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Hey Guys, Josh from the Ancient History Guy here. And today we are going to be focusing on one of the pivotal moments in Julius Caesar's Career; the Gaelic Wars.

Sufficient to say Caesar's conquest of Gaul had not been peaceful, most of the tribes he had invaded he had outright exterminated. This bloodshed did not sit well with the native Gauls, who naturally saw Caesar as a foreign invader. A rebellion was bound to occur soon. And occur it did.

In 52 BC, the Gaelic tribes found a leader in Vercingetorix, King of the Arverni tribe. Vercingetorix had studied the formations and tactics of the Romans and had concluded that a pitched battle with Caesar would result in the Gauls defeat. Vercingetorix, therefore, devised a scorched earth policy, hampering Caesar’s ability to feed his army off of the land. This was not a popular move, and most of the time had to be implemented by the Gallic army via force. This idea was also carried out during the winter as Caesar was camped on the other side of the Alps, this completely cut off the supply chains to Caesar's army. As well as this, Vercingetorix had an advantage in the strength and skill of the cavalry at his command, as Gaelic Cavalry was well known to be superior to Roman Cavalry.

Caesar decided to tackle this revolt head on and besieged the Gauls at the town of Gergovia in 52 BC. However, a miscommunication between Caesar's forces resulted in the Gauls being able to route the Roman Army. However, Vercingetorix failed to capitalize on this. In an attempt to drive Caesar out, Vercingetorix's army was soundly defeated by the now reorganised Romans and driven back to the hilltop town of Alesia.

This is where Vercingetorix's scorched earth plan came back to bite him. And it bit him hard. The Romans besieged Alesia and as a result of the Gauls burning all the grain stores, Alesia was quickly running out of Food. further hampering the problems was the fact that Caesar had built a fortified wall to keep the Gaelic forces in, and resupplies out. Vercingetorix decided the best option was to expel the woman and children from the city, hoping that the Romans would allow them to pass through the siege works. Caesar, however, did not allow a single citizen of Alesia through, and so the Gauls turned back towards the city, only to find the gates closed. The citizens of Alesia were stranded between two armies and were left by both to starve to death.
Vercingetorix, however, did manage to send for help and was promised reinforcements. In response to this, Caesar built another wall facing away from Alesia. He pretty much built a fort surrounding the city. It would take several days for the Gallic relief army to arrive. Three days of intense fighting ensured with the Gauls breaking through a point in Caesar's defensive works, only Caesars clever manoeuvring of free units allowed the Romans to carry the day against two armies attacking from both sides. During this battle, a young officer called Mark Antony distinguished himself, defending his line so well that the Caesar took Antony under his wing. After the third day, Vercingetorix surrendered, thus bringing the entirety of Gaul directly under Roman control.

With the rebellion put down and Gaul now firmly under Roman rule, Caesar was ordered back to Rome by Pompey in 51 BC. The reason given was that his term as governor of Gaul had ended, however, Caesar demanded to be re-elected governor from Gaul, fearing he would be attacked in Rome if he returned without any magistrate status, as more senators were beginning to despise him. Caesar mustered his legions, now veterans of an intense war and completely loyal to their commander and headed for Rome. In January 49 BC, Caesar reached the river Rubicon, which was the natural boundary where friendly forces were not allowed to pass. Caesar should have disbanded his legions at this point instead he crossed the river, and his legions followed. Civil War was now inevitable and it would be fought between Caesar and his former friend Pompey.

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar#Early_life_and_career
http://www.roman-empire.net/republic/caesar.html
http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/julius-caesar
http://www.totallytimelines.com/julius-caesar-100-bce-44-bce/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pompey
https://www.ancient.eu/pompey/
https://www.britannica.com/event/Gallic-Wars
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vercingetorix
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arverni
http://classics.mit.edu/Caesar/gallic.html
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