R. Peake - Marching With Caesar - Conquest of Gaul

“What’s he waiting for?” Vibius complained one evening when I came to spend time at their fire.

These were the times I missed most of all, but I could not be seen to favor one tent section over another, even if it was the one I came from. To counter any accusations of favoritism I worked out a system where I rotated spending time with each section a few moments every evening before trudging back to my tent and Zeno, who was always waiting to hand me reports to be filled out.

“He’s waiting until he can safely rejoin us,” I was a bit surprised that it was not I who uttered these words but Scribonius. Soon enough it became clear that Scribonius had taken on the role of defender of Caesar now that I was gone.

“More likely he’s waiting so that their army is so huge that when we beat them, he gets more glory,” Vibius grumbled, poking at the fire with a stick, causing sparks to fly in every direction and drawing the curses of his friends as they frantically beat out the embers before they caught something flammable. Ignoring this, Vibius continued, “It just doesn’t make any sense, keeping us in camp while all around us the world is falling to cac .”

I watched as Scribonius thought a moment and replied, “While I agree that it doesn’t seem to make sense, I also know that there are things going on that we don’t know anything about. I think that of all men, Caesar has earned our trust.”

There was a chorus of agreement from everyone, with one exception, who scowled at everyone in turn. “You’re a bunch of old women,” Vibius fumed, “Caesar isn’t a god, he’s a mortal man, and mortal men make mistakes.”

“Mortal he may be,” Scribonius shot back, “but mistakes? He doesn’t make many, and the few that he does make he turns to our advantage quick enough that we’ve never suffered permanent damage.” This was met by another round of agreement, but Vibius was still not convinced. Sighing as I turned and left, I remember thinking wryly to myself that there were worse things than paperwork.

To increase the pressure on us, Lucterus took his new army and began to advance in the direction of Narbo, the city that was our home for two years. To counteract this move, Caesar traveled quickly to the city, drawing levies of troops from the retired Legionaries in the region and placing them at strategic points in the surrounding area, while also ordering a dilectus for fresh auxiliary troops. That arm of the army had gradually grown over the years in Gaul so that they alone numbered some 10,000 men. Leading about 2,000 such men, Caesar once more demonstrated why he was so respected and feared. Without waiting for the snows to fully melt from the passes, he marched through the mountains to descend into the lands of the Arverni, even as Vercingetorix and his army were more than 100 miles away consolidating their gains and training his army in the lands of the Bituriges. Now the tables were turned, with Vercingetorix the one who was threatened, prompting the Arverni among his army to beg him to turn around and head back to their homelands, knowing that Caesar would lay waste to it. This was exactly what Caesar wanted him to do, because it would clear the way for Caesar to circle around and join the Legions. Having his own spies letting it be known that he was not leaving the army but going to perform another dilectus to raise more cavalry forces, Caesar left Decimus Brutus in charge of the auxiliary force as they burned and pillaged everything within sight, while Caesar made great haste to Vienne, where the 7th and 12th were stationed for the winter. Vercingetorix was caught flatfooted by Caesar’s strike, but to his credit, he knew that he could not afford to worry about mistakes made in the past, so immediately he began to move his army again, this time choosing to fall on the town of Gorgobina.

Vercingetorix was now moving north to Gorgobina from his home territory, scattering our auxiliary forces and cavalry under Brutus, who escaped destruction by retreating back into the Province proper, where they were now guarding Narbo. Meanwhile, Caesar was moving from Vienne to where we were quartered at Agedincum. Picking up all of us in the Spanish Legions and leaving the 15th and 16th behind in Agedincum, we began to march south to confront Vercingetorix. By besieging Gorgobina, the young Gaul put us in a bit of a dilemma; with passions running so high and open rebellion happening all around us, Caesar could not afford to let Vercingetorix have at Gorgobina unchallenged. Early in the first year of the campaign I believe it was, Caesar ceded control of Gorgobina to the Aedui, and it was the Aedui more than any other tribe that we relied on for our supply of grain. To leave Gorgobina to its fate would send a message that being an ally of Rome and of Caesar did not mean much. On the other hand, the people of Rome, and more to the point, the Roman citizens who lived in the region were demanding vengeance for the massacre at Cenabum. In typical fashion, Caesar contrived to kill two birds with one stone. Marching on Gorgobina, we went first by way of Vellaunodunum, a Senones stronghold a hard day’s march to the west of Agedincum, where we reduced the fortress in three days with a quick assault once we prepared our siegeworks and affected a breach. Caesar’s purpose in taking Vellaunodunum was to ensure there was no enemy in our rear to threaten our supply line. After taking this town and leaving it in the hands of Gaius Trebonius and Cohorts of the 14th Legion, we turned to continue the march west to Cenabum, still in the hands of the enemy. Making it to the city walls in another two hard days of marching, despite having to travel through the huge forest that lies between the two towns, we nevertheless arrived too late to begin preparing a siege. The major feature of Cenabum is the bridge that spans the Liger River, the northern end of which is directly against the city walls, the town being built right up to the river. Catching the Carnutes by surprise, it was obvious that they expected Vellaunodunum to hold out longer than it did. Despite a show of defiance from the men lining the walls, the Carnutes decided that the best course of action was to try sneaking out over the bridge at night to flee south to join with Vercingetorix at Gorgobina. Caesar was ready for this, placing ourselves and the 8th on alert, holding us actually outside the camp, with only our sagum to protect us from the night chill. However, we were rewarded for our hardship.

Around the beginning of the third watch, close to midnight, our sentries reported that the gates to the town were opened, with people beginning to stream across the bridge. Instantly, the bucina sounded and the 8th, positioned on the far side of the bridge along with ourselves, leapt up and with a great roar went pounding across the bridge towards the gates. Before the Carnutes knew what was on them, we seized the gateway, then to make sure that the huge doors could not be shut, set fire to them. The flames caught rapidly, providing a lurid light as we slaughtered anyone trying to escape across the bridge. Within moments, our cavalry ran down those who were the first across the bridge and had managed to cover a little distance, while Caesar appeared among us to issue further orders.

I saw him standing there in front of us, framed by the light of the burning gates, announcing in his parade ground voice as he gestured to the town, “Comrades! I told you that you would not suffer the hardships of a cold night outside in vain. The town is yours!”

He may have said something more, but I could not hear it, his voice drowned out by the roar of approval from the two Legions. At this point in our time with Caesar, we were nowhere near the full strength of almost 6,000 men who answered the call for dilectus all those years before in Hispania. Both the 8th and 10th were Spanish Legions, as we were called, and the more than eight years of service and the campaigning had whittled our numbers down. The 10th was at a score shy of 4,000 effectives at this point, with my Century down to 63 men. But we were hard men, and it was these hard men that Caesar loosed on the town. I will not go into details about what transpired, gentle reader, as I have not in earlier chapters, yet it is sufficient to say that we showed the Carnutes in the town no mercy. To begin with, we had a debt to pay for the slaughter of the innocent Roman families that lived in Cenabum, and that night we more than took our revenge. All I will say is that as Optio, I was now entitled to a larger share of booty, not just of my tent section like in the past, but from the whole Century. Men like the Pilus Prior, if they survived, were entitled to a cut from the whole Cohort, and we lucky few who lived were able to retire as rich men because of it. That night went a good way towards enriching myself, and the future was bright for men like me. All I had to do was to survive long enough to make good.