“Woe to the vanquished.”

Fall of the Republic

 

“Woe to the vanquished.”

 

In 390 BC, the Gallic chief Brennus defeated the Roman army at the Battle of Allia, entering the city itself, failing only to occupy the Capitoline Hill. After a lengthy siege that saw both sides ravaged by illness and lack of supplies, the Romans agreed to pay 1,000 pounds of gold for the barbarians to leave. When they complained that the scales he was using were weighted (and thus they were having to pay more gold than agreed), Brennus threw his sword on the scales too, laughing as he declared “Vae victis!” – woe to the vanquished. The exiled dictator Camillus would earn the title “the Second Founder of Rome” for allegedly expelling the Gauls from the city and reclaiming the gold, declaring: “It is not by gold, but by iron that our nation will be recovered.”

 

Three centuries later, the shadow of Brennus still loomed large over Rome. The Gauls, who had now been regularly defeated as the Romans claimed Cisalpine Gaul (northern Italy), and then the Province of Gaul (Provence, France). The Gauls retained an air of mythical power as heinous villains, and were greatly revered by the Romans. It was to this backdrop that Caesar set off north to Gaul, with the Roman population expecting his legionaries to be facing inhuman giants and monsters. The Romans split Gaul into “long haired” Gaul and “short haired Gaul”, the latter also referred to as “toga wearing Gaul”, with the idea that the land became less civilised, and more barbaric, the further away they were from Romans.

 

Caesar found his pretext for his conquest of Gaul when a Roman ally tribe, the Aedui, was defeated by the Helvetii coalition at the Battle of Magetobriga several years earlier. The Helvetii coalition, around 263,000 strong, had since begun to occupy land further into Gaul following their migration from the Swiss plateau, threatening the balance of power in Gaul. The Helvetiui soaked up other tribes into their coalition, and destroyed the lands of those who resisted. When the Helvetii moved to cross the Rhone, Caesar made for Geneva, raising auxiliary units to subsidise the one existing legion, and destroying the bridge. It is worth noting that the primary source for Caesar’s campaigns are the man himself, who proved to be an excellent PR guru as well as general, maintaining an autobiography to keep the public back in Rome enthralled of, and in support of, him. So treat some of his accomplishments as rather embellished!

 

When the Helvetii moved to cross the Rhone, they sought permission from Caesar, who stalled. Caesar returned to Cisalpine Gaul, taking command of the three legions there and raising two fresh ones, before returning and denying them permission to cross. The Helvetii were now raiding and pillaging across other southern Gallic tribes, many of them Roman allies who appealed for help. Caesar surprised the Helvetii by launched an either genius or cowardly ambush (depending on your disposition!), and when three quarters of them had crossed the Saone, he attacked those still on the east bank, and routed them at the Battle of Arar.

 

The Romans then built a bridge to pursue the Helvetii, which they did until their supply chain struggled, at which point Caesar had his cavalry track them. When the Roman supply route began to fail and they had to stock up on provisions, the Helvetii turned around and became the pursuers. With their rearguard now under attack, Caesar found a suitable hill and stood his legions to proffer battle. Betwixt 150,000 and 350,000 (that being Caesar’s estimate!) threw themselves at his 40,000 Romans at the Battle of Bibracte. Attacking at noon, the Helvetii were initially thrown back by the barrage of Romans javelins, which allowed the legionaries to pursue them downhill, only for another segment of the Gallic army to then move to flank the Romans. Caesar said “the contest long and vigorously carried on, doubtful of success”. Caesar showed his trademark mobility in taking charge of different areas of the battle to maintain cohesion, eventually driving off the Helvetii having killed (supposedly!) 110,000 of them. Taking three days to rest and bury the dead, Caesar then threatened a Helvetii alley not to offer them refuge, leading to their surrender, and the return of 6,000 who had refused, who were executed. Caesar ordered them to return home, even providing the supplies they needed to rebuild, knowing they would provide a useful buffer betwixt Rome and the northern tribes.

 

Many of the Gallic tribes soon sought an audience with Caesar to proffer their congratulations, thank him for driving the Helvetii off their lands, and request to become “friends of Rome”. They also presented a new problem to him – the continued encroachment of Ariovistus, the German chieftain who the Senate had already declared a Friend of Rome. Unable to thus explicitly attack his tribe, Caesar instead issued the ultimatum that Ariovistus could not cross the Rhine, and must return the Aedui hostages. The German replied that he and Rome were both conquerors, and Caesar had no jurisdiction over his actions. When Ariovistus moved to cross the Rhine, Caesar had the justification he needed for war in 58 BC.

 

Caesar and Ariovistus met under truce, with Caesar wanting Roman protection. Having only auxiliary cavalry, he thus had the Tenth Legion use their horses to accompany him to the meeting, gaining them the moniker “the Mounted Tenth”. This meeting ended abruptly when some of the Germans began throwing stones at the Romans, and Ariovistus was insulted when Caesar sent a merchant in his place to a second meeting. Caesar had to shame his legates that he would fight with just the Tenth to convince them to march. Some reports show that the Germans practices “head binding”, whereby babies would have a tight strap placed around their chin and skull, distorting the growth of the skull by applying pressure to the soft spot where it has not fully formed on babies. This gave them a terrifying alien appearance, with a protracted skull extending further forwards and a step/plateau on their skull. While it may seem barbaric, there are many similar examples through history, such as the Chinese binding the feet of young girls, breaking the foot and folding it in two to make it tiny, a practice which persisted until the early Twentieth Century, while Thai/Burmese tribes still practice placing rings around the necks of children and adding to these, to the point their necks would break if they would be removed. I wonder what our descendants will think of our practices – will they judge humans today for many continuing to practice circumcision on boys and body piercings on girls? An interesting thought!

 

Caesar was unable to coax Ariovistus into attacking his legionary camp, then succeeded with a second, smaller camp, and repulsed the attack. The next morning Caesar prepared his legions in front of the camp, with himself on the right. Publius Crassus, son of Caesar’s fellow triumvir, led a decisive cavalry charge to throw back the Germans as they were beginning to push back the Romans. This caused the whole line to crumble and break, with most of the 120,000 Germans slaughtered, though Ariovistus and many of his guard were able to flee back east across the Rhine.

 

Back in Rome, food shortages were causing popular unrest. Cicero persuaded the Senate to increase Pompey’s power further as he was made “prefect of the provisions”, for five years. His opponent, Clodius, alleged that the famine was engineering to boost Pompey’s power. Plutarch stated that the new position made Pompey “master of all land and sea under Roman possession”. Pompey’s agents went to Sicily, Sardinia and Africa to find grain, finding such an abundance that the markets were filled and able to sell to foreign lands, further swelling popular opinion in support of Pompey.

 

In the new province of Syria, the Proconsul Gabinius welcomed a new recruit to his military attaché, the young Mark Antony. Against the wishes of the Senate, Antony managed to persuade Gabinius to pursue a war in Egypt to support Ptolemy XII in reclaiming the throne, while also paying a handsome bribe for Roman support. Defeating the frontier tribes, the palace at Alexandria opened its doors to Ptolemy, with his restoration now effectively making Egypt a Roman vassal. While here, Antony first met a 14-year-old Cleopatra. During this time Antony married his cousin, with whom he had one daughter, Antonia Prima.

 

Caesar’s legions were again on the march during his Gallic blitzkrieg, this time interfering in another inter-tribal conflict against the Balgae (Belgium). Caesar mastered the divide and conquer strategy, keeping the tribes from unifying against him, supporting various ones in turn against their enemies, until his opponents were too few to defy him. His troops were surprised at the Battle of Sabis, almost suffering a humiliating defeat as he had insufficient time to organise his legions. Caesar lost all of his legions, and most of his centurions, having to personally take a shield and fight as the Tenth made an inspiring stand to rally the rest of the troops. When reinforcements arrived, he was able to regroup and repulse the Belgae.

 

One tribe, the Nervii, refused to break even when their allies fled. A warlike people who refused to used projectile weapons, the legionaries and their auxiliaries hailed down a pitiless rain of javelins, arrows, slingshot and ballistae, causing mass casualties among the densely packed Nervii. Still they refused to yield, making ramparts from their dead, until they were all killed. With the defeat of the Nervii, the client tribes that had paid tribute to them defected to Rome. With it almost being five years since his election, Caesar moved back to Italia for the winter, there to meet with his fellow triumvirs and cement their alliance with new terms, which would see the continuation of Caesar’s campaign allowing him to lead the first legions into Britain, while Crassus would make the disastrous decision to mount a full-scale invasion of the Parthian Empire.