Enemies of Rome 7.3 - VERCINGETORIX - “The Siege of Avaricum”

herverisson (70)in #history • 7 years ago

Just when Caesar had gone back to Rome, thinking his job was done, Gaul erupts in another revolt, much more serious, led by the Arverni chieftain called Vercingetorix - cutting off the Roman legions left behind from their leader.

Vercingetorix had completely taken Caesar by surprise and for a few weeks the ambitious general was at a loss about how to join back his legions. He could not even rely on the tribes which had formally submitted to him: if he left the safety of the Narbonensis Gaul, he could be seized or killed. Vercingetorix decided to take advantage of the situation as best as possible. While he led his main army north to attack the Bituriges, a tribe allied to Rome, he sent Lucterius to attack Narbo, the big roman port which gave its name to the Gallic roman province.

A reconstitution of Narbo at the time of the Republic [Source]

Caesar immediately understood that he could not let the situation spiral out of control, into the own borders of the Republic and rushed to defend Narbo. Levying troops among local tribes, and with a contingent of fresh recruits from Italy and from the Helvetii tribe (remember them?), Caesar managed to present a sufficiently united front to check Lucterius and convince them that Narbo was out of reach.

At this point, it was already late in the year anyway and Lucterius backtracked to the safety of Central Gaul - thinking that nothing else would happen this year.

Crossing the Cevennes

But it was badly underrating Caesar, who could not wait till spring to relieve his legions and decided to cross the Cevennes mountain passes in spite of the snow. Behind the mountain passes was the territory of the Arverni themselves, so it was really a question of throwing himself into the wolf’s den:

although mount Cevennes, which separates the Arverni from the Helvii, blocked up the way with very deep snow, as it was the severest season of the year; yet having cleared away the snow to the depth of six feet, and having opened the roads, he reaches the territories of the Arverni, with infinite labor to his soldiers.

Even if the mountains of Cevennes are not as high as the Alps, they are a daunting obstacle in winter. [Source]

The Arverni were taken totally by surprise:

because they considered themselves defended by the Cevennes as by a wall, and the paths at this season of the year had never before been passable even to individuals.

But even so, Caesar was badly outnumbered and did his best to make his feeble forces more formidable than what they are...

he orders the cavalry to extend themselves as far as they could, and strike as great a panic as possible into the enemy.

The move had the effect to put an halt to the offensive of Vercingetorix in the North, but also to scatter them. When Vercingetorix arrived back in the Arverni territory, Caesar had already left and crossed north.

Concentration.

Caesar has successfully crossed into Gaul, evaded capture, confounded the Gauls, and soon, reunites with his legions:

Having arranged these matters, he marches to Vienna by as long journeys as he can, when his own soldiers did not expect him. Finding there a fresh body of cavalry, which he had sent on to that place several days before, marching incessantly night and day, he advanced rapidly through the territory of the Aedui into that of the Lingones, in which two legions were wintering, that, if any plan affecting his own safety should have been organized by the Aedui, he might defeat it by the rapidity of his movements. When he arrived there, he sends information to the rest of the legions, and gathers all his army into one place before intelligence of his arrival could be announced to the Arverni.

The approximate road followed by Caesar.

Such rapidity is a signature move of the wars of Caesar, giving him the initiative over his enemy. Vercingetorix immediately gives chase:

Vercingetorix, on hearing this circumstance, leads back his army into the country of the Bituriges; and after marching from it to Gergovia, a town of the Boii, whom Caesar had settled there after defeating them in the Helvetian war, and had rendered tributary to the Aedui, he determined to attack it.

Hide and Seek

Seeing Vercingetorix attack Gergovia gives Caesar another conundrum to solve:

he feared, lest, if he should confine his legions in one place for the remaining portion of the winter, all Gaul should revolt when the tributaries of the Aedui were subdued, because it would appear that there was in him no protection for his friends; but if he should draw them too soon out of their winter quarters, he might be distressed by the want of provisions, in consequence of the difficulty of conveyance.

Rather than hunker down in some fort, Caesar decides to fight:

After leaving some supplies and troops in Agendicum (now Sens, in France), Caesar decides to go relieve Gergovia as fast as possible, but first, he besieges the towns of Venaulladonum and them Genobum, to leave no possible enemy in his rear. As you recall, Genobum is the town where the Carnutes massacred the Romans merchants. Caesar gives no quarter to the city once conquered:

He pillages and burns the town, gives the booty to the soldiers, then leads his army over the Loire, and marches into the territories of the Bituriges.

His objective is to take Novodionum, which he does, almost under the eyes of the vanguard of Vercingetorix army, before to turn to Avaricum, which would put him in control of the whole Bituriges country and cancel all Vercingetorix previous gains!

War Council

In his letters, Caesar tells us that Vercingetorix was really angry at seeing the Gauls lose the initiative and having to play catch up with Caesar:

He impresses on them ʺthat the war must be prosecuted on a very different system from that which had been previously adopted; but they should by all means aim at this object, that the Romans should be prevented from foraging and procuring provisions; that this was easy, because they themselves were well supplied with cavalry, and were likewise assisted by the season of the year; that forage could not be cut; that the enemy must necessarily disperse, and look for it in the houses, that all these might be daily destroyed by the horse.

What he recommends is nothing short from the most extreme scorched earth tactics:

Besides that, the towns ought to be burned which were not secured against every danger by their fortifications or natural advantages; that there should not be places of retreat for their own countrymen for declining military service, nor be exposed to the Romans as inducements to carry off abundance of provisions and plunder.

And his words seem to have weighed in the debate quite significantly:

This opinion having been approved of by unanimous consent, more than twenty towns of the Bituriges are burned in one day.

However, Avaricum - the crown jewel of the Bituriges - is spared and prepared to be defended at all cost and is the next stage for the battle:

Vercingetorix follows closely upon Caesar by shorter marches, and selects for his camp a place defended by woods and marshes, at the distance of fifteen miles from Avaricum.

Avaricum

The town of Avaricum (nowadays Bourges) was one of the biggest of all Gaul. It was said to count as many as 40.000 inhabitants, and was therefore exactly what was needed for the exhausted and hungry legions which Caesar had forced out of their winter-quarters.

The Roman soldiers construct their usual siege engines and build a mound to assault the fortifications, measures which are immediately opposed by the defending Gauls:

They had furnished, more over, the whole wall on every side with turrets, and had covered them with skins. Besides, in their frequent sallies by day and night, they attempted either to set fire to the mound, or attack our soldiers when engaged in the works; and, moreover, by splicing the upright timbers of their own towers, they equaled the height of ours, as fast as the mound had daily raised them, and countermined our mines, and impeded the working of them by stakes bent and sharpened at the ends, and boiling pitch and stones of very great weight, and prevented them from approaching the walls.

Meanwhile, Vercingetorix kept harassing the Roman camp and destroying every supply delivery reaching them from their allies. It was a race to the finish: would the town fall first, or the Roman give up their siege?

Eventually, Caesar finds one more time that luck is on his side, during a day of fighting, a storm breaks out and the rain chases the defenders from the walls of the cities:

the tower being advanced, and the works which he had determined to raise being arranged, a violent storm arising, thought this no bad time for executing his designs, because he observed the guards arranged on the walls a little too negligently, and therefore ordered his own men to engage in their work more remissly, and pointed out what he wished to be done.

The town is quickly secured and the massacre can begin:

A part was then slain by the infantry when they were crowding upon one another in the narrow passage of the gates; and a part having got without the gates, were cut to pieces by the cavalry: nor was there one who was anxious for the plunder. Thus, being excited by the massacre at Genabum and the fatigue of the siege, they spared neither those worn out with years, women, or children.

As for Vercingetorix, it is a disaster:

Finally, out of all that number, which amounted to about forty thousand, scarcely eight hundred, who fled from the town when they heard the first alarm, reached Vercingetorix in safety