Avaricum, where he found great store of provisions, and where the army recovered from its fatigues.479
Arrival of Cæsar at Decetia, and March towards Auvergne.
V. The winter was drawing to a close, and the season was propitious for the continuation of military operations. As Cæsar prepared to march against the enemy, either in order to draw him from the woods and marshes, or to shut him up in them, the principes of the Ædui came to request him to put an end to dissensions among them which threatened to degenerate into civil war. “The situation was most critical. In fact, according to ancient customs, the supreme authority was only granted to a single magistrate, named for a year. At that moment, however, there were two, each claiming to have been legally elected. The first was Convictolitavis, a young man of illustrious birth; the second, Cotus, sprung from a very ancient family, powerful also by his personal influence, his alliances, and whose brother, Valetiacus, had the year before filled the same office. The country was in arms, the Senate divided like the people, each of the pretenders at the head of his clients. The authority of Cæsar alone could prevent civil war.”
The Roman general considered it essential to prevent troubles from arising in an important state, closely attached to the Republic, and where the weakest party would not fail to call in the aid of Vercingetorix. Consequently, notwithstanding the inconvenience of suspending the military operations and moving from the enemy, he resolved to repair to the Ædui, whose first magistrate, according to the laws, could not leave the territory. Having thus aimed at proving to them the respect which he entertained for their institutions, he arrived at Decetia (Decize, in the Nivernais), where he called before him the Senate and the two pretenders.480 Nearly the whole nation came thither. Cæsar, having acquired the conviction that the nomination of Cotus was the result of an intrigue of the minority, obliged him to resign, and maintained Convictolitavis, who had been chosen by the priests, according to the legal forms and customs of the country.
After this decision, he engaged the Ædui to forget their quarrels, and to devote themselves entirely to the war; Gaul once subjected, he would recompense them for their sacrifices. He exacted from them all their cavalry and 10,000 infantry, intending to distribute them in such a manner as to ensure the regularity of the victualling department. He next divided his army into two bodies. Labienus, detached with two legions and part of the cavalry, had instructions to take at Sens the two other legions which Cæsar had left there, and to repair, at the head of those four legions, to the country of the Parisii, who had been drawn by Vercingetorix into the revolt.
On his part, Cæsar resolved, with the six other legions and the rest of the cavalry, to invade the country of the Arverni themselves, the focus of the insurrection. He started from Decetia, and directed his march upon Gergovia, the principal oppidum of that people.
After the capture of Avaricum, Vercingetorix, suspecting Cæsar’s ulterior designs, had moved towards the Allier, which the Romans were obliged to pass in order to reach Gergovia; and, on the news of their march, he had caused all the bridges to be destroyed.
Cæsar, having arrived on the banks of the Allier, towards Moulins (see Plate 19), followed its downward course, on the right bank. Vercingetorix, on his part, marched along the opposite bank. The two armies were within sight of each other, the camps nearly opposite, and the Gaulish scouts, who watched the left bank, prevented the Romans from establishing a bridge. The position of the latter was difficult, for the Allier, which is fordable in the autumn only, might delay their passage a long time.481 In order to surmount this obstacle, Cæsar had recourse to a stratagem: he fixed his camp in a place covered with wood, opposite the remains of one of the bridges which Vercingetorix had caused to be destroyed (probably at Varennes). There he remained hidden the following day with two legions, and made the rest of the troops, as well as the baggage, proceed in the usual order. But, that they might present to the enemy the appearance of six legions, he had divided into six corps the forty cohorts or four legions which he sent forward.482 They received the order to march as long as possible, in order to attract Vercingetorix, and, at the time Cæsar presumed that they had arrived at their camp, he caused the bridge to be rebuilt on the old piles, the lower part of which remained untouched. The work being soon completed, the legions which remained with him passed the river, and, after having chosen a favourable position, he recalled the mass of his army, which rejoined him during the night.483 When Vercingetorix was informed of this manœuvre, fearing lest he should be compelled to fight against his will, he took the start and marched in great haste to occupy the oppidum of the Arverni.
From the place he occupied, which we believe to have been Varennes,484 Cæsar reached Gergovia in five days; on the very day of his arrival, after a slight skirmish of cavalry, he reconnoitred the position of the town. As it was built on a very high mountain of difficult access, he considered it impossible to take it by assault; he therefore resolved to blockade it, and not to begin investing it until he had assured his provisions. (See Plate 21.)
Blockade of Gergovia.
VI. The oppidum of the Arverni was situated at a distance of six kilomètres to the south of Clermont-Ferrand, on the mountain which has preserved the name of Gergovia. Its summit, elevated about 740 mètres above the level of the sea, and 380 above the plain, forms a plateau of 1,500 mètres in length by more than 500 mètres in breadth. The northern and eastern slopes present such abrupt declivities that they defy the escalade. The southern slope presents a very different character: it may be compared to an immense staircase, the steps of which would be vast terraces with very little inclination, and a breadth which in some places extends to as much as 150 mètres.
On the western side, the mountain of Gergovia is attached by a narrow defile of 120 mètres in width, called the Goules (see Plate 21, C), to the heights of Risolles, an irregular mass, the plateau of which is at a mean depth of about 30 mètres beneath that of Gergovia. To the west are the detached mountains of Montrognon and Le Puy-Giroux. This latter is separated from that of Risolles by a rather deep gorge, in which the village of Opme is built. Opposite the southern slope of Gergovia, at the very foot of the mountain, rises a very steep hill, called the Roche Blanche. Its culminating point is at about 108 mètres below the plateau. Two brooks, the Auzon and the Artières,485 tributaries of the Allier, flow, one to the south, the other to the north of Gergovia. Lastly, a low tract of ground, situated to the east, indicates the site of the ancient marsh of Sarlièves, which has been dry since the seventeenth century.
Cæsar established his camp near the Auzon, on the undulations of the ground which extend to the north-west of the village of Orcet, and as far as the ancient marsh of Sarlièves. These undulations form a natural glacis towards the plain, above which they rise about thirty mètres; on the side of the stream of the Auzon they terminate in almost imperceptible slopes. The camp occupied a part of the table-land and of the northern slope.486 (See Plate 21.)
Vercingetorix had arranged the contingents of each country separately, at small intervals, on the southern slopes of the mountain of Gergovia and the mountain mass of Risolles which look towards the Auzun; they covered all the heights attached to the principal mountain, and presented, in the space which the eye could embrace, a formidable aspect.487 His principal camps were situated between the outer wall of the oppidum and a wall of large stones, six feet high, which ran along the bend of the hill.
Every day, at sunrise, the chiefs who composed the council of Vercingetorix repaired to him in order to make their reports or to receive his orders. Every day, also, he tried in slight engagements488 the courage of his cavalry mixed with archers. The Gauls occupied, as an advanced post, but by a weak garrison, La Roche-Blanche, which, scarped on three sides, presented an extremely strong position; Cæsar judged that, by taking possession of this hill, he would deprive the Gauls almost entirely of forage and water, for they could no longer descend to the Auzon, the only considerable stream in the neighbourhood. He started from the camp in the silence of the night, drove away this post before it could be succoured from the town, took the position, and placed two legions upon it. The Roche-Blanche became his smaller camp;489 it was joined to the larger one by a double ditch of twelve feet, which allowed the troops to communicate in safety, even singly, without fear of being surprised by the enemy. (See Plate 22.)
During this time, the Æduan Convictolitavis, who, as we have seen, owed the supreme magistracy to Cæsar, seduced by the money of the Arverni, resolved to abandon the party of the Romans, and entered into communication with several young men, at whose head was Litavicus and his brothers, descended from an illustrious family. He shares with them the price of his treason; exhorts them to remember that, born free, they are made to command in their country; proves to them that the lukewarmness of the Ædui alone delayed the general insurrection; and that they ought to value above everything the independence of their country. Seduced by such discourses and by the bait of gold, those young men occupy themselves only with the means of executing their project; yet, mistrusting the inclination of the people to be drawn into war, they decide that Litavicus shall take the command of the 10,000 men who were to join the Roman army, and induce them to revolt on the road, whilst his brothers go before them to Cæsar.
Litavicus began his march. At thirty miles from Gergovia (probably at Serbannes), he halts his troops, assembles them, and, spreading the report that Cæsar has caused the Æduan nobility and knights who were in his pay to be massacred, among others Eporedorix and Viridomarus, he easily persuades them to go and join the Arverni at Gergovia, instead of proceeding to the Roman camp. But, before taking this determination, he gives up to plunder the convoy of provisions which marched under his guard, causes the Romans who conducted it to be put to death with tortures, and then sends messengers to raise the whole country of the Ædui, by means of the same imposture. Eporedorix and Viridomarus, whose death he had falsely announced, were with Cæsar, who, by special favour, had raised Viridomarus from a very low to a high dignity. The former, informed of the design of Litavicus, came in the middle of the night to acquaint the proconsul with it, imploring him not to allow the folly of a few young men to detach his country from the Roman alliance. It would be too late when so many thousands of men had embraced the contrary party.
Cæsar, more affected by this news as he had always favoured the Ædui, takes immediately four legions, without baggage, and all the cavalry; he waits not even to contract the compass of the two camps, for everything depends upon celerity. His lieutenant, C. Fabius, is left to guard them, with two legions. He orders the brothers of Litavicus to be placed under arrest, and learns that they have just passed over to the enemy. His soldiers, encouraged to support the fatigues of the march, follow him with ardour, and at about twenty-five miles from Gergovia (near Randan, on the road which Litavicus had to follow to join Vercingetorix) they meet the Ædui. The cavalry, sent in advance, have orders to stop them without using their arms. Eporedorix and Viridomarus, who had been reported as dead, step forth from the ranks, speak to their fellow-citizens, and are recognised. As soon as the deception practised by Litavicus is discovered, the Ædui throw down their arms, ask for pardon, and obtain it. Litavicus flies to Gergovia, with his clients, who, in Gaul, never abandoned their patrons, not even in their worst fortunes.
Cæsar sent to the Ædui to represent to them how generously he had acted towards men whom the laws of war authorised him to put to death; and, after having given his army three hours’ rest during the night, he returned to his quarters before Gergovia. Half-way, horsemen came to inform him of the perilous position of Fabius. The camps had been attacked by troops which were unceasingly renewed. The Romans were exhausted by unceasing labour, for the great extent of the enclosure obliged them to remain continually on the vallum. The arrows and missiles of all sorts thrown by the barbarians had wounded a great number; but, on the other hand, the machines had been of great help in supporting the defence. After the retreat of the enemies, Fabius, expecting to be again attacked next day, had hastened to block up the gates of the great camp, with the exception of two, and to add a palisade to the vallum. On receiving this information, Cæsar hurried his march, and, seconded by the ardour of his soldiers, arrived at the camp before sunrise (having thus performed fifty miles, or seventy-four kilomètres, in twenty-four hours).490
While these events were taking place at Gergovia, the Ædui, also deceived by the news which Litavicus had spread, fall upon the Roman citizens, plunder their goods, kill some, and drag others to prison. It is Convictolitavis, also, who prompts these violences. The military tribune M. Aristius, who was on his way to join his legion, as well as the foreign merchants who resided in the country, are compelled to leave Cabillonum (Châlon-sur-Sâone). An escort is promised to protect them; but they have hardly started when they are attacked and stripped. They defend themselves, and their resistance, which lasts during twenty-four hours, calls a greater multitude to arms. However, as soon as the Ædui hear of the new submission of their troops, they exert themselves to the utmost to obtain their pardon; they have recourse to Aristius, throw the blame of the outbreak upon a few, order the plundered goods to be collected, and confiscate those of Litavicus and his brothers. They send deputies to Cæsar to excuse themselves. Their object, in acting thus, was to obtain the free disposal of their troops, for the consciousness of their treason and the fear of punishment made them, at the same time, conspire in secret with the neighbouring states.
Although informed of these secret plots, Cæsar received their deputies with kindness, declaring that he did not hold the nation responsible for the fault of some individuals, and that his feelings towards the Ædui were not changed. Nevertheless, as he foresaw a general insurrection of Gaul, which would surround him on all sides, he entertained serious thoughts of abandoning Gergovia, and again effecting the concentration of his whole army; but it was of importance that his retreat, caused by the sole fear of a general defection, should not appear to be a flight.
In the midst of these cares, the besieged offered him a favourable chance, of which he sought to take advantage. As he was visiting the little camp to inspect the works, he perceived that a hill (no doubt the hill marked A, which forms part of the mountain mass of Rissoles, see Plate 21), which was almost hidden from sight by the masses of enemies on the previous days, was clear of troops. Astonished at this change, he inquired the cause of the deserters, who came every day in crowds to surrender to him. All agreed in saying, as his scouts had already reported to him, that the mountain ridge to which this hill belonged (the top of the heights of Risolles) was almost flat, was connected with the town, and gave access to it by a narrow and wooded defile. (See Plates 21 and 22.) This point caused particular anxiety to the enemy; for if the Romans, already masters of La Roche-Blanche, gained possession of the mountain mass of Risolles, the Gauls would be almost entirely invested, and could neither escape nor go to forage. This was the reason why Vercingetorix had decided upon fortifying these heights, and had called thither all his troops.491
In accordance with this information, Cæsar sends in this direction, towards the middle of the night, several detachments of cavalry, with orders to scour with great noise the country in every direction at the foot of the heights of Risolles. At break of day, he sends out of the great camp many horses and mules without pack-saddles, and causes the muleteers to mount them, who put on helmets, so as to assume the appearance of mounted troopers. He enjoins them to wind round the hills, and a few cavalry who are joined with them have orders to spread wide over the country, so as to increase the illusion. Finally, they are all, by a long circuit, to move towards the spots which have just been mentioned. These movements were perceived from the town, which overlooked the camp, but at too great a distance to distinguish objects accurately. Cæsar sends towards the same mountain mass one legion, who, after having marched for a short distance, halt in a hollow, and pretend to hide in the woods (towards Chanonat), so as to feign a surprise. The suspicions of the Gauls increase; they take all their forces to the spot threatened. Cæsar, seeing the enemy’s camp deserted, orders the military ensigns (plumes, shields, &c.) to be covered, the standards to be lowered, and the troops to pass in small detachments from the great to the little camp, behind the epaulment of the double fosse of communication, so that they cannot be perceived from the oppidum.492 He communicates his intentions to the lieutenants placed at the heads of the legions, recommends them to take care to prevent the soldiers from allowing themselves to be carried away by the ardour of the combat or the hope of plunder, and draws their attention to the difficulties of the ground. “Celerity alone,” he says, “can enable us to overcome them; in fact, it is to be an attack by surprise, and not a fight.” Having communicated these directions, he gives the signal, and, at the same time, sends the Ædui out of the great camp, with orders to climb the eastern slopes of the mountain of Gergovia, to effect a diversion to the right. (See Plate 21.)
The distance from the wall of the oppidum to the foot of the mountain, where the ground is almost flat, was 1,200 paces (1,780 mètres) in the most direct line; but the way was longer, on account of the circuits it was necessary to make to break the steepness.493 Towards the middle of the southern slope, in the direction of its length, the Gauls, taking advantage of the character of the ground, had, as we have said, built a wall of large stones, six feet high, a serious obstacle in case of attack. The lower part of the slopes had remained free; but the upper part, up to the wall of the oppidum, was occupied with camps placed very near together. When the signal is given, the Romans reach rapidly the wall, scale it, and take three camps with such promptitude, that Teutomatus, king of the Nitiobriges, surprised in his tent where he was taking his repose in the middle of the day, fled half naked; his horse was wounded, and he escaped with difficulty from the hands of the assailants.