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Caesar Conquers Gaul,Penetrates Germany and Britain, 59-51 B.C.

By the first century B.C., Rome had come so thoroughly todominate the Mediterranean area that Greeks, Macedonians,Spaniards, Egyptians, Numidians, and others who occupiedterritory adjacent to that great body of water bowed to the cityon the Tiber River. Although the Romans had succeeded overthe course of three centuries since Brennus and the Senonestribe sacked Rome in 386 B.C. in driving the Gauls out of thePadus valley, pacifying all territory south of the Alps and orga-nizing it as the province of Gallia Cisalpina, and even carvingout a Roman province in southern Gaul called Gallia Transalpina(or Gallia Narbonensis), vast lands in wild Gaul, Germania, andeastward on the European continent remained unknown andunconquered. Particularly after Germanic tribes rampaged intoIllyricum and Gaul in the last quarter century of the secondcentury B.C. and inflicted terrible losses on Roman armies be-fore being overcome and destroyed, Roman commanders lis-tened to report of new incursions of barbarians with deadlyseriousness. Add to the mix that the proconsul in command ofGallia Cisalpina, Gallia Transalpina, and Illyricum with six le-gions in 58 B.C. was the ambitious and ruthless Gaius JuliusCaesar, aware that military victories always translated into po-litical power in Rome, and the following events can better beunderstood.

Hearing in spring 58 B.C. that the Tigurini north of theAlps, defeated in 102 B.C. by Marius and chased out of Italyby Sulla, had merged with the Helveti, a larger tribe numbering300,000 people (with reputedly 190,000 fighting men), and werepreparing as an advance guard of the Helveti to migrate west-ward across Gaul in search of wider lands to contain theirgrowing populations, Caesar sent Legate Titus Labienus withone legion up the Rhodanus valley to rebuff them on the IsaraRiver. He then came up with his other five legions to block theHelveti near Lake Geneva and turn them back. Receiving anappeal by the Aedui from their capital of Bibracte that Ariovistusand the Germanic Suebi were threatening the Sequani Gauls,he continued northward toward Bibracte. The Helveti unex-pectedly followed and offered battle. There before Bibracte,Caesar defeated the barbarians and went on to storm theirwagon camp in a fight that lasted until midnight. After slaugh-tering 200,000 men, women, and children, he permitted 100,000

survivors to return to their homeland to serve as a buffer againstother Germanic tribes.

Caesar perceived that the disunity of the Gauls presenteda danger and an opportunity. The danger was that powerfulGermans like the Suebi would pour across the Rhenus (Rhine)River and either conquer or unite with the Gauls to form aneven greater threat to Rome’s frontier than already existed.The opportunity was that if he moved swiftly to seal the bor-der between Gaul and Germania, he could isolate the historicbut disunited enemies of Rome for conquest. Thus, he wantedto strike eastward toward Vesontio to answer the appeal of theSequani to aid them against Ariovistus. Except for the 10thLegion his army balked at the unauthorized campaign until heshamed them by insisting he would attack with only one le-gion if necessary and conquer or die as the gods saw fit. March-ing unexpectedly between the eastern foothills of the Vosgesmountains and the Rhenus, he attacked the Suebi at the wan-ing of the moon to take advantage of barbarian superstitionagainst fighting at such time. In a great rout, he drove themback across the river, killing 80,000.

Suddenly, Caesar’s legions came to believe what Caesaralready knew—that their military skill and tactical advantagein battle made them Roman wolves among barbarian sheep.Thus, he had little difficulty recruiting two more legions in hisprovinces over the winter and convincing his officers to plan anew campaign north into the third of Gaul he called GalliaBelgica ostensibly to retaliate against the various Belgae tribesfor raiding into Sequani territory but actually to conquer newlands, treasure, and slaves for Rome. No match for the disci-plined legions and their cunning commander, several wereswiftly defeated and the Nervi, the most powerful, lost 60,000men in battle. At once Caesar dispatched Publius LiciniusCrassus, the triumvir’s son, to obtain the submission of tribesin the northwest of Gaul while he approached the English Chan-nel. Legions garrisoned at key sites in northeastern and cen-tral Gaul imposed a veneer of order over Rome’s vast newlyconquered territory. Caesar had to call a halt to further cam-paigning to deal with the political situation at home.

In April 56 B.C., Caesar journeyed to Luca in CisalpineGaul to meet with Pompeius, Crassus, and 200 senators to

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arrange for continuation of his com-mand in Gaul, more money, and ad-ditional legions. In his absence,Publius Crassus sent envoys tocollect grain from the Veneti, Esubii,and Coriosolites of the northwest.However, they were promptly takenprisoner, which provoked Caesarwhen he returned to move ruth-lessly to suppress the revolt. WhileLabienus kept watch on the Belgae,Legate Quintus Titurius Sabinusattacked the Coriosolites, andCrassus drove south into GalliaAquitania, Caesar marched throughVeneti territory to the ocean. He

finally overcame them in a naval battle commanded by DecimusJunius Brutus Albinus in Quiberon Bay. The entire Venetipopulation was enslaved and the leaders were executed.

Just as Caesar feared, two more Germanic tribes—theUsipetes and Tencteri—crossed the Rhenus in spring 55 B.C.,

driving the Menapi out of their lands at the mouth of that greatriver. At first he thought it wise to conclude a truce and opennegotiations, but after lulling them into a false sense of secu-rity attacked and destroyed three quarters of their people, men,women, and children. When the remnant took refuge east of

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the Rhenus with the Sugambri, he used that as a pretext tobridge the river and ravage Sugambri lands for 18 days. Al-though his political enemies in Rome, led by Marcus PorciusCato, proposed that for violating a truce and massacring somany people without pity he should be handed over to theGermans, majority sentiment was approval that dangerous en-emies of Rome had been punished.

The Gauls apparently pacified and the Germans intimi-dated, Caesar crossed the English Channel late in the year in ahastily constructed invasion fleet, landed in Britannia, andcompelled the stunned submission of minor tribes. However,storms destroyed his ships; under attack by more powerfultribes, he repaired the fleet and sailed back to Gaul.

Returning to Britannia in spring 54 B.C. with five legionsand a contingent of Gallic cavalry, Caesar marched inland, wona victory near the modern site of Canterbury, returned to thecoast after another storm damaged his ships, crossed theThames River, overawed the Trinovantes tribe, and defeatedKing Casivellaunus of the Catuvellauni tribe in battle. South-east Britannia therefore fell under his nominal sway. When hewithdrew to Gaul, however, no garrisons were left.

Encouraged and supported by the Sugambri, KingAmbiorix and the Eburones, as well as the Treveri and Menapi,attacked two legions garrisoned for the winter at Atuatucacommanded by Sabinus and Lucius Aurunculeius Cotta whilethe surviving Nervi of 60,000 men besieged Legate QuintusTullius Cicero, the orator’s brother, and a single legion in hiscamp. Caesar returned in time from Britannia to crush them all,then with two legions crossed the Rhenus a second time topunish the Sugambri. He now realized that he needed moremen to hold his conquest. In53 B.C., he borrowed two morelegions from Pompeius andraised another in CisalpineGaul.

In early 52 B.C., a massa-cre of Roman officials atCenabum touched off a gen-eral rebellion of tribes in cen-tral Gaul led by the Arvernianchieftain Vercingetorix.Caught by surprise, Caesarhastened back with a small es-cort through snow and hostileterritory to reach the legionsin their garrison camps. Boldly,he marched to unite disparateunits and beat off Gallic forceswhile reducing strongholdsand securing supplies. Re-uniting with Labienus, whomhe had dispatched to attack theBellovaci north of Agedincum,he clashed with Vercingetorix

and 80,000 of the enemy. When the barbarians took refuge inthe hilltop fortress of Alesia, he built walls of circumvellationaround the place such as his uncle Marius told him the greatPublius Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus used to besiege Numantiain Spain 134-133 B.C., then desperately staved off attacks by aGallic relieving force of 248,000 under Commius. Vercingetorixcapitulated and was transported in chains to Rome, to lan-guish in prison for six years before walking in Caesar’s tri-umph and being ritually strangled.

Assembling a powerful force of seven legions, Caesardrove north in spring 51 B.C. against the Bellovaci and crushedall resistance in central Gaul. However, with exasperation, helearned that yet another uprising had occurred at Uxellodonumin southwest Gaul, where Gallic survivors of the force led byCommius were hold up. Racking his brain how to stamp outonce and for all rebellion and free himself to deal with thecoming political showdown with Pompeius Magnus that wouldignite into the Second Roman Civil War, he remembered whathis uncle Marius once quoted the great Scipio Aemilianus assaying, that massacres are sometimes not the answer whendealing with stiff-necked barbarians because they do not feardeath. Thus, when he surrounded Uxellodonum and forcedits surrender, he did not annihilate the survivors but cut offthe hands of all prisoners. This ruthless tactic had been usedby Scipio Aemilianus at Lutia during the siege of Numantia.After that, Gaul was truly pacified.

In nearly a decade of campaigning in Gaul, Caesar killedone million of its three million people and captured and en-slaved another million. The million who remained made ac-commodation with the new state of affairs.

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