Pépite

France · The foundations

Alésia, the end of free Gaul

Alésia is a defeat the victor dispatched in a single sentence — and that France turned into a national myth nineteen centuries later.

The start of the lesson

The next 7 cards, the four questions and the review are in the app.

Forget the map of France. No country is called Gaul: dozens of peoples, each with its own chiefs. Caesar calls them states. Arverni and Aedui fight over first place, and Rome protects the Aedui. Getting them to pull together? Nobody ever has.

Province romaineRhinArverniGergovieAeduifriends of RomeParisiiLutetia, now ParisRemiloyal to Rome

Rome already has a foot in the door: the whole South is a Roman province. Since 58 BC a general hungry for glory has campaigned there, and written his exploits in a book. Remember that. Early 52 BC he winters in Italy; Gaul plots.

0 years
of campaigning before Alésia
From Book I (58 BC) to Book VII (52 BC), one campaign a year. And as Book VII opens, Caesar believes Gaul is quiet (VII, 1).
Obverse of a stater: a stylised head in profile, ringed by the legend VERCINGETORIXS
Stater in the name of Vercingétorix, electrum, c. 52 BC, BnF, Gallica · Public domain

This coin: a name running round it, VERCINGETORIXS. A face? The BnF calls it a stylised head, not a portrait. Striking coins in your own name in 52 BC is claiming the title. His father was killed by his own people for aiming at kingship.

The next 7 cards, the four questions and the review are in the app.

What you will be able to answer

  • How many walls do the Romans build around Alésia?
  • Lionel Royer’s painting was made in Roman times.
  • Put these stages in order.
  • In Caesar, the surrender takes one sentence: “Vercingetorix was surrendered, ___ were thrown down.”

Sources

Every date, every figure and every quote in this lesson was verified in these sources.

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