Ariovistus

They were exposed, however, to attacks from the east, which not only menaced their own independence, but were a source of danger to Rome.

The devastating incursions of the Cimbri and Teutoni at the end of the second century before Christ were followed, after an interval of thirty years, by the invasion of the German chieftain, Ariovistus, and, a few years later, by the appearance of marauders from Switzerland on the right bank of the Rhone.

Thus, when Caesar was appointed governor of Illyricum and Gaul, his tenure of office was likely to be eventful, especially as his commission apparently gave him the right to include the whole of independent Gaul north of the province within his sphere of action.

His appointment carried with it the command of an army consisting of four legions, perhaps about twenty thousand men.

Translated by Thomas Rice Holmes.

Book 1, Chapters 1 to 9.

Campaigns against the Helvetii and Ariovistus.

Gaul, taken as a whole, is divided into three parts, one of which is inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitani, and the third by a people who call themselves Celts and whom we call Gauls.

In 58, the Helvetii, a people from the region of modern Switzerland, began migrating west, and Caesar moved to stop them.

He caught them near Bibracte and defeated them, and later that same year he turned on Ariovistus, a Germanic king who settled in Gaul with his followers, beat him too, and pushed his forces back across the Rhine.

He moved north the next year, in 57, against the Belgae, whom Caesar himself calls the bravest of all the Gauls in the opening line of his account, and by the end of the season much of the north had submitted.

In 56, he fought the Veneti on the Atlantic coast, a seafaring people whose war was fought primarily from ships.

This is the background that's necessary to fully understand how the Teutonic fury became an enduring idea.

A generation later, Julius Caesar, whose aunt had married Marius, faced the Germanic king Ariovistus.

When his troops lost their nerve, he reminded them that their fathers had already beaten the Cimbri and Teutons.

In Caesar's hands, both peoples effectively became Germans, the wild men from across the Rhine, and the Romans had beaten them before.

Some sent envoys bearing gifts, others prepared for war.

The greatest resistance came from Ariovistus, a Germanic warlord who had crossed the Rhine with tens of thousands of men.

He was tall, brutal, and proud, a mirror of what Caesar might have been if born among barbarians instead of marble.

When their armies finally met near the Vosges Mountains, the battle became legend.

Stand with me, and the gods themselves will remember your names." They stood.

They fought, and they won.

Ariovistus fled across the Rhine, his army shattered.

Caesar had driven back not only an invader, but a symbol proof that Rome's reach could extend beyond its borders, that no tribe, no god, no barbarian could stand against its will.

Caesar had, therefore, only to draw near to the scene of contention, and then to take sides with one party or the other, it mattered little with which, for the affair almost always resulted in the end in his making himself master of both.

the manner however in which this sort of operation was performed can best be illustrated by an example and we will take for the purpose the case of areovistus ariovistus was a german king he had been nominally a sort of ally of the romans he had extended his conquests across the rhine into gaul and he held some nations there as his tributaries among these the eduans were a prominent party and to simplify the account we will take their name as the representative of all who were concerned when caesar came into the region of the eduans he entered into some negotiations with them in which they as he alleges asked his assistance to enable them to throw off the dominion of their german enemy it is probable in fact that there was some proposition of this kind from them for caesar had abundant means of inducing them to make it if he was disposed and the receiving of such a communication furnished the most obvious and plausible pretext to authorize and justify his interposition Caesar accordingly sent a messenger across the Rhine to Ariovistus, saying that he wished to have an interview with him on business of importance, and asking him to name a time which would be convenient to him for the interview, and also to appoint some place in Gaul where he would attend.

To this Ariovistus replied that if he had himself any business with Caesar, he would have waited upon him to propose it, and in the same manner, if Caesar wished to see him, he must come into his own dominions.

He said that it would not be safe for him to come into Gaul without an army, and that it was not convenient for him to raise and equip an army for such a purpose at that time.

Caesar sent again to Ariovistus to say that since he was so unmindful of his obligations to the Roman people as to refuse an interview with him on business of common interest, he would state the particulars that he required of him.

The Edwins, he said, were now his allies and under his protection, and Ariovistus must send back the hostages which he held from them, and bind himself henceforth not to send any more troops across the Rhine, nor make war upon the Edwins, or injure them in any way.

If he complied with these terms, all would be well.

If he did not, Caesar said that he should not himself disregard the just complaints of his allies.

We've talked about the Adui.

The Sequani invited the Germanic Suebi and their leader, or king, Ariovistus, across the Rhine to help defeat the Adui.

Ariovistus did just that, crushing the Adui at the Battle of Megatobriga in, I guess, 63 BC.

As payment for his services, Ariovistus took one-third of the Sequani's best land and was actively demanding another third to settle even more of his people.

The tribal leaders further revealed that there were now 120,000 Germans living in Gaul, holding children of the Gallic nobility hostage and treating the Gauls like conquered slaves.

So back to your original point, Caesar may have thought that the German threat was at least temporarily arrested, but it not only was it not arrested, it was already live and in action in Gaul as we speak.

You would think this is right up his alley, right? But no.

On one hand, it does give Caesar the exact excuse he needed to continue expanding his campaign.

When his mother died, he was suspected of having her denied food while she was ill on the basis of this prophecy.

Notably, when Julius Caesar faced Ariovistus' Germans in 58 BC, Plutarch says their holy women read the future in the flow of rivers and in the swirling and splashing of the water.

Elephantine sits just below the first cataract, where, according to Strabo, boatmen rowed their boats over the drop for Roman prefects.

One historian has wondered whether it's just a coincidence that a Germanic seeress, who may have divined the future from the flow of water, ended up there.

They were exposed, however, to attacks from the east, which not only menaced their own independence, but were a source of danger to Rome.

The devastating incursions of the Cimbri and Tutani at the end of the second century before Christ were followed, after an interval of thirty years, by the invasion of the German chieftain Ariovistus, and, a few years later, by the appearance of marauders from Switzerland on the right bank of the Rhone.

Thus, when Caesar was appointed governor of Illyricum and Gaul, his tenure of office was likely to be eventful, especially as his commission apparently gave him the right to include the whole of independent Gaul north of the province within his sphere of action.

His appointment carried with it the command of an army consisting of four legions, perhaps about twenty thousand men.

Translated by Thomas Rice Holmes.

Book 1, Chapters 1 to 9.

Campaigns against the Helvetii and Ariovistus.

Gaul, taken as a whole, is divided into three parts, one of which is inhabited by the Belgae, another by the Aquitani, and the third by a people who call themselves Celts and whom we call Gauls.