COIN Series Volume VIII, Falling Sky, casts players in the roles of great leaders during the Gallic revolts against Roman occupation:  Ambiorix of the Belgae, Vercingetorix of the Celts, and of course Caesar.  But the next tier of great personages appears in the game also—in the Event cards.  Here we present just a portion of the cards that showcase the individuals of each faction in Gaul that help propel the drama of Falling Sky.  To the card images we add historical background notes from the game’s Playbook (with thanks to Marc Gouyon-Rety for his assistance), citations from Caesar’s Commentaries on the Gallic War in the format [book.chapter], and sometimes quotations (as translated by Carolyn Hammond, Oxford University Press, 1996).

Event #6:  Marcus Antonius

Antony played such a prominent role in the later Roman Civil Wars that we may forget how he earned his fame in the fighting in Gaul—cavalry action.

Background.  Related to Caesar, a mentee of political ally Clodius Pulcher, and with successful military experience in the East, Marc Antony came to Caesar’s command in Gaul during the latter Gallic wars.  Dashing and aggressive, he was popular with the troops.  Caesar saw to Antony’s political advancement as, in effect, Caesar’s heir and sent him to Rome to become Quaestor, an important public official.  Antony was back in time for the 52BC Great Revolt; at Alesia, he held an important sector of the circumvallation and earned his first mention in Caesar’s memoir. [7.81]  By 51, he held an independent command in Belgica, sparring with his cavalry against none other than Caesar’s old Belgic protégé, Commius. [8.47-8.48]

Event #12:  Titus Labienus

Perhaps even more consequential to Caesar’s saga of trust and betrayal than Brutus, Labienus before all that was Caesar’s
indispensable officer in Gaul.

Background.  Titus Labienus seems in Caesar’s memoir to be the subordinate who could do no wrong.  He had held independent command against the Treveri in 54-53 BC. [5.57-5.58, 6.7-6.8]  By the 52BC Great Revolt, Caesar entrusted him with four legions—over a third of the army in Gaul—in the north of Celtica while Caesar continued his confrontation with Vercingetorix in the south. [7.57]  During the 51BC campaign, “Caesar was receiving frequent reports that his personal enemies were trying to win Labienus over … but Caesar did not believe any of the rumours.” [8.52]  Labienus appears to have been a steadfast legitimist Republican, raising the question of how early his discomfort with Caesar’s ambitions may have emerged.  Upon the Civil War, Labienus left his rebel of a boss to join the legitimate army of the Republic, until his death at Munda in 45 BC.  His son Quintus went so far as join the Parthians to fight the 2^nd Triumvirate.

Event #26:  Gobannitio

Vercingetorix challenged not only Caesar’s domination but his own people’s political mores.  The embodiment of those mores in the case of Vercingetorix’s home Arverni tribe—and of another way forward with the dangerous Romans—was Vercingetorix’s own uncle.

Background.  The Arverni leadership saw a contest between supporters of traditional kingship—most recently Vercingetorix’s own father, Celtillus, who was executed for “trying to gain a kingdom” [7.4]—and supporters of an oligarchic regime (propped by Rome since the defeat of the last great Arverni king, Bituit).

Vercingetorix’s own ambitions revived those of his father, in challenge to other Arverni notables. Vercingetorix’s first impediment to raising the Great Revolt was his own kin:  “His uncle Gobannitio, and the other leading men who opposed taking such a risk, tried to restrain him and banished him from the town of Gergovia.  Still he persisted, and held a levy of down-and-outs and desperadoes in the open countryside instead.  After he had mustered this gang, every Arvernian whom Vercingetorix approached was won over….  He urged them to take up arms in order to win liberty for all.  Once he had assembled a large force, he exiled the opponents who so recently had themselves expelled him.” [7.4]

Caesar’s language here and elsewhere reflects the popular and democratic dimension to the royalist factions, versus the elitist oligarchies typically favored by Rome.  Hence the Caesar’s mention of “rabble-rousing” and other demeaning pejoratives regarding his opponents among the tribes.

Event #34:  Acco

One historian-illustrator of ancient warfare-John Warry—summarizes the onset of Rome’s contest with Vercingetorix
thus:  “Caesar’s  initial conquest of Gaul had been deceptively simple.  The Gauls did not remain docile, and Gallic uprisings alternating with Roman reprisals soon assumed the aspect of a vicious circle.  Not long after Caesar’s British campaign, the Belgic tribes revolted.  …  When he had subdued the Gauls in the north-east, he had one of their leaders flogged to death.  The resentment and apprehension which this execution caused was a stimulus to further revolt.” (Warfare in the Classical World,­ page 165)  That leader was Acco….

Background.  While Caesar was dealing with the 53BC emergency in Belgica, the nearby Senones instigated a defection of tribes from him.  He later had the “ringleader” Acco arrested and, as he put it, “punished in accordance with ancestral custom”, by which he meant flogged to death.  The act bred such resentment that it helped spark the revolt that Vercingetorix would lead the next year. [6.4, 6.44, 7.1]

Event #38:  Diviciacus

The later druids of Britannia were famously anti-Roman.  But those of Gaul not necessarily so—indeed the personification of acceptance of Caesar’s rule was one himself….

Background.  Druid priest and Aedui noble, Diviciacus was an official friend of Rome even before Caesar’s arrival.  He had pled emotionally to Caesar for clemency on behalf of his conspiratorial brother (and deadly rival) Dumnorix, probably out of concern for the impact that Dumnorix’s avowed opposition might have on Aedui fortunes.  Diviciacus was consistently in Caesar’s camp throughout the revolts and, one suspects, a personal friend. [1.19-1.20]  He became a key interlocutor between Caesar and Roman-friendly Aedui.  In the end, other Aedui leaders—perhaps fearing that the Great Revolt might succeed and leave the Aedui marginalized in a post-Roman withdrawal Gaul—overruled Diviciacus’s personal loyalty, and the Aedui fought with Vercingetorix against Rome.

Event #43:  Convictolitavis

Caesar describes all Gallic tribes as riven by internal rivalry.  The Aedui upon which he relied were not exception, indeed were subject to republican tradition that could keep them from efficient decision of a national course.  Caesar needed a decisive ally and so chose and sponsored one Aedui partisan over another….

Background.  Gallic tribes were frequently split within, and the Aedui—with their magisterial rather than royal form of government—were no exception.  (Regarding the case of the Averni and the struggle between royal and oligarchic forms of government in many Gallic tribes, see the background for Event 26, Gobannitio.)  After subduing Avaricum, Caesar learned that rivalry between parties of Aeduans Convictolitavis and Cotus was nearing civil war.  He paused campaigning to journey personally to help resolve the Aedui dispute, deciding in favor of the former, so that “once all such matters were set aside, they could devote themselves to the campaign….” [7.32-34] The ousted Cotus later that year commanded a cavalry contingent under Vercingetorix and was captured in the defeat that preceded the Gallic retirement to Alesia. [7.67]

Event #53:  Commius

Labienus was not the only stalwart of Caesar’s in Gaul who later turned against him on the field of battle….

Background.  Commius of the Atrebates may have been the greatest survivalist of the Gallic wars.  While so many Gallic chieftains met doom, Commius over the years knew when to be a friend, when to be useful, when to turn, and when to get out.  Caesar early in the wars appointed Commius king of his people and relied on him as an agent.  Commius eventually joined Vercingetorix’s Great Revolt and commanded substantial forces against Caesar at Alesia.  After a final revolt with the Bellovaci chief Correus failed and degenerated into raiding, Commius dodged Roman assassination attempts and made his escape to Britannia, probably to rule over a Belgic kingdom there. [4.21, 7.76-7.79, 8.6-8.7, 8.23, 8.47-8.48]

Event #72:  Correus

The climactic scene of Alesia can distract us from considering the serious fighting over the following year.  After all the punishment that Caesar had delivered onto the people of Belgica, leaders there remained who would stand against the Roman Army….

Background.  Long beyond Ambiorix’s revolt, Belgic alliances continued to rise up against the hated Romans.  After Caesar at Alesia had crushed the Great Revolt, the Bellovaci chief Correus joined with Commius the Atrebatian in hope of enlisting numerous Germans nearby and again challenging Caesar in battle.  Caesar marched to them with several legions and established impressive fortifications to their front.  A series of harassments, skirmishes, and attempted ambushes ended with a clash and Correus’s death.  Freed of the “rabble-rousing instigator” Correus, the Bellovaci now led the Belgic tribes in finally making peace. [8.6-8.23]

Author: Volko Ruhnke