Vercingetorix (-72 - date which we are now certain is false [ref. needed] - at -46) is the son of the Gallic chief of the Arverni tribe, Celtillos. It unites Gallic peoples and their leaders to try to reject the Roman invader, Julius Caesar, outside the borders, at the end of the Gallic Wars (-58 to -51). Vercingetorix is historically and symbolically one of the first leaders to have united a large part of the Gaulish peoples.
The historical documents that testify to his life are few and subject to caution. These are all writings of Romans that he fought against. Vercingetorix is known for the most part through the commentaries of Julius Caesar, which he wrote throughout his campaigns and collected after his victory at Alésia, in Bibracte, on Mont Beuvray, where he spent the winter. The Gallic Wars (Comments on the Gallic Wars).
Born on an unknown date near the Gallic village of Nemossos (Clermont-Ferrand in Auvergne) he is the son of Celtillos, king of Arvernes (in present-day Auvergne), one of the most powerful Gallic peoples traditionally opposed to Rome.
At that time, Cisalpine Gaul and Narbonne were Roman, Aquitaine, Belgium and Celtic (Greco-Roman categorization completely foreign to the various Gallic nations) were the territories of Gallic peoples of varying importance and not subject to authority. from Rome. The Helvetii were to play a decisive role in the beginning of the Gallic Wars by starting a migration ("forced" by the increasing Germanic pressure) towards Saintonge after having burned their lands, under King Orgétorix.
In -58, Vercingetorix was a young man of the aristocracy of fighting age when Julius Caesar, taking the Helvetian migration as a pretext, invaded Gaul at the head of his Roman Legions and Gallic allied contingents, to attach it to Rome. He wants to submit the Gallic tribes, their leaders to the authority of Rome, to serve his glory and confiscate their legendary wealth to bail out his personal cassette. Celtillos, king of the Arverne people, is trying to regain the head of the "anti-Roman party" in Gaul, which the Séquanes (weakened by the recent episode with Ariovistus) had stolen from these same Arvernes during the previous century. He is taken and executed by the Roman proconsul. His son Vercingetorix probably entered Caesar's military entourage (conturbenales) at this time, who trained him in the methods of Roman warfare in exchange for his cooperation and his knowledge of the country and the practices of Hairy Gaul.
In 52 BC, Vercingetorix was said to be adulescens by Caesar, which means that he was just under 31 years old (the age at which one really becomes an adult in Rome and where one can run for the first magistracies of the cursus honorum). Wanting to take advantage of the slight setback that Caesar's withdrawal from Brittany (present-day Great Britain) constitutes for Caesar and of the deaf discontent that smolders in a Gaul weary of these years of war, Vercingetorix intends to take up the torch that was fatal to his father. He took power among the Arvernes, by force like him, and imposed himself at the head of the "anti-Roman party", in particular thanks to the art of speech prized among the Gauls as among the Romans he rubbed shoulders with. . He organized resistance in the form of guerrilla warfare (to which the Gallic geography lends itself excellently) and worked to federate the greatest possible number of tribes of Gaul and their Chiefs against Julius Caesar.
During the council of the forest of Carnutes where the plan of the general uprising of Gaul is drawn up, Vercingetorix acquires the confidence and the support of the Gallic leaders (kings and aristocrats) and he quickly imposes himself as the person most able to lead the coalition (he is experienced in Gallic and Roman warfare techniques). However, on returning to his native city of Nemossos where he claimed his title of chief by filial right, he came up against the Arvernian oligarchy (which his father and then himself overthrew to install an "old-fashioned" personal power instead), his paternal uncle Gobannitio at the head, the same one who is probably responsible for the execution of his father, and who drives him out of town.
In January -52, having taken up arms against Caesar, he tried to impose himself on the Aedui (Gallic people of Saône-et-Loire, allied to the Romans) and inspired a union of the peoples of central and eastern Gaul against the proconsul.
Vercingetorix knows victories obtained against his opponents partly thanks to the policy of the scorched earth, to starve the Roman legions far from home without fighting. But Julius Caesar manages to take the city of Avaricum (Bourges) which has not been burned, then marches on Gergovie. The talent and strategic intelligence of Julius Caesar allow the Romans to win victories against the Gallic coalition, making pacts with Gallic tribes against others. They benefited from the logistical assistance of the Gallic Boii, Remi (Reims), and Aedui peoples who had long been reluctant to join the Arvernian troops.
Vercingetorix successfully led the coalition of Gallic troops and won several victories, including a famous one at Gergovie, in June -52 (Siege of Gergovie), on the rocky plateau of Nemossos. Thanks to Caesar's retreat to the northeast, he manages to regain his title of chief of the Arverni and rally the Aedui by force to his cause.
Vercingetorix definitively imposed himself as war chief of the Gallic coalition at the Battle of Bibracte on Mont Beuvray in Burgundy (according to the Gallic Wars). A large part of the Gallic peoples is then unified for the first time in its history. He probably wants to defeat Caesar fair and square once and for all and he believes in his superiority, although half of his potential troops have not yet reached him (they will be the relief army in Alesia).
Julius Caesar personally puts down the rebellion with reinforcements from new legions. After having crushed the Gallic cavalry near Dijon, he cornered the Gallic forces at Alésia, 60 km north-west of Dijon, which he besieged by means of the construction of an enormous double fortification built around the stronghold. , to prevent the Gauls from leaving Alesia and refueling by starving them and protecting themselves from attacks by external Gallic troops. (Headquarters of Alesia). Despite Gallic reinforcement armies, Vercingetorix lost the game after forty days of siege, which starved his troops. Because of the superiority of his enemy and a lack of understanding between the peoples and various Gallic leaders, unaccustomed to fighting together, Vercingetorix surrenders to Caesar. He gives himself up as a prisoner and offers his life in exchange for that of the 80,000 inhabitants, men, women and children of Alésia.
The rest of the Gallic conspirators, first led by the head of the relief army Lucterius, still resist until the capture of Uxellodunum in -51, where they experience a terrible punishment.
Julius Caesar takes Vercingetorix as a trophy for his long military campaign in Gaul, with a view to his triumph in Rome (which is one proof of the atypical and very important role of Arverne). He was kept prisoner in the jails of the Mamertine Prison and was executed in his cell with a strangler, by order of Caesar, in August -46, the date of the celebration of the triumph over Gaul.
The name of Vercingetorix
His name remains a mystery:the Roman historian Florus translated him as the great king of great warriors. Ver (to be pronounced “ouère”) is a form of superlative, Cingeto (to be pronounced “kinnguéto”) refers to the figure of the warrior and the suffix “Rix” resembles Rex (=king, in Latin, the rest being Celtic ). However, there is a Breton chief Cingétorix and the suffix rix is used among many Gauls and probably also has a Celtic etymological origin, not Latin.
It is also likely that the word "Vercingetorix" is a titulature and not a proper name. It would then mean "very powerful king" or "warrior super-king". There would then be several kings thus titled in Gallic history, which would explain the relative abundance and distribution of Gallic coins bearing this word. It seems, however, that "our" Vercingetorix actually bears this name even before he takes on the responsibility of leader.
Instrumentation
In 1866, Napoleon III had a seven-meter-high statue of Vercingetorix erected, sculpted by Aimé Millet, on the presumed site of Aulnoye-Aymeries which he had had excavated at Alise-Sainte-Reine, 60 km north-west of Dijon in Burgundy. On the base, designed by the architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, we can read:
"United Gaul
Forming a single nation
Driven by the same spirit,
Can defy the Universe. »
Admirer of Julius Caesar (as a bearer of civilization in lands then considered barbaric), Emperor Napoleon III contributed to the rediscovery and enhancement of the history of the peoples [Gauls]. It is the Third Republic, above all, which exploits Vercingetorix by insisting on his heroic role of resisting the invader and symbol of what makes the French essence. This propaganda is intended to exalt the patriotism of the French by heightening the feeling of revenge after the defeat of 1870 against Germany, freshly united behind Prussia.