The Gallic Wars were a series of military campaigns waged by the Roman proconsul Julius Caesar against several Gallic tribes in what is now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland, and northern Italy, in addition to a brief excursion into the British Isles. Following the decisive Battle of Alesia in 52 BC, the Romans annexed Gaul as a province, and Caesar became a hero in Rome for his many military victories.
Background[]
From 113 BC, Rome found itself at war with the Cimbri and Teutones, Germanic tribes migrating from the Baltic to invade the territory of the Romans and their allies in Gaul. The Roman legions suffered heavy defeats, experiencing their worst casualties since the Punic Wars. The tide was turned under Gaius Marius, who defeated the Teutones at Aquae Sextiae (modern-day Aix-en-Provence in southern France) in 102 BC. To strengthen the Roman forces for that campaign and for a war against the Berber Jugurtha in North Africa, Gaius Marius recruited volunteers from among the poorest Roman citizens into the legions. Formerly a citizen militia, the Roman army mutated into a professional force of full-time career soldiers. Military leaders also began to vie for political power: Marius and his rival general, Sulla, twice fought civil wars for control of Rome, in 88-87 and again in 83-82 BCE.
War[]
In 59 BC, Julius Caesar, a member of the aristocracy with a modestly successful military record, served as a Roman consul. This one-year appointment was traditionally followed by a posting to govern a province. Since Caesar was a close ally of Rome’s most successful general, Pompey, and its richest citizen, Crassus, he was given control of the extensive area of Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), Transalpine Gaul (Provence), and Illyricum (the Balkans) for five years instead of the usual one-year term. It was an opportunity for Caesar to win military glory - important for a politically ambitious man - and to find plunder to pay off his considerable debts.
A warlike people[]
Cisalpine Gaul and Illyricum were peaceful, but in Transalpine Gaul Caesar found ample scope for war-making. Among the Celtic tribes known to the Romans as the Gauls, warfare was endemic. The tribes had traditionally been led by warrior chieftains who raided their neighbors and distributed the proceeds to reward their warband. Although Gallic societies were evolving away from this primitive model, tribes formed alliances against one another and in order to defend against pressure from outsiders such as Germanic people from east of the Rhine. From the Gauls’ point of view, the Roman presence fitted quite easily into this world. They were happy to enter into temporary alliances with Rome, calling for military support when they needed it and joining the Romans in attacks on rival tribes. But they did not expect that they would be reduced to a permanently subservient status.
Gaul, Germany, and Britain[]
Caesar’s first wars in Gaul after taking up command in 58 BC were fought in alliance with the Aedui, tribes that lived between the Saone and Loire rivers. The first enemy was the Helvetii, a people from Switzerland who set out to migrate to western Gaul. Caesar fought and defeated them, forcing those that survived to return to their homeland. Then the Aedui asked for protection against the Germanic warrior, Ariovistus; Caesar’s legions confronted him in the Vosges and drove him back across the Rhine. These defensive campaigns were followed by a series of much bolder operations that extended the boundaries of Roman domination. On the pretext again of an attack on a Celtic ally, Caesar invaded the territory of the Belgic tribes to the northeast in 57 BC. The following year he defeated the Veneti in Brittany. In 55 BC he ventured beyond the borders of Gaul, bridging the Rhine for a foray into Germany and taking two legions across the English Channel on board 80 transport ships.
This landing in Britain was repeated the following year on a larger scale, the Romans advancing as far north as the Thames River, although Caesar left no permanent presence. By 54 BC Caesar had expanded the Roman-ruled area of Gaul from southern France to the Atlantic, Channel, and North Sea coasts. Publicized by Caesar himself in his written accounts of his wars, these successes greatly enhanced his reputation. His term as provincial governor was extended from five to ten years. The campaigns had enabled him to improve the training and combat experience of his legions and weld them into an army loyal to himself, rather than to the Republic. The legions were not invulnerable: during the campaign against the Belgic tribes in 57 BC they were nearly defeated by a surprise attack while making camp near the Sambre River. All legionaries by this period fought as heavy infantry, with skirmishers and cavalry provided by various auxiliaries - Gauls and Germans, along with other peoples from as far afield as Crete and North Africa.
The Romans were superior to their Gallic enemies in discipline, logistics, and engineering skills - fortification and bridge building - but in a face-to-face fight, a Gallic warrior was still a formidable opponent. Widespread resentment against the Romans began to show itself in the winter of 54-53 BC. The Belgic tribes revolted and a Roman column was ambushed and annihilated. Another garrison had to be rescued by a relief column. The following winter Vercingetorix, who had established himself as leader of the Arverni, succeeded in uniting the tribes of Western and central Gaul in an uprising against the Romans. Caesar went on the offensive, but Vercingetorix cleverly avoided pitched battle. His plan was to let the Romans exhaust themselves in long sieges of fortified hill towns, while depriving them of supplies through a scorched earth policy and harassing them with his cavalry. Caesar succeeded in taking the town of Avaricum after a 25-day siege - almost the entire population was massacred when the town fell - but Gergovia, near modern-day Clermont-Ferrand, was successfully defended against the legions.
Showdown at Alesia[]
A Gallic ambush
For a while the Gallic and Roman armies skirmished and shadowed one another. Finally, Vercingetorix installed his army at the fortified hill town of Alesia, where he was besieged. Some of his cavalry broke through the Roman lines and rode off to call on the allied tribes to send reinforcements. Once Caesar’s legionaries had completed the fortifications around the town, it was under total blockade and the Gauls began to starve. They attempted to send away their women and children but the Romans would not allow it. When a Gallic relief force arrived, there was bitter fighting. The Romans found themselves attacked from both sides as Vercingetorix’s warriors coordinated attempted breakouts with attacks on the Roman fortifications and lines by his allies outside. There was a moment when the legionaries were almost overrun, but they held and the relief force was eventually driven off. Vercingetorix had no choice but to surrender, riding into Caesar's camp and laying down his arms at his feet.
Aftermath[]
Caesar's victory at Alesia guaranteed Roman rule in Gaul, which was to last for the following 500 years. Roman troops returned to occupy Britain in 43 AD. The prestige that accrued to Caesar through his campaigns in Gaul were a threat to the position of his rival general, Pompey, in Rome. Caesar was not allowed the celebration of a triumph and, in 50 BC, was ordered to disband his army. Instead, he marched on Rome and civil war followed. Caesar's triumph for his Gallic victories finally took place in Rome in 46 BC. At the triumph, Vercingetorix, held prisoner since Alesia, was first displayed to the Roman public, then executed by strangulation.