The Aedui were caught so completely by surprise that they made no attempt to either try to contest our crossing, nor try to stop us from raiding their granaries and rounding up their cattle. Spending two days restocking our supply wagons, every man was issued marching rations of almost two weeks, which we had to divide between ourselves and our section’s mule. It is amazing how something as simple as knowing that there will be food to eat can so completely restore an army’s morale, and we were in a much better frame of mind when we turned to the next task, going to the aid of Labienus. He had been sent to subdue the Parisii, a tribe mainly congregated in the island town of Lutetia, yet like our part of the army, the fever of rebellion fired the ardor not just of the Parisii, but the imaginations of the non-warrior class of Gauls, and it was usually these people on whom we relied for information. So it was not a surprise when we later learned that the peasants told Labienus not only of the defeat at Gergovia, but that Caesar’s army had tried to cross the Liger and failed, so for want of supplies was now marching back to the Province, leaving Labienus and his army to worry about their own fate. Additionally, the word of Gergovia emboldened the Bellovaci, living to the northeast of Lutetia, to rise in rebellion as well, so that now Labienus had an enemy at his front and his rear. His only hope, as he saw it with the information that he possessed, was to somehow make it back to Agedincum, where there were two Legions and his supply base. However, he was on the wrong side of the river. Seeing that no matter where he tried to cross, there would be an enemy force opposing him, he decided that he might as well cross right then and there. Since I was not present at this battle, I cannot provide much detail, and Caesar has described it in his Commentaries, but it is sufficient to say that Labienus was victorious, his army fighting its way out of the trap. They marched to Agedincum, resupplied and picked up the other two Legions, then began heading south in our direction because Labienus learned the truth about Caesar and his army at Agedincum. Our two armies linked up about two days’ march south of Agedincum, where we made camp, with the word being that we would be staying put for a bit.
Even with the joining of our armies, the situation was still extremely serious. I cannot help but think that if it were not for that flaw of character I spoke about at the fire those weeks before, we still may have been well and truly fucked. All of Gaul was now in rebellion; every tribe threw their support behind Vercingetorix, although much to our great fortune some of those tribes’ support consisted of gold and not men. All the hostages that Caesar had gathered were at Noviodunum when it fell, so we did not even have that hold on them anymore, but true to their nature, the Gauls experienced just as much trouble dealing with prosperity as they did adversity. It was through the actions of our friends the Aedui that the trouble began. The Aedui and Arverni had been rivals for a long time, much longer than they held any animosity towards Rome, or even knew of our existence for that matter. And now the Aedui sought to reassert what they saw as their true place of dominance among the Gauls, making the claim that now they were involved, the leadership of the army should go to a man of the Aedui. This caused a huge uproar, to the point where an assembly of all the tribes of Gaul was called at Bibracte. According to our spies, every tribe in Gaul sent representatives, with the exception of the Remi, Lingones and Treveri, the latter because they were dealing with incursions from the Germans from across the Rhenus. The former two tribes chose to remain aloof because they both had firsthand knowledge of Roman power, and were gambling that Caesar would be successful. This assembly must have been quite a sight, lasting several days, yet when the matter was finally brought to a vote, not one Gaul voted against Vercingetorix. He alone, they cried, had brought them victory against the Romans, and he alone would be their leader. The Aedui were outraged at what they perceived to be a slight and I often wondered if at that point they experienced second thoughts about turning on us, except they could not risk open disagreement in front of every other tribe. I can imagine it was with great reluctance that their representatives, none other than those two rats Eporedorix and Viridomarus, swore allegiance to Vercingetorix. As far as Vercingetorix was concerned, he was committed to continuing the strategy of attrition, using the error made by the Aedui as an example of why it was important to destroy their own supplies. Despite having more than 120,000 men at his disposal, Vercingetorix knew that it would be impossible to feed such a large host, their very size meaning that his greatest asset, his maneuverability, would be compromised. To help correct this problem, he sent 40,000 home, keeping a host of 80,000 men on foot, and 15,000 cavalry. This was the force that he would use to destroy Caesar, and us.
Vercingetorix had other plans as well, which he quickly put into motion. As a sop to Eporedorix and Viridomarus, he gave them an independent command of 10,000 Aedui, bidding them to march south to the territory of the Allobroges. He authorized them to offer bribes to the Allobroges to throw in with the rest of the Gauls, the army that was with them to take the territory by force if necessary. The land of the Allobroges constituted the northernmost part of the Province, technically making them Roman subjects, but I will say that the last governors before Caesar treated them ill, so it took no stretch of the imagination to believe that they would play us false and join the rest of the tribes in revolt. Fortunately, Caesar had treated them well, saving them from the Helvetii those years ago, while conferring honors upon their leaders. As a result of Caesar’s policies, they were now satisfied with Roman rule. A kinsman of Caesar, Lucius was his name, upon receiving word from Caesar, raised 10,000 men, with forts erected at all the likely crossing points of the Rhodanus, which marked their boundary, to resist any attempt at forcing a crossing. There was one attempt made to cross the river, repulsed with heavy losses, so for the time being our rear was safe from the Gauls but it was only a temporary reprieve. One thing that concerned all of us was the number of cavalry that Vercingetorix had at his disposal; indeed, it was this force that saw the most use implementing his strategy of attrition. Roaming around the countryside in search of any rumored caches of food, our own much smaller force raced to beat them and return to our camp with those supplies, if they in fact existed. But while our force of German cavalry had proven themselves, and did so to the point that starting in this campaign that was all Caesar ever used for his personal bodyguard, they were still far less than the 400 he originally levied, whittled down in the countless skirmishes to a number a little more than two hundred. Sending across the Rhenus, Caesar requisitioned more mounted troops, but despite their fighting ability, the one weakness of the German cavalry when going against their Gallic enemies was in the quality of the horseflesh they rode. Therefore, Caesar ordered that all Tribunes, still six to a Legion, and members of the Evocati, the group of retired Centurions and Legionaries that Caesar deemed to be valuable additions to the army, and who as a signal of their status were given mounts, relinquish them to the Germans who joined the army. There was a lot of complaining about that order, I can promise you; I just think that the fine young men were born that way while the Evocati had grown soft and too accustomed to the comfort of riding. Whatever the case, we increased and augmented our cavalry in this way, along with adding some German auxiliaries of foot of questionable value. It was with this force that Caesar now turned his attention back to the Province.