Pax Romana Page 8

The Romans saw their ‘friendships’ with outsiders in a similar way, naturally with Rome as the dominant partner, and it was a less clear relationship than a more formal alliance. Amici were expected to give support if it was requested, to respect Roman interests and in particular to keep peace with the Romans and not aid anyone who fought them. In return the Romans offered goodwill, occasional gifts, and more willingness to listen to embassies than they might to those sent by other leaders and states. Diviciacus met with leading senators – the orator Cicero notes that he discussed the druidic religion with him, for the Gaul was an initiate in the priesthood, if probably not to the highest level (which required many years of study). The delegation from the Aedui had their case heard by the Senate, who expressed concern and gave some limited diplomatic aid. It looks as if the Roman proconsul of Transalpine Gaul in 60 BC met with Ariovistus, or at least communicated by envoys, which paved the way for his recognition as rex et amicus when Caesar was consul in the next year.12

  In this way Ariovistus joined the Aedui and Sequani as ‘friends’, and the Romans could feel a degree of security for Transalpine Gaul. The threat of major war and upheaval on their borders appeared to have been averted, and with it the danger that this might spill across into the province. Ariovistus pledged to keep the peace with the Aedui and their allies, but the price of this was submission, marked by paying tribute and the handing over of hostages to him. Joined by more and more bands of warriors, the king – it is unclear whether he had always claimed this status or thought that he had won it through his victories – was stronger than any other leader. He demanded and was given more land from the Sequani and took hostages from his old allies as well as enemies to mark their acknowledgement of his greater power.13

  Many Gauls resented the dominance of Ariovistus because he was a foreign invader, but his warriors had gained such a reputation for ferocity that none wanted to face them in battle. Some leaders were more frustrated because the king’s presence made it harder for them to win supremacy in their own tribes, and a few of these began to search for some alternative outside force to match the German warlord. Diviciacus’ younger brother Dumnorix looked to the Helvetii, in spite of their recent attacks on the Aedui, and married the daughter of one of their leading men. A secret plan was hatched to move a large part of the Helvetii and settle them on new lands they would seize from peoples to the west of the Aedui and Sequani. Backed by their military might, Diviciacus would be able to control his own people, brushing aside rivals including his brother. Similar ambitions were encouraged in a nobleman of the Sequani. Together these newly installed leaders and the settled Helvetii would shift the balance of power in their favour and be well placed to dominate Gaul. Dumnorix’s father-in-law fell from grace and died before the migration began, apparently taking his own life when he realised that rivals in the tribe were too strong for him. Even so the Helvetii persisted with the enterprise, although perhaps the objective was less focused.14

  ‘ALL GAUL IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PARTS’ – CAESAR’S INTERVENTION

  Julius Caesar was particularly ambitious even by the standards of the Roman aristocracy. When passing through a tiny village he is supposed to have remarked that he would rather be first man in that community than second anywhere else, including Rome. Caesar spent borrowed money on a spectacular scale to buy popularity, and by the time he became consul his debts were huge. Apart from the usual aristocratic desire for glory, he needed the spoils of victory so that he could repay his creditors from the profits. An informal agreement with the two most influential men in the Republic, Pompey and Crassus, helped arrange for him to receive the combined provinces of Illyricum and Cisalpine Gaul for five years. This was awarded by a vote of the Popular Assembly rather than the Senate, so was not subject to annual revision. It would later be extended for another five years. It is likely that he planned to use Illyricum as his main base and to campaign in the Balkans, where the Dacian King Burebista was carving out a large empire for himself. Then the governor of Transalpine Gaul died in office, and the Senate decided to add this province to Caesar’s command. No doubt his friends among the senators helped to secure this decision, but it is doubtful if anyone imagined that it would have such repercussions.15

  In March 58 BC, news reached Caesar outside Rome that the Helvetii had begun to migrate and had requested permission to pass through part of Transalpine Gaul, pledging not to molest the provincials in any way. This does seem to have surprised him and the Romans in general. He hurried to the spot, delaying the migrants until he was able to shift his legions across the Alps to face them. Then he refused the Helvetii admission to the Roman province, forcing them to take a longer and more difficult route through the territory of the Sequani. Dumnorix helped to negotiate a deal to permit this, the Helvetii and Sequani exchanging hostages as a mark of goodwill.16

  Elsewhere the migrants behaved less well. The Allobroges, a people forming part of Transalpine Gaul, as well as the Aedui and another tribe dependent on them, all sent envoys to Caesar complaining that the Helvetii were plundering their territory and taking captives as they passed. The proconsul needed a war, and protecting Rome’s allies was an entirely proper reason to fight one. Caesar led his army out of his province and pursued the Helvetii, defeating them in a hard-fought battle not far from Bibracte, the principal oppidum of the Aedui. The migrants were forced to return to their homeland, apart from a sub-group whom he permitted to settle among the Aedui at the latter’s request.17

  Diviciacus and other Aeduan leaders who had appealed for Caesar’s aid found themselves restored to prominence in the aftermath of this victory. Others were less pleased. Caesar claims that Dumnorix had worked to help the Helvetii defeat his army. In a private interview conducted with the aid of a trusted equestrian of Gallic descent from the Roman province, Caesar let Diviciacus persuade him not to punish his younger brother. This was another favour granted to an open ally of Rome, who pleaded on behalf of brotherly love, but also gave the more pragmatic reason that if Dumnorix was executed no one would believe that he had not asked Caesar to punish him in this way. The decision confirmed Diviciacus’ influence with the newly arrived and powerful Romans, demonstrating the advantages to be gained by friendship with Rome and Caesar in particular. At the same time it weakened the younger brother’s prestige, since he had needed to be protected. Covertly, Caesar also arranged for spies to watch Dumnorix in the future.18

  Envoys came from many neighbouring tribes to congratulate Caesar on his success. After holding a council, the debates of which were held in secret, some chieftains came to him and appealed for aid against Ariovistus. Diviciacus was their spokesman, stating that he was the only one who had not given a family member as hostage to the Sequani and Ariovistus, or sworn an oath not to seek Roman help. Encouraged by Caesar, the other leaders supported him, making the same appeal with tears in their eyes. Some of the Sequani were there, but they remained silent out of fear of Ariovistus, who had a reputation for torturing hostages to death when angered.19

  Caesar promised to help and claims that he believed it was possible to do this peacefully. He sent envoys to Ariovistus and for the first time requested a meeting at an arranged spot. The king refused, saying that it was too difficult for him to muster his army and move outside his own territory. Apart from that, if Caesar wanted to see him, then surely it was up to Caesar to travel to him. Ariovistus ‘wondered what business Caesar and the whole Roman people might have in a part of Gaul he had conquered in war’. The proconsul replied with a reminder of the great favour done to him in 59 BC when the Senate had hailed him king and friend, and promised lasting gratitude and friendship if he now granted Rome’s requests. These were for him to return the hostages to the Aedui, permit the Sequani to return the hostages they held, and refrain from aggression against the Aedui and their allies. The offer ended with a scarcely veiled threat, stating that it was his duty not to ‘ignore the injuries suffered by the Aedui’.20

  A warlord cannot be seen to give i
n to threats, for he relies on the fear his strength inspires in others. Ariovistus’ messengers restated his claim to have won his dominance through victory. The Romans would not tolerate an outsider interfering in lands they had conquered, and so neither would he submit to the same thing. He would not return the hostages, but nor would he attack the Aedui as long as they kept their side of the treaty they had agreed after he defeated them. If they broke their word, then not even their special relationship with Rome would save them, for he and his warriors had never yet been defeated. Caesar’s advance and interference in Gaul had already damaged his revenue, probably from disruption of the river trade.

  A modern reader tends to be struck by the reasonable if blunt tone of Ariovistus’ messages, where he asks for no more than the same licence the Romans took for themselves. At one point he talks of ‘his province’ as equivalent to Caesar’s province. Contemporary Romans might well have understood the logic, but would never have accepted the sense. Instead they would have seen this as dangerous pride in a barbarian who did not realise his inferiority to Rome or the proper balance inherent in friendship with the Republic. Caesar is careful to emphasise the difference between the Gauls and Germans, the latter being less settled, culturally simpler and inherently more warlike, very numerous and eager for the more fertile lands of Gaul. The picture he paints is greatly exaggerated, sometimes altogether wrong, and often shown to be much more complicated even in his own narrative.

  Exaggerating the distinction helped Caesar to justify his own actions. The nobility of the Gallic tribes were locked in an ongoing competition for supremacy, many aspiring to the permanent power of kings rather than the temporary influence of magistrates. Incursions by large numbers of warlike Germans threatened to make this already simmering instability boil over into chaos, unbalancing the networks of alliances and friendships surrounding and protecting the Roman frontier. More importantly, tribes on the move might chose to come through Gaul towards Italy itself. In the late second century BC, the Cimbri and Teutones, peoples of Germanic origin, had smashed a succession of Roman armies, invading Transalpine Gaul and then crossing the Alps into Italy before they were defeated. The fear they had caused – evoking folk memories of the Gallic sack of Rome in 390 BC – was still within living memory in Caesar’s day.

  In the Commentaries Caesar reminds his readers of this episode and makes it clear that he will do everything in his power to prevent a repeat of it. From the beginning he sets down the Rhine as a boundary that no more Germans must be allowed to cross. He tells us that his main reason for returning the Helvetii back to their homeland was to prevent Germans from settling there and so establishing themselves right next to the Roman province. News that more bands of warriors and their families were coming to join Ariovistus, and that he was demanding that the Sequani provide land for them, prompted the proconsul to march with his army towards the German king. Ariovistus and his followers were not simply Germans, but Suebi, a group of tribes renowned for their great numbers and their warlike nature – in short, in Caesar’s version they were more ‘barbarian’ even than the other Germans. The character of the new arrivals was soon revealed when they began raiding the Aedui in spite of the latter’s treaty with the king.21

  Caesar pushed on, hurrying to reach the Sequani’s main oppidum at Vesontio (modern Besançon) as soon as he heard that Ariovistus had mustered his army and was also heading there. Arriving first, he paused to secure supplies for his army. In the next few days a mood of despair spread among his officers and began to filter down through the ranks, sparked by the tales told by Roman traders in the town, who spoke of the immense size and ferocious fighting prowess of the Germans. Some also questioned whether the proconsul should have led his army so far from Transalpine Gaul. As consul Caesar himself had redrafted the law regulating the conduct of provincial governors, repeating the existing ban on a governor from fighting a war outside his province without explicit instructions from the Senate. It is doubtful that his actions truly broke this rule, since some discretion was granted to the man on the spot and his Commentaries present everything he did as not only in Rome’s interest, but in accordance with earlier decisions of the Senate. By a mixture of bluff and shaming them – he claimed that he would march on with just the Tenth if the other legions were too afraid to follow – Caesar snapped his men out of their mood and the army left Vesontio to confront Ariovistus.22

  The proconsul claims that he still hoped to resolve matters through negotiation. Even so he took precautions, following a route recommended by Diviciacus that was longer, but passed through terrain less suited to ambush. A week later their scouts sighted Ariovistus’ army some twenty-four Roman miles away. German messengers appeared informing him that the king was now ready to have the meeting Caesar had requested – in a sense, the Roman had come to him just as Ariovistus had demanded. Over the next five days they set down the terms for the parley, just as we saw at the start of the chapter. Caesar came with his newly mounted legionaries, and then rode forward to the mound with just a handful of companions. One was an interpreter, and the discussion was conducted in the Celtic language since Ariovistus was fluent after a dozen years in Gaul.23

  Caesar began by reminding the king of the privilege bestowed when he was granted recognition and friendship by Rome. Yet the Aedui were older and very close friends of the Romans, and had always been the foremost tribe in Gaul. ‘It was the habit of the Roman People to desire that their allies and friends should not only not lose status, but should gain in influence, dignity and honour.’ He repeated his demand that hostages be returned, the Aedui be free from attack, and no more German warriors be permitted to cross the Rhine and swell the king’s followers.

  Ariovistus defended himself by saying that he had been invited into Gaul in the first place, had fought only when attacked and expected the defeated tribes to give him only what they had promised:

  The friendship of the Roman people ought to be an honour and a distinction to him, and not a penalty, and he had requested it with that hope. If because of the Roman people he was to be deprived of tribute and made to return the hostages, then he would recant his friendship with the Roman people as readily as he had sought it.

  He brought warriors into Gaul purely to defend himself, not to wage wars of conquest. He was in Gaul before the Romans. ‘Never before had an army of the Roman people come outside the borders of their province. . . . This was his province, just as that was ours.’ The king declared himself ‘not so much of a barbarian’ not to know that for all the talk of the Aedui as brothers, they had not helped the Romans in recent wars nor had Rome assisted them against him and the Sequani. Caesar claimed to want peace, but it was hard to believe that he had not come to fight a war. Yet peace was possible if Caesar withdrew and left Ariovistus to enjoy the dominance he had won in Gaul, in which case he would be generous in reward and willingly fight campaigns on his behalf.

  Caesar responded by asserting in fact that the Roman presence in the wider region was well established and Ariovistus was the newcomer. However, after a victory won over the Arverni and Ruteni, who lived near the western borders of Transalpine Gaul, the Senate had decided against occupation and granted the right for the peoples of Gaul to live in freedom under their own laws and leaders. At this point one of the proconsul’s men told him that Ariovistus’ horsemen were drifting forward and lobbing missiles at the legionaries of the Tenth. The talks broke up as each side rode to safety. Given the differences between the leaders, it seems unlikely that more discussions would have led to any compromise. When Ariovistus asked for new talks a couple of days later, Caesar did not want to risk going in person. He sent two trusted representatives – one of them the same man who had interpreted at the private meeting with Diviciacus – in his place. Ariovistus accused them of being spies and had them put in chains. Then he advanced to camp closer to Caesar’s position and soon began to threaten his supply line.24

  For a while the armies manoeuvred, fighting several small ac
tions, until they clashed in a major battle. Caesar and his legions won, and ruthlessly pursued the enemy as they fled to the Rhine – the cavalry provided by his Gallic allies leading the chase and the slaughter. Ariovistus escaped across the river, but two of his wives and a daughter were killed and another daughter taken prisoner. His power was for ever broken, for a warlord cannot afford to be routed, and he seems to have died at some point in the next few years. The two imprisoned Roman envoys were released safe and sound, one claiming that German wise women had cast lots three times to see whether they should burn him alive, but that luckily each time the signs had told them to wait. This is one of the few anecdotes of barbarian savagery told by Caesar, and on the whole he avoids embellishing his narrative with descriptions of the strange appearance or behaviour of the tribes he encountered. For instance, he nowhere mentions the fondness of Suebian men for tying their long hair into a knot on the top or side of their head. He does claim that during the battle the warriors’ wives watched the fighting from carts, calling out to their menfolk not to let them become slaves of the Romans, but this is a rare concession to colourful description of his enemies.25

  ALLIES AND ENEMIES

  Caesar had another victory – he ends the first book of the Commentaries stating simply that he had completed two great wars in a single season. It is hard to say whether he had always hoped to provoke Ariovistus to fight. If the German king had proved willing to accept the proconsul’s demands and thus demonstrate his submission to the superiority of Rome, then this would in itself have been a major and honourable achievement. At its best, it would have been confirmed at a ceremony where Caesar sat on a platform surrounded by the standards and serried ranks of parading legionaries, making plain the majesty of Rome and Ariovistus’ proper understanding of what it meant to be a friend of the Romans. There was glory in such a moment – if little in the way of loot – and following on from the earlier defeat of the Helvetii it would have added lustre to Caesar’s reputation. We have to be careful not to assume that his victory over the Germans was inevitable. The fighting was close, and at this stage Caesar was still a fairly inexperienced commander and a stranger to most of his soldiers – hence the near-mutiny at Vesontio. When he arrived in Gaul, few if any would have guessed that he would prove to be so brilliant and successful as a general, let alone how far his armies would range. There is a fair chance that Caesar was still contemplating shifting the focus of his operations away from Gaul and back to the frontier in Illyricum.26