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The Gallic War by Julius Caesar - Book 1, pt. 3

Induced by these considerations, and influenced by the authority of Orgetorix, they determined to provide such things as were necessary for their expedition—to buy up as great a number as possible of beasts of burden and wagons—to make their sowings as large as possible, so that on their march plenty of corn might be in store-and to establish peace and friendship with the neighboring states. They reckoned that a term of two years would be sufficient for them to execute their designs; they fix by decree their departure for the third year. Orgetorix is chosen to complete these arrangements.

He took upon himself the office of embassador to the states: on this journey he persuades Casticus, the son of Catamantaloedes (one of the Sequani, whose father had possessed the sovereignty among the people for many years, and had been styled "friend" by the senate of the Roman people), to seize upon the sovereignty in his own state, which his father had held before him, and he likewise persuades Dumnorix, an Aeduan, the brother of Diviciacus, who at that time possessed the chief authority in the state, and was exceedingly beloved by the people, to attempt the same, and gives him his daughter in marriage. He proves to them that to accomplish their attempts was a thing very easy to be done, because he himself would obtain the government of his own state; that there was no doubt that the Helvetii were the most powerful of the whole of Gaul; he assures them that he will, with his own forces and his own army, acquire the sovereignty for them. Incited by this speech, they give a pledge and oath to one another, and hope that, when they have seized the sovereignty, they will, by means of the three most powerful and valiant nations, be enabled to obtain possession of the whole of Gaul

Source: Wikisource Translation based on W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn (1869)

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Dumnorix of Aedui vs Caesar & Rome - pt. I

“During the period from 122 to 52 BC, the last years of the Gallic independence, the Arverni and Aedui tribes were competing for the hegemony in Gaul. In 71 BC, the Sequani tribe started a long war against the Aedui who were pressing them. The Sequani were in a disadvantageous position and started to look for allies in the Suebian Germans who lived on the east bank of the Rhine, after failing to cross the Oder River in the East. Ariovistus was the Suebian warlord, who crossed the Rhine with thousands of warriors and managed to defeat the Aedui in 61 BC. The Germans unleashed numerous raids against many Gallic tribes until several of them became their vassals. The Sequani had made a big mistake by inviting the dangerous Germanics in the Celtic/Gallic territory.

Diviciacus, one of the political leaders and leading Druid of the Aedui, committed an equally big mistake when he asked the Romans for help against the Germans. He traveled to the “City of the She-wolf” and was presented to the Senate in order to expose his request. The proposal of the Aeduian leader in the Senate for an alliance against Ariovistus, met the objections of the new great political personality of Rome (the greatest in her long history according to the view of many scholars), Gaius Julius Caesar. Caesar refused Diviciacus’ request due to his political rivalry with Cicero who probably supported the Gallic leader in the Senate. Diviciacus returned to Gaul with vague promises for help. Caesar, in order to reduce Cicero and his Galatian friend, asked the Senate to conclude an alliance with Ariovistus. The Senate recognized the German king as “Friend of the Romans”, a move that emboldened him. Ariovistus became more aggressive in Gaul and created a real kingdom in the conquered Galatian regions.

Dumnorix, Diviciacus’ younger brother, did not agree with the pro-Roman policy of his brother. Instead he aimed in the union of all the Gallic tribes, and believed in their ability to repel all invaders in Gaul, both the Romans and the Germans. For this reason he conducted an alliance with the Helvetii (Celts who lived in modern Switzerland) and with Casticus, the son of the leader of the Sequani, who had disagreed with the pro-German policy of his father. Indeed, in order to strengthen the Celtic alliance, Dumnorix married Orgetorix’s daughter (the leader of the Helvetii).

The opportunity that Caesar was waiting for the beginning of his invasion in Gaul, came in early 58 BC, when the leaders of the Helvetii decided to evacuate their country because of the continuous pressure of the Germanic tribes of the North. At the same time, the Celtic as well tribes Boii and Taurisci fled to the land of the Helvetii who were preparing to leave, gathering food and supplies for their wagons. The Celtic refugees joined the Helvetii and their allies: the Tigurini (Celts also) and the Tulingi or Tilangii (a tribe who was neither Germanic nor Celtic, but probably Pre-Indo-European native of Central Europe). Thereby the Five nations gathered 370,000 people under Helvetian leadership, of whom 92,000 were warriors, according to Caesar’s narrative. This large migratory ‘wave’ aimed in a new home in the land of the Santones (Western Gaul near the Atlantic). The Helvetii asked for Dumnorix’s help and he persuaded his ally Casticus, already king of the Sequani, to allow the Five Nations to cross the Sequanian territory in order to reach their destination. They would follow the Jura Mountains and the coastline of Lake Geneva to reach the Sequanian territory. In the specified day, the allied Celts burned their villages, farms and fields in order not to fall into Germanic hands, and began their march.

(A modern representation of Dumnorix, leader of the Aedui, in the National Museum of Celtic civilization, Bibracte, France.)

The pro-Roman Diviciacus did not hesitate to inform his hitherto political rival, Caesar, on the movements of the Helvetii. Caesar was in Aquileia (northeastern Italy) when he was informed. The pretext for his military intervention in Gaul was the danger for the Roman province of Narbonesia (modern Mediterranean France) by the Helvetian migration, and Diviciacus’ official request (also a “Friend of Rome”) for help against it. Caesar departed immediately with six legions. When he arrived at the southern end of Lake Geneva, the Helvetii were just preparing to cross the nearby passage, in order to pass through the region of Narbonesia to the Sequanian territory. Caesar refused them the crossing, blocking the passage with his legions. The Helvetii decided to return back and follow the northwest passage to Gaul. The new route that they followed, served again Caesar’s plans because they had to cross the Aeduian territory. Diviciacus asked the Romans for the “protection” of his country from the newcomers.

(Coin of the Sequani.)

When Caesar was informed that the Helvetii had crossed the river Saône, he marched against them. When he met them, most of them had already crossed the river and only the Tigurini were preparing for the crossing. The Roman legions attacked the Tigurini and massacred them. Caesar avenged somehow the extermination of the Roman army of Longinus by the Tigurini about 50 years earlier (link). Then he crossed the river Saône and began tracking the Helvetii, who marched towards Bibracte, the capital of the Aedui. Caesar sent his cavalry, a substantial part of which consisted of Aedui allies, to pursue them. The leader of the Aedui horsemen was Dumnorix. His 4,000 horsemen were disoriented and easily intercepted by the barely 500 Helvetian horsemen. This fact aroused Caesar’s suspicions which were valid: the Aedui were divided into two factions, a pro-Roman under Diviciacus and an anti-Roman under his brother, Dumnorix. Liscus, the Vergobretus of the Aedui (annual elected leader of a Gallic tribe) in that year, probably following Diviciacus’ instructions, informed Caesar for Dumnorix’s ‘betrayal’.

The horsemen of Dumnorix had disoriented the Roman cavalry in order to save the Helvetii. Dumnorix constantly provided information to the Helvetian leaders on Roman movements, and he was delaying the alimentation of the Romans. Caesar writes in his work “De Bello Gallico” (in which he recounts with several exaggerations his conquest of Gaul) that Diviciacus begged him to spare the life of his brother, and for this reason he did not punish him. The truth is rather that the Roman general did not dare to harm Dumnorix because he feared that this would cause the dynamic reaction of the Aedui and other Galatian allies against him. The patriot Dumnorix seems to have been popular and influential to his Gallic compatriots. The only thing that Caesar did, was to watch closely the Aeduan warlord.”

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Dumnorix of the Aedui vs Caesar & Rome – pt.II

“In the subsequent years, Caesar conducted his famous Conquest of Gaul, crashing the Suebi of Ariovistus and the Belgians. After the Roman victory over the Belgians, Diviciacus, the main supporter of the Gallic collaboration with Rome, disappears from Caesar’s narrative. Liscus also disappears from his narrative but this is explainable because he probably could not be the Aeduan Vergobretus any more. After all he rather gained his office with Diviciacus’ political support (the latter was the unofficial leader of the tribe). Diviciacus’ disappearance is the real mystery.

Diviciacus probably did not believe that the Gauls could cope with the dual military pressure of the Romans and the Germans, and he preferred the former. Apart from his decisive diplomatic and counseling assistance to Caesar, he was the main founder of his numerous allied Gallic cavalry. The antithesis of Diviciacus was Dumnorix, who believed in Gallic power and did everything for the freedom of his people.

Dumnorix appears later as the main political leader of the Aedui (and possibly their Vergobretus) when he was Caesar’s hostage. The most likely hypothesis for Diviciacus’ “disappearance” in 57 BC was either his physical death, or his murder possibly by Dumnorix’s incitation. Then or a little later, Dumnorix succeeded him in the unofficial leadership of the Aedui.

In the following years, Caesar completed the conquest of Gaul by the subordination of the maritime Galatian/Gallic tribes (especially the Eneti/Veneti and the Morini) and he also unleashed additional preventive campaigns in Germany, Illyria and Belgica. In the spring of 54 BC, he was ready for the invasion of Britain.

Caesar understood that during his absence in Britain, a revolution in Gaul would break out, because the country was in turmoil. In this case, he and his army would be isolated on a hostile island without any contact with his safe base, the province of Narbonesia. In this case, he and his men would be exterminated. He decided to gather all the anti-Roman Galatian leaders and take them to Britain as hostages. The most prominent among them was Dumnorix. Caesar knew that in a case of a Gallic uprising, the popular Galatian warlord would be its leader; thereby he absolutely had to overpower him. Dumnorix was constantly trying to form a Gallic alliance that would use the Germans as allies to expel the Romans from the motherland and then he would obviously turn against the Germans in order to eliminate any threat to Gaul.

The Roman general concentrated the Anti-Roman leaders in the port of Itium (near present-day Calais). Dumnorix with a few Aedui companions of his were moved there as well, under Roman military escort. The Romans announced to the Gallic leaders that they would take them to Britain until the end of the campaign. Caesar mentions in his book that Dumnorix pleaded his fear of the sea and religious obligations, in an attempt to persuade the Roman to leave him behind. He presents him probably as a coward, but this presentation is rather a fake: the Aeduan leader possibly intended to put into effect his plan of a revolt against the Romans. When Caesar refused Dumnorix’s request, the Aeduan spoke openly to the other Galatian leaders about the probable plans of the Roman general. He told them that the Roman “wanted to take them to Britain in order to murder them all there” because if he did it in Gaul, the whole country would revolt immediately.

In my point of view, Dumnorix was probably right. Maybe this was Caesar’s plan in order to permanently paralyze Gallic resistance. I must note that the Roman had already acted exactly in the same way during his campaigns against the Aduatici, the Veneti, the Usipetae and the Tencteri tribes. The official Roman apology to the Gallic people for the death of their hostage leaders, could be the statement that the ship carrying them wrecked and they all got drowned, or that they have been killed in the battles in Britain, fighting as allied units (auxilia).

Dumnorix’s speech brought the refuse of the Galatian hostage leaders to board the Roman ships. A day before the departure of the fleet, Dumnorix and a few of his supporters (Aedui and other Gauls) escaped from their Roman guards and galloped on their horses to freedom. Caesar immediately sent a large part of his cavalry to hunt them. The Caesarean cavalry (Romans and pro-Roman Gauls) overtook the fugitives and surrounded them. There was no hope of escape for them. When the Romans called Dumnorix and his men to surrender, they refused and drew their long Celtic swords. The Caesarian horsemen attacked and massacred Dumnorix and some of his men, while the rest surrendered. Dumnorix died crying out that he was a “free man of a free people!” After the death of the menacing Dumnorix, Caesar had no reason to kill any of the rest hostage leaders.

Dumnorix’s decision to die on the spot fighting the invader is not random or due to simple heroism. There was apparently a political calculation. He was sure that death awaited him anyway in Britain. If, however, he did not manage to escape and finally die in Gaul, he would cause exactly what Caesar feared. He would light the flame and then the fire of the Gallic Revolution across the whole country. If this was Dumnorix’s aim, he succeeded. It is certain that his relentless massacre shocked the Gallic patriots and that this was one of the main reasons for the great revolution that followed. Among these Gallic patriots was Vercingetorix, a young Arvernian warlord, a little more than 18 years old. We can assume that the great Vercingetorix who managed to bring Caesar in a very difficult position, was decisively influenced by Dumnorix’s example. My opinion is that if Dumnorix was not murdered, he would possibly be the leader of the great Gallic Revolution which followed, instead of Vercingetorix. But Vercingetorix, although very young, proved to be a great general and military leader despite his mistakes (a few in my opinion).

Dumnorix is rather one of the greatest Gallic and generally Celtic heroes, but unfortunately he remains forgotten today. The modern French owe to attribute him full honours.”

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