(Originally posted on my Facebook page for my music)
Roughly 60 years before the birth of Christ, the area we now associate with modern day France was inhabited mostly by Gauls- Celts who had not yet civilized or accepted the Roman way of life. They did not worship the same Gods, nor build cities, and they did not even see the Greeks as the archetects of their culture. In fact, the ancient Gallic communities of France at the time would remind us more of a Native American or Steppe culture than of our own modern day, European-inspired societies.
Although the Gauls stood more or less disunited, outmanned, lacked infrastructure, and were hopelessly technologically outmatched in comparison to the Romans, they were able to put aside their differences, (for the most part), and work together to stop the invading Romans. This force of unification all across Gaul was embodied best by a certain Vercingetorix. (I don’t intend to give him his own biography here, but just take my word for it when I say that he was a pretty influential guy, the leader of the Arverni tribe, and had one of the coolest moustaches in all of history).
These tribes were not used to fighting well-trained, organized armies like Julius Caesar had at his disposal. Where the Romans could set up camp outside the walls of a Gallic village and recieve recources from the rest of The Empire in the form of supply trains and reinforcements, the Gauls would be forced to forage the countryside and call upon the aid of local chiefs and clan leaders, who would often take the side of the invading Roman army or be unwilling to help in any meaningful way. (It should be noted, however that it is easier to defend a town or a city from attackers than it is to take one, in terms of manpower and recources… In this sense, the Gauls did have the “home turf” advantage)
Throughout the 50s BC, Julius Caesar and Ttitus Labenius very successfully campaigned for the Roman Republic throughout Gaul, (and even into Britain, if only for a little). These conquests are known colloquially as the “Gallic Wars” and they are considered to be one of many Roman success stories. The industrial Roman war machine ravaged all over France to the extent that many reliable sources such as Plutarch estimate that Caesar’s ambitions resulted in as many as 1 million Gauls being killed, and a million more were thrown into slavery.
After seeing his homeland torn apart, Vervingetorix surrendered to Caesar at the battle of Alesia in 52 BC. He would be paraded around the Roman Empire as a symbol of its dominance and Imperial might for years, until his murder in a Roman prison years later.
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Vinnius Caesar 