ANTIQUITY (Con't)

To Play Caesar…

Vercingetorix taunted the Legion, and teased them to chase – and the Legion obliged. Soon afterward, Caesar caught up with Vercingetorix at Gergovia, where to Caesar’s great surprise, he found himself trapped; outmaneuvered, and ultimately forced to retreat.

This battle becomes the only loss in Julius Caesar’s entire career. Caesar wrote extensively about it in his journal of the Gallic Campaign of ’52.

He wrote how well impressed he was by Vercingetorix, and noted that the Gallic leader had made a great and careful study of Caesar’s tactics, methods and supply chain – conducting an impressive guerilla war against the Romans – and using his keen understanding of Caesars’ methods to control the battlefield. Ultimately he trapped the great General by anticipating his tactics. Caesar was forced into a full retreat, the only battle Caesar ever lost.

But Vercingetorix would pay dearly for his victory. Caesar made a special commitment to destroying his army and command. He redoubled his efforts, finally forcing Vercingetorix and his 80000 men to Alesia – where Caesar laid seige for some 40 days.

After Months of campaign, battle and maneuver Vercingetorix and his men were left exhausted, with resources and soldiers depleted, and faced certain slaughter. Caesar was relentless, ruthless and merciless. So Vercingetorix made the ultimate sacrifice and surrendered to Caesar. This he did in exchange for Caesar’s solemn promise: He would not execute Vercingetorix, and he would spare the remaining soldiers too.

And Caesar kept his promise, at least sort of… He sent Vercingetorix to prison in Rome, where he waited five years for Caesar to finish his campaigns. Whilst Caesar – ruthless and vindictive, killed every Gaul he could find, soldier or not, selling the rest into slavery.

When he was done, he returned to Rome in triumph. Then, after five years held captive, Vercingetorix was brought out of the dungeons to be displayed as a spoil of war, in Caesar's Triumph Parade thru Rome. Handcuffed to an oxcart, paraded before the crowds; a spectacle to behold.

At the conclusion of the parade march, having arrived back at the square before the Senate, Vercingetorix was displayed to the crowd, and then garroted and beheaded by an agent of the Republic. And thus did Caesar keep his word - that he would not execute Vercingetorix. A contract dully executed pursuant to terms - though Vercingetorix might have argued otherwise, had he the chance/ .:.