In 57 B.C.E, Julius Caesar was in the first phase of of his 9 year campaign against the
Gallic peoples.
He had had some early success against some of the initial resistance, and managed to
march his army far enough north to finally come into contact with the Belgae, whom he
called "the bravest of all the Gauls."
His first encumber with these people happened when he and his army were encamped on a large
hilltop.
After hearing about Caesar's victories to the south, an agreement had been reached among
the Belgae tribes to put aside their differences and meet this new threat as one.
Unannounced, a huge Belgae army descended on his position.
The two sides sent their cavalry forward for some light skirmishes, but the main forces
kept their distance.
Caesar, not wanting to abandon his strong position, deployed for battle way up on the
hillside.
The Belgae deployed down at the bottom, just on the other side of a small swamp.
These were good defensive positions and both sides knew it.
The two armies started to get into a pattern, where they would both deploy and just stare
at each other all day.
This went on for a while.
The Belgae came with enough food to last for a handful of days, but this was quickly turning
into a siege.
The tribes held a late night meeting, and put the matter to a vote.
In the end, they decided to go home and resupply, but vowed to return if Caesar took any aggressive
action.
This is easier said than done.
What an incredible turn of luck for Caesar.
The next day the Belgae army just melted away in front of him.
After a couple of days, Caesar set off after the largest and most formidable tribe, the
Nervii.
The Nervii had been the chief opponents of breaking up the Belgae coalition.
After some negotiations, they convinced many like-minded tribes to stick together, and
form a new, smaller army of the Belgae, totalling around 75,000 men.
They knew that Caesar would be coming after them, so they took their time choosing a good
battlefield.
They settled on an area intersected by a river called the Sabis, which was only about 3 feet
deep, and was nestled between two small hills.
One hill opened up onto a wide open plain, and the other turned into a dense forest.
The Belgae army crossed the river, slipped into the forest, concealed themselves, and
waited.
Caesar had with him somewhere between 30 and 40,000 men, split into 8 legions.
He suspected that the crossing of the river Sabis may be contested, so he made his approach
with caution.
He set up a screen of cavalry and skirmishers to both scout ahead and act as a shield for
his main force.
He then had his most experienced legions drop their extra baggage and move up to the front,
while his two rookie legions picked up the extra weight and stayed back, advancing with
the baggage train.
When the Romans arrived at the river, they didn't see any Belgae.
Caesar decided that this hill, protected by a river on one side, was a good enough defensive
position, so he had his men start to encamp for the night.
The cavalry and skirmishers crossed to the other side of the river to scout ahead as
the infantry started fortifying the hill.
Remember, the Belgae were already out there, silently watching from the treeline.
When the Roman scouts got close, a signel was given, and the Belgae attacked all at
once, catching the Romans completely unaware.
The cavalry and skirmishes immediately retreated across the river, desperately signeling to
the main Roman army that they were under attack.
The Roman infantry were all split up and busy setting up the camp for the night.
Some were digging trenches, some were setting up tents, some were gathering firewood.
Before Caesar even had time to sound the trumpets, his legion commanders were running around
grabbing soldiers from random units and throwing them into adhoc lines of battle.
In no time at all the Romans went from total disarray to a having a disorganized but workable
defensive line.
By the time everybody was in position, the battle had already begun on the Roman right
flank.
The Belgae were immediately in danger of enveloping the line, and the Romans were giving ground.
Some of the men dropped their weapons and began to flee.
Caesar arrived on the scene, jumped off his horse, picked up a shield, and ran into his
infantry, shouting encouragement and getting his men to physically push back against the
Belgae with their shields.
He was successful.
The Belgae advance was stopped, and both sides paused for a moment to catch their breath.
Caesar took this opportunity to quickly redeploy his men into a defensive square formation,
in order to avoid being enveloped on the right a second time.
Meanwhile, on the Roman left, two legions had charged downhill into the enemy lines,
and were dong quite well.
The Belgae forces on this side seemed a little thin, and the Romans were able to keep pushing
all the way across the river.
Once across the river, the Belgae collapsed into a full-on route, and fled into the woods.
The ease of this victory must have made one of the legion commanders a little suspicious,
because instead of joining in on the slaughter, he had his men turned, and double timed it
along the bank of the river, towards the Roman right flank.
And on the right flank, the Romans were still in a fight for their lives.
At some point in the fighting, a large number of Belgae had been able to force their way
around the Romans on the right, and had started to make their way up the hill, towards the
Roman baggage train.
Imagine the surprise of the two rookie legions when this huge Belgae raiding party crested
the hill, and charged.
Meanwhile, that legion from the Roman left finally made it all the way to Roman right,
and discovered that the right was in danger of being overwhelmed.
Despite being completely exhausted, this legion entered the battle for a second time, and
charged the Belgae rear.
The Belgae made a heroic last stand, but the writing was on the wall.
Eventually, they were all killed.
Speaking of heroism, the two rookie legions had now officially entered the battle.
After the Belgae charged, the fighting got absolutely ferocious.
The Roman defensive lines broke down pretty quickly the whole thing turned into a giant
free for all.
It got so bad that slaves and civillians from the baggage train grabbed weapons and joined
the fight.
The Roman skirmishers and cavalry, who had barely escaped with their lives at the beginning
of the battle, noticed what was happening and ran back to help.
It was a long, bloody fight, but the rookies held their own, and eventually these last
remaining Belgae surrendered to them.
We don't know how many Romans were killed, but it was probably a lot.
Four of Caesar's eight legions had been overrun at some point in the battle.
In one anecdote we are told that the two legions on the Roman right lost almost every one of
their centurions.
This explains why some of the men broke and ran.
With this resounding victory over the Belgae, the first phase of Caesar's conquest of Gaul
came to a close.
Years of bloody campaigning remained, but this was the most extreme the fighting got
until the Battle of Alesia, many years later, when the Gauls would make a valiant last stand
against their new occupiers.