Between 390 and 387 BC, the Gauls pulverized the Roman armies at the Alia River and fiercely advanced into the heart of the burgeoning republic. Who was going to tell the leader who led them, Brennus, that a few centuries later they would be the ones who would face the Roman legions in their own territories. Woe to the losers!
Rome and her army
Evidently, the Rome that Vercingetorix encountered had absolutely nothing to do with the military apparatus presented by the Republic against which Brennus fought. The consul has a lot to do with it Mario at the end of the second century BC Through his army reform, the troops had better training and greater homogeneity since it broke with the previous specializations of hastati, princeps and triarii. The legions were organized into ten (X) cohorts of six centuries -100 men-, the first being made up of more experienced soldiers and the last made up of recent men.
It cannot be forgotten that at this point the army becomes permanent, they are no longer levies recruited in a time of need. Thus, Rome became a military power with a highly mobile and professional army.
In addition, the troops would carry their weapons and provisions, thus lightening the speed of movement by not having to have an important train of supplies behind. It also had a double function since it turned the soldiers into authentic athletes capable of carrying out enormous displacements with all their supplies on their backs. If we add to this the hard training and the iron discipline to which they were subjected, we can realize that a legionnaire was an enemy to be taken into account.
When it came down to it, the numbers weren’t as tight as we’d like to think. Perhaps one of the greatest defects, or virtues, of the human being is that we tend to classify everything and establish each thing as a fixed and immutable line. However, reality is not always like this, and this is the case because the legions adapted to the needs of the Italian city.
Behind them they practically carried another legion, but in this case it is a legion of followers since they followed in their footsteps a large number of merchants, prostitutes and members of other professions who saw a real gold mine in the armies that became traveling cities.
We cannot forget the corps of auxiliaries, soldiers from other Italian, African, Hispanic, Greek or even Gallic cities that made up for the shortcomings of the Roman heavy infantry with their own combat styles. Marius promised Roman citizenship to anyone who completed military service as long as they were born on the Italian peninsula. But this story is not about Gaius Marius, but about his nephew Gaius Julius Caesar, a lowly Roman patrician who was born in 100 BC
After Mario’s death, Sulla establishes a regime of purges in which César is compromised by his ideology and kinship with the deceased. Even so, he would have a social, political and military rise that would take him to the scene with the culmination of a triumvirate with Pompey and Crassus in which he would become consul. Finishing his mandate he would become proconsul cum empire in Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul, this means that he could lead armies in this theater of operations.
Why carry out an expedition in the territory? Well, at the time looting was considered normal. Julius Caesar was not exactly from a wealthy family, on the contrary, he was a patrician but his economy was battered and run down. This operation would allow him to pay off his debts and increase his political, military and economic prestige that would serve to compare him to his other companions of the triumvirate who were very famous.
Another essential character in this military adventure is Titus Labienus, the second in command in Caesar’s army. Pompey’s influence on his person was very great, in fact he became Tribune of the Plebs thanks to him. In Gaul he was the legacy, having the supreme power when Caesar was not present, we will see how in the Belgian Campaign he triumphs with a more than remarkable tactical display.
We also meet Marco Antonio, an unquestionable character from Classical History who would later confront Octavio for control of the city. In De Bello Gallico, César tends to look down on him, like almost everyone who is not himself.
The Roman army was composed in this campaign by between 20,000 and 30,000 legionnaires of the VII, VIII, IX and X, all veterans. He had also recruited the XI and the XII during their time in Italy. A Roman army at this time was made up of heavy infantry – the aforementioned legionaries – flanked by wings of legionary and Gallic cavalry. The Roman army also had light troops such as slingers or archers that were used to harass the enemy. There was also artillery, like the fearsome Roman scorpion.
With the reform of Marius, as we have seen, the panoply of the Romans became uniform. The helmet was known as boggenum -of Celtic origin-, an evolution of the helmet of montefortino that it was beginning to develop a protection for the neck but that it still did not have earmuffs like the famous imperial helmet, seeing that the Gallic weapons were very dangerous, the helmet began to evolve to one with greater protection both on the neck and on the sides of the face . To protect their chest they wear a coat of mail that received the terminology of lorica hamata, shoulder pads and a belt were responsible for distributing the weight. The shield was generally oval and curved -in Caesar’s time- and served to defend against melee and distance attacks, also protecting the sides, that of the cavalry was not curved. For its part, the offensive panoply was formed by the famous pillum a kind of javelin with impressive piercing ability and a short sword known as gladius.
Tactically they used the triplex acies. His infantry was deployed in a triple line that reinforced the bottom of the formation, preventing it from breaking. Thus a hit to the center was not capable of destroying the formation and pocketing.
What were the Gauls like?
The Gallic tribes belong mostly to what has been called celtic culture (Culture of the tene) and it is characterized by being practically agraph. This means that writing was not developed for different reasons, we cannot forget that its development always arises as a necessity, if society did not require its use because it adhered to other mechanisms, it is evident that it would not be carried out. It is remarkable that writing generally arose in civilizations with more than remarkable levels of state and social bureaucratization.
The only cases in which writing is widespread among the Celts is among the social class of the Druids who used it to preserve their rites and show their power. Be that as it may, the very strong oral tradition meant that some of its legends and heroes were preserved, which would be compiled in writing by the hands of early medieval monks.
They were warriors who fought as mercenaries in different Mediterranean conflicts and bravely stood out. During the Punic Wars they were part of the armies of both sides, developing different techniques such as the phalanx. They were not irrational barbarians who charged vehemently without any tactics, they knew the most modern warfare of the time and adapted it to their style of combat. The Galatians, a branch of the Gauls that had migrated to Asia Minor, had also fought against the Hellenes and therefore came to adapt their combat system.
And it is that the Gauls were not an isolated people that had not had contact with any other civilization, nothing could be further from the truth. Above all, the coast had a strong Hellenic stratum due to the fact that they had founded some colonies in it, Marseille stands out among all, known in ancient times as Massilia in which the Greek and Roman elites lived together with the Gauls who were also adapting the way of life of classical societies.
What we know as Gaul and its inhabitants, Gauls -galli according to the Roman denomination-, responds to a very heterogeneous political conglomerate, since there were dozens of tribes, clans and families, generally at odds with each other. Gaul was divided into different territorial units that encompass the current states of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Austria or Germany.
During the period of Julius Caesar, what is known as Gallia Narbonense was already dominated and Gaul Cisalpina was relatively Romanized, although only a few cities had rights and Latin was relegated to the background. What the Roman statesman was interested in dominating was Transalpine Gaul, that is, beyond the Alps.
In “of beautiful gallico» Cease divided it into three parts, the Belgians, the Aquitanians and the Celts. The Belgians were beyond the Seine and he considered them the most powerful as those whom commercial influences had kept in a more primitive and rude state. In addition, they shared a border and trade with the Germans who were considered the most bestial and strongest barbarians in Europe. The Belgians were not aware of those “vices” that lightened the personality, which is why he considers them so powerful.
The Aquitanians, for their part, were isolated in the south by the Garonne, bordering the Pyrenees and the Iberian Peninsula.
Caesar mentions that the central Gauls called themselves Celts, but it is not clear that this was the case since it is considered to be a term of Greek origin. These three divisions were made based on language, customs, laws and the natural borders that separated them.
Once Gaul was divided, we can find a series of Gallic tribes that are located in what Caesar defines as countries.
In Celtic Gaul one of the most important tribes was that of the Hheduos (Haedui). They were of Celtic origin and their main fort was bibracte. They chose their chiefs through an elective system and received the name of embarrassed. In 57 BC, Rome would receive a request for help from her to confront one of her traditional enemies, the Helvetii. Since then they would become one of the allied countries of the Roman general until his betrayal in 52 BC when they decided to join the ranks of the Arverni leader Vercingetorix.
The helvetii (helvetii) which we have already mentioned were the first enemies that Caesar had to face, since they would be the cause of the entry of the Roman legions into Gaul. It is not very clear if they were a single tribe or a confederation, the truth is that they extended from the Rhine to the Alps, being one of the most powerful and populated groups.
But they were not the only enemies of the Aedui, since their main antagonists were the secuanoswhich were geographically embedded between the aforementioned towns….