During Julius Caesar's first full winter as the governor of Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine
Gaul, and Illyricum, he returned to Roman territory to tend to his administrative duties
while his right hand man, Labienus, wintered with the army in Gaul.
During this time, Labienus kept Caesar updated with regular reports.
Late in the winter, rumours started to circulate that the people in Northeastern Gaul, the
Belgae, were considering forming a loose confederation, aligned against the Romans.
The Belgae were alarmed by the fact that the Romans were taking such an active role in
Gallic affairs.
Moreover, the Romans appeared to be making themselves comfortable in Gaul by wintering
there in a semi-permanent camp.
By the way, the Belgae were right to be alarmed.
After receiving these reports from Labienus, Caesar began to raise two more legions in
Cisalpine Gaul, which brought his total up to 8.
This is something worth keeping in mind: when the Senate had assigned Caesar his provinces,
they had assigned him 4 legions to go along with them.
Now, Caesar had doubled this number, without getting any approval from the Senate.
This wasn't an issue yet, but it would become one later.
After his two legions were up and running, Caesar went north, and met up with Labienus
and the rest of his army.
He was now in the command of around 35,000 to 40,000 men, after you factor in his earlier
losses.
When he got there, he sent messages to some friendly tribes neighbouring the Belgae, asking
them to keep an eye on Belgae activities.
They reported back, and each told the same story.
The Belgae were mustering a massive army.
So Caesar marched north in response.
When he entered Belgae territory, the first tribe he encountered, called the Remi, fell
all over themselves swearing that they never intended to join this anti-Roman confederacy.
To prove their allegiance, they told Caesar everything they knew.
According to the Remi, this Belgae now consisted of 290,000 people.
We have no way of verifying this number, but we do know that the Belgae army was quite
large with a lot of infighting between tribes.
By the way, here's a handy little tip.
These ancient sources have this nasty habit of trying inflate the size of enemy armies
by sneaking women and children into their counts.
Here's the trick: any society with a high mortality rate tends to be around 50% children.
Also 50% female, obviously.
So you take the given number, divide it by 4, take a little bit off to account for the
elderly, and that gives you a very rough estimate as to the maximum number of fighting age males
in that society.
In this case, we get something like 70,000 men.
That's a plausible number, and we have some anecdotal evidence to back it up.
So anyway, back to the action.
By now the Belgae were on the move.
The first target in their sights were the Remi, who were now passing information to
the Romans.
The Belgae advanced on a town called Bibrax, which was the capitol of the Remi.
Caesar responded, and also moved towards Bibrax.
As he approached a town, he came to a bridge across a river that the Romans called the
Axona, and we now called the Aisne.
Before crossing the river, Caesar had his men construct a small fort.
He was now entering enemy territory, and he needed to protect this bridge.
It was now his only link to friendly territory, and to his food shipments.
He left a pretty large garrison there, 6 cohorts, almost 3,000 men.
By this time, the Belgae had reached the Remi capitol.
The Remi sent a message to Caesar saying that they wouldn't be able to hold out for very
long.
That night, Caesar had a bunch of his skirmishers sneak into the Remi capitol under the cover
of darkness.
The next day, when the Belgae attempted to approach the gates, they were met with a barrage
of Roman missiles so intense that they were forced to pull back and reevaluate their plans.
At this point they probably realized that there were now Romans fighting alongside the
Remi.
With this new information they immediately abandoned their plan to take the Remi capitol
and marched towards the Roman army.
Caesar recalled his skirmishers, but otherwise stayed put.
He deployed up on a hill, with the Axona river behind him, and a bit of swampy, wet land
in front of him.
This was a strong defensive position.
He put his six experienced legions at the front, with his two green legions in reserve,
just like he had done in the past.
The Belgae arrived, and over the next several days, not much happened.
There were some cavalry skirmishes, but little else.
It was a standoff.
The Romans used this time to dig a long trench back from their line, in order to prevent
a Belgae attack on the flanks.
The ditches stretched way back behind the Roman line, and ended with small elevated
wooden fortifications.
On these structures were a bunch of soldiers manning Scorpions.
If you don't know what a Roman Scorpion is, picture a giant crossbow big enough to fire
bolts the size of pool cues.
Even though the Belgae outnumbered the Romans by a lot, attacking through a swampy area
and then uphill was pretty suicidal.
Even worse, the Romans were digging in, meaning that the Belgae were losing their advantage
by the day.
They needed to force Caesar down off that hill.
The easiest way to do that would be to cut off his food supply.
And the easiest way to do that would be to take control of that bridge.
But as we know, Caesar had already thought of this, which is why he left almost 3,000
men to defend it in the first place.
The Belgae formed a group of as many as 10,000 men to go and take the bridge.
Their plan was this: ford the river, swing around and attack the Romans defending the
bridge before anybody realized what was happening.
Then, if Caesar wanted to be stupid enough to try and retake the bridge with 10,000 Belgae
on one side of it and 60,000 on the other, that was up to him.
If not, he would be cut off, and they would just starve him out.
Assembling 10,000 men and having them cross a river is no small thing, and Caesar could
see it all happening clear as day from his hilltop perch.
Caesar obviously didn't want to abandon the hilltop, since forcing Caesar down off the
hilltop was the entire point of this exercize.
So he left all of his infantry in place, but gathered together all of his cavalry and all
of his skirmishers.
Caesar then personally lead them down off the hill, across the bridge, and to the Belgae
crossing.
He moved with exceptional speed, and when he got there only a small number of Belgae
had actually completed the crossing.
He charged this group with the cavalry, killing most and driving the rest off.
Then, when his skirmishers caught up, they opened up on the Belgae still crossing the
river, throwing javelins and slinging stones.
The Belgae mid-crossing couldn't handle this heat.
Some made it to the other side, at which time they were simply cut down by the cavalry waiting
for them, many were killed in the middle of the river, and the rest turned back.
The Belgae plan failed miserably, and now they were left in a weaker position than ever.
There was a big meeting between the Belgae tribes.
There was no one leader in command, and there was a lot of infighting.
They had not come prepared to conduct a siege, or to spend months playing cat and mouse with
Caesar.
Most of the tribes were unhappy.
A vote was held, and they decided that they should each go home and resupply.
They all agreed to all mobilize again if the Romans ever went on the offensive.
That night, the Belgae army simply walked off.
Caesar had a hard time believing that this wasn't a trap, so he sent Labienus out with
3 legions and all of the cavalry to investigate.
While they were gone, Caesar continued to hold their hilltop position, just in case.
Labienus stumbled upon some of the Belgae, and attacked.
To his surprise, it wasn't a trap, and they didn't put up much of a fight.
Labienus returned to Caesar, and told him that it was exactly what it looked like.
The Belgae had gone home.
Let's not forget, that the entire reason Caesar had come to Belgae territory in the first
place, was to force the Belgae to stand down.
They had.
Mission accomplished.
Caesar could have taken this opportunity to return south, but he didn't.
His campaign against the Belgae would only continue.
If you're eager to know what he did next, you're in luck, because I already made that
video, right here.