03/10/2020
This Day in Ancient History:
A double bill today! First up is the surrender of Vercingetorix. After causing a major revolt of Gallic tribes during the famed conquests of Caesar, Vercingetorix led the Gauls to a number of early victories before Caesar slowly but surely regained and consolidated control of the newly conquered lands.
At the famed Battle of Alesia where Caesar built two sets of wall fortifications, one to keep Vercingetorix and the remaining garrison of Alesia under siege and the other to keep a massive Gallic army from attack him effectively sandwiching his legions, an legendary battle took place which almost saw Gallic victory over the Romans save for a cavalry charge led by Caesar himself which broke the relieving Gallic troops and won the day.
The story goes that on the following day Vercingetorix rose out from Alesia and surrendered in-front of Caesar himself before being taken away in chains, dying some 5 years later in one of Caesars 4 triumphs.
Next we have the first Battle of Philippi fought between Mark Antony and Octavian against Marcus Brutus and Cassius Longinus. The lead up to this engagement is far too detailed for this post but it is important to know that save for Mark Antony, none of the other commanders had any experience leading troops and as battle was engaged this lack of leadership proved fatal to Cassius who after believing the day was lost ordered one of his men to run him through so as to avoid capture by the Caesarians, leaving the inexperienced Brutus in charge of their combined forces and the last of the major conspirators left alive.
Battle would be joined again just 20 days later but I’ll save the details until that day comes around.
