("Vercingetorix" is also a: user.)
(person) by nosfentor Wed Jul 17 2002 at 2:30:02
(???-42BC)
His name translates roughly as King of a Hundred Battles. He was a Gaul prince, who achieved the rank of chieftain of the Averni tribe by murdering his father. He managed to unite almost all the Gaul tribes in a revolt against Rome, who governed that province with none other than Caesar himself.
He coerced the other chieftains with the aid of the druids to be proclaimed King of the united Gauls. Implemented a scorched earth policy, burning every field, granary, town that would provide Caesar's army with food for the campaign. Only one oppidum (stronghold) was left standing, Avaricum. This being the only available source of food, Caesar marched against it and with an ingenious siege device that consisted of double terraces about three hundred feet wide, he managed to storm the stronghold and capture its food supply. Nearly all of its inhabitants were put to death. Only a handful escaped and went over to Vercingetorix.
Vercingetorix was by this time well aware that Rome's superior skill at war could only be countered by an army massively superior in numbers. He fortified himself in Alesia and sent for reinforcements. He was hoping to get close to a quarter million combatants to supplement his armed forces against Caesar's eighty thousand foot soldiers and cavalry.
Alesia being a stronghold nearly impossible to take by storming, Caesar resorted to cut off their supplies and reinforcements. He built a palisade eighty feet tall all around Alesia (circumvallation) with booby traps (spikes buried in the ground) in front of the wall. To keep the reinforcements from attacking the roman forces, they build another palisade that surrounded the first one, sandwiching themselves between both walls. This way, the siege of Alesia lasted nearly a year. Both armies were near starvation, and the Gauls even considered eating their young and infirm, as well as all those not fit for combat. The inhabitants of Alesia fled the town and begged the romans to take them as slaves but Caesar refused. They had dishonored their status as friends and allies of Rome, and so were left to die between the two armies.
Finally, the Gauls surrendered. Vercingetorix was taken captive and was taken to Rome where he stayed in a dungeon until Caesar's traditional triumphal parade took place. There Vercingetorix was exhibited and then ritually strangled.
Today, the French consider him a symbol of independence and freedom.
The Home of Vercingetorix. A Celtic Refuge. http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acropolis/4934/
Enemies of Rome: Vercingetorix. http://myron.sjsu.edu/romeweb/ENEMIES/art9.htm
Thinkquest Libraries. http://library.thinkquest.org/11402/bio_vercingetorix.html
Vercingetorix. http://itsa.ucsf.edu/~snlrc/encyclopaedia_romana/britannia/miscellanea/vercingetorix.html
Vercingetorix. The Columbia Encyclopedia. http://www.bartleby.com/65/ve/Vercinge.html
The nail that sticks up gets hammered down Siege of Alesia Circumvallation De Bello Gallico
Commius the Gaul Scorched Earth French surrender Gaius Iulius Caesar
Asterix Druid Carambar Druids
Gaul siege weaponry Ernst Röhm Battle of the Teutoburg Forest
Tuatha Dé Danann Romans in northern Britain Lutetia PNNI
Julius Caesar Celtic Mythology Terrace
Valerie Solanas