Michael Sage - Roman Conquests Gaul

First Published in Great Britain in 2011 by
PEN & SWORD MILITARY
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Copyright Michael M. Sage, 2011

ISBN 978-1-84884-144-4
ePub ISBN: 9781848849860
PRC ISBN: 9781848849877

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For Laura

Appendix: The Development of the Roman Army of the
First Century BC

I would especially like to thank my editor Philip Sidnell for suggesting the subject of this book and for all of his help in seeing it through the press. Thanks are also due to Ian Hughes for his help with maps and to Graham Sumner and Franck Mathieu for the illustrations.

A years leave from the Classics Department at the University of Cincinnati and the generous support provided by the Louise Taft Semple Classics Fund were instrumental in giving me the time to complete my research and to begin writing. As always any errors or omissions are the responsibility of the author.

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List of Maps

Map 1: The Roman Empire at its greatest extent with the area covered by this volume highlighted

Map 2: Celtic Settlement until 150

Map 3 Transalpine Gaul in the Late-Second Century BC

Map 4: Gaul in the Time of Caesar

Map 5: Caesars Campaigns

Map 6: British Invasions 55-54

Map 7: Alesia

In September of 46 BC

The geographical area that the Romans defined as Gaul (Latin: Gallia ) included much of Western Europe. It comprised that part of Italy that lay north of the Apennine Mountains as far as the foothills of the Alps. It then extended across the Alps, with its principal boundaries on the Atlantic to the west, the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean to the south, and the Rhine and North Sea as its eastern and northern limits. The Romans distinguished Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul on the Italian side of the Alps, from Transalpine Gaul north of the mountains.

In both areas the predominant population was Celtic. The origins of the Celts, whom the Romans called Gauls (Latin: Galli), lay as far back as the second millennium BC. By the sixth century BC Celtic groups were recognizable through their shared culture, and especially their artistic traditions as well as their common language which occupied much of Europe north of the Mediterranean lands. By the fourth century BC Celtic cultures extended in a wide arc from Spain and Britain to the Danube basin.

By the mid-eighth century BC an Iron Age culture known as Hallstatt had emerged among the Celts, which lasted until the mid-fifth century. This was replaced by the La Tne culture, which the Romans encountered during their conquest of Gaul. Our knowledge of this last stage of Celtic culture rests on archaeological discoveries and references to the Celts in Greek and Roman authors beginning as early as the mid-fifth century.

Caesar provides our fullest description of Celtic society in Gaul although there are references to it in earlier authors. On his arrival as governor in 58, Caesar found a highly stratified society in Gaul, which archaeological evidence shows had already been established for centuries. Three groups are attested; the great aristocrats, the Druids and the rest of the population.

The aristocrats drew their wealth from their vast estates as well as profits from trade, but their social standing and personal authority depended on the These clients were bound to their elite patrons by various ties of which the most important was a social obligation binding a superior to an inferior through a mutual exchange of favours. Clients might be in debt to their noble patron, or workers on his estates, or they might be young warriors looking for booty and the social prestige that came from success in war. Aristocrats political influence was based on their wealth, the number of their clients and, above all, their success as war leaders.

All dates are BC unless specified otherwise.

Druids constituted the other elite group in Celtic society.

The common people who formed the majority of the population were in a state of dependence on the nobles and drew their livelihood from the land, living in scattered homesteads and villages within tribal territory. Trade, especially with the Mediterranean world, created opportunities for merchants and craftsmen but they must have formed a relatively small group. Caesar stresses the common peoples complete lack of political influence.

From the beginning of the second century BC there is evidence in Gaul for the emergence of comparatively large native settlements, which the Romans called an oppidum (plural oppida).

Gallic tribes were at various stages of political development. In the second century many tribes still had kings. When the Romans first began large-scale military operations in Gaul the major opposition came from Bituitus, king of the Arverni in the modern Auvergne. By Caesars time kingship had been replaced in central Gaul among many of these peoples by a form of aristocratic government, although we occasionally hear of kings in the less-developed northeast.