The Battle of Alesia was a vicious military encounter of the Gallic Wars. It was fought between the Roman legions, under Gaius Julius Caesar, and the Arverni tribe army, led by chieftain Vercingetorix. It took place in September 52 BC, in Alesia (today's Alise-Sainte-Reine), Gaul (France). The Arverni was one of the several tribes of the Gauls, which was a Celtic ethnic group that had settled in the 6th century BC in the territory lying between the Rhine River and the Pyrenees. The result of the battle was a Roman victory, which provoked the collapse of the Gallic resistance against the Roman invasion. In the context of the same armed struggle, another Gaulish tribe, the Eburones, had already been defeated by the Romans the year before, in 53 BC, after a ferocious campaign conducted by Julius Caesar's legates Quintus Titurius Sabinus and Lucius Arunculeius Cotta, who were both killed in action.
The defeat of the Eburones, under chieftain Ambiorix, in the hands of the Romans, in 53 BC, brought an existential concern to the rest of the Gallic tribes, especially to the Arverni. This concern drove Vercingetorix, the commander of this tribe, to organize a large military coalition of all the Celtic tribes in Gaul. In July they began to attack all the Roman outposts in northern France. Julius Caesar was in Rome when he heard the news of the massive revolt, led by Vercingetorix, against Rome. He immediately traveled north, to Gaul, to stem the spread of the Gaulish rebellion. When Julius Caesar encountered the Arverni and their allied forces in early August, he suffered a defeat at the Battle of Gergovia and retreated.
Julius Caesar regrouped and assembled an army of 10 legions (around 60,000 legionaries) and marched to Alesia to lay siege to its Gaulish fortress, severing the food supply lines to the people. Vercingetorix was confident that the Gauls would be able to break the siege and launch a counterattack, making a pincer maneuver to surround the Romans. However, Arverni's chieftain failed to assess the real size, strength and resolution of the Roman commander and legionaries. By mid September, 52 BC, the legions, under Caesar, had built a series of fortifications around Alesia to isolate the Arverni. Without food, to no avail Vercingetorix launched a series of attacks against the Roman positions to break the siege. The Romans held their lines and the siege continued. To save his people from starving, the Gaulish commander made the decision to surrender to Julius Caesar.
The Gauls had suffered appalling casualties. As for their leader, Vercingetorix, he was taken prisoner and brought to Rome in captivity. He would put to death six years later, after Caesar’s triumph in 46 BC.
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| The Gaulish chieftain, Vercingetorix, surrenders to Julius Caesar. |
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| Above, a line of Roman fortifications surrounding the Gaulish fortress of Alesia. |