But Vercingetorix had not banked on how ruthless and single-minded Caesar could be. As thousands of Gauls were forced out of the city gates and begged the Romans to take them in, Caesar and Vercingetorix went eyeball to eyeball. Neither man blinked, and as a result, over the coming days, every single one of those women, children and the elderly died from starvation and cold, trapped between the walls of the city they had left behind and the Roman siege wall. One ancient author said of Caesar’s conquest of Gaul that one million Gauls were killed and another million enslaved.29 Today these figures are considered by most scholars to be exaggerated. Nonetheless, in them is the suggestion of the awesome, terrifying coldness of Caesar’s decision at Alesia, the extremes to which he was prepared to go in the name of his dignity and that of the Roman people.
Eventually, the Gallic reinforcements arrived and assembled on the heights looking down on the plain below. They numbered more than 200,000 infantry and 8000 cavalry. So it was that one hot day in the summer of 52 BC the full, terrible onslaught of two Gallic armies descended headlong to trap the Romans, the allies attacking the outer wall, while Vercingetorix’s armies broke out of the city and assaulted the inner fortifications. The yells and screams of the Gallic allies were matched and echoed by those rising up from inside Alesia. The Romans spread out along their walls. They held out determinedly for the first days of fighting. However, the Roman cavalry did not fare so well, and were saved only when an auxiliary German cavalry routed the Gauls. When night fell, the Gauls once again scampered down the hill under cover of darkness and filled in the trenches with earth; when day broke they attempted once more to breach the Roman wall and unite with their allies. This time, they were repulsed by volleys of sling bullets, heavy-duty catapults and stakes hidden in the ground. On the third day, however, spies alerted the Gauls to a point of weakness at the Roman camp stationed halfway up a hill.
Immediately, the reinforcements of Gallic cavalry massed at the top of the hill and attacked from above, while once again Vercingetorix’s men attacked the wall from below. The Romans, terrified by the noise on either side, were running out of strength, numbers and weapons. This was the critical moment of the battle, and both sides fought with utter ferocity. Caesar rode along the ramparts to rally his men in person, shouting at them and explaining how ‘all the fruits of their labour depended upon that day, that hour’.30 Finally, he deployed his reserves of cavalry to attack the Gauls in the rear, and, riding at their head, he now threw himself into the frenetic fighting.
As the scarlet colour of his cloak heralded his arrival, a booming shout went up from the Roman defences. The tables had turned, and it was now the allied Gauls who were trapped on both sides by the Romans. When they saw the Roman cavalry arrive, they turned tail and fled. Under the eyes of Vercingetorix’s army still inside Alesia, the huge allied army of Gauls was supremely routed, melting away ‘like a ghost or a dream’.31 Caesar’s description of the battle’s conclusion was typically terse: ‘Massive slaughter followed’.32 Only utter exhaustion prevented the Roman soldiers from giving chase and killing more.
Completely outnumbered, Caesar had relied on daring, tactical genius, the efficiency of his unprecedented siege operations, and the bravery of his men to pull off one of the greatest victories in all Roman history. Although there were pockets of resistance to mop up, Gaul was now Roman – another province of a vast empire. In due course it would provide Rome with an annual tribute of 40 million sesterces.33
The conquest of Gaul also brought its proconsul astounding personal riches, as well as unparalleled glory in the eyes of the Roman people and a quasi-private fighting force of ten Roman legions prepared to do whatever he asked of them. Cato knew it, his allies in the Senate knew it, and even Pompey knew it. The knowledge only brought with it unease. For the question that was now uppermost in Caesar’s mind was how to do what no other Roman – not even Pompey the Great – had yet achieved: translate his power into power in Rome.
The day after the massacre of the Gauls at Alesia, seventy-four of the Gallic standards were brought to Caesar. Vercingetorix himself rode out of the city gates resplendent in his Gallic armour of bronze helmet embossed with animal figures, his iron cuirass and gold-plated belt. Halting before Caesar, he stripped himself, handed over his javelin and long broadsword and lay prone on the ground in abject surrender.34 Caesar’s great adversary had been vanquished. And yet, as he looked on, Caesar knew that the real showdown was only just about to begin.
RUBICON
When Caesar’s dispatches from Gaul brought the news of his victory to Rome, the Senate decreed an unprecedented twenty days of public celebration. Caesar, too, contributed to the party: he paid for gladiatorial games, as well as a lavish public banquet in memory of his daughter. To give the impression that the feast was his very own special gift to the Roman people, he had some of the food prepared in his house. Indeed, he let slip no opportunity for generosity. Corn was distributed ‘without limit or measure’ to the plebs, and low-interest loans were given to those in need of money. Senators and knights (the rank below senator) who were in debt, as well as slaves and freedmen accused of crimes, all took advantage of Caesar’s largesse.35
Later, there would be treats of a more cerebral kind. Caesar’s eight volumes of Commentaries on the Gallic War were published in 50 BC. These books glorified his dazzling exploits, even eclipsing the collective memory of Pompey’s conquests in the east. Easily copied and distributed, they would be a public relations coup like no other. They also showed that Caesar was not just a master general, but a master of literary technique. Written in crystal clear, quotable language accessible to many, Caesar’s compositions reminded everyone who read them of the sheer sophistication of his mind. Indeed, he even wrote a scholarly essay on Latin grammar. But the Commentaries on the Gallic War were also a timely reminder of the central political principle for which Caesar stood: ‘All men by nature desire liberty and hate the condition of slavery.’36 It was with the liberty of the people in mind – at least the liberty of the Roman people – that Caesar made his first preparations for a return to Rome and to his enemies in the Senate.
The battle lines of the old conflict between Caesar and Cato’s conservative allies were now reconfigured in one burning question: when would Caesar give up his command? Caesar knew that as soon as he became a private citizen, Cato would pounce and prosecute him for his alleged crimes as consul in Rome and proconsul in Gaul. Yet the idea that he, Caesar, the man who had sweated blood to win Gaul for the glory and benefit of the republic, might be treated like a petty criminal was absolutely out of the question. Who was the whinging Cato to tell Caesar what to do? Such a prospect was completely beneath Caesar’s dignity.
There was only one way out of Cato’s trap: to stand again for the consulship. It was not customary to hold the consulship more than once within a ten-year period. It clashed with the principle of republican power-sharing. So, with his sights set on standing for office for 49 BC, Caesar marshalled all his allies in Rome to bypass the conservatives in the Senate and propose a special bill direct to the people. This proposed law would extend his command in Gaul until 49 BC, then allow him to stand for office without having even set foot in the city. Although his enemies in the Senate hissed, such was Caesar’s popularity after Gaul that all ten tribunes of the people supported the bill and it was passed in 52 BC. But the law was only the beginning of the debate.