P E R S P E C T I V E S

Gaius Julius Caesar took advantage of his Germanenemies' ferocity by enlisting them in his cavalry.By Ludwig H. Dyck

The Roman cavalrymen shown at left in Lionel Royer's painting Vercingetorix Throws His Arms at the Feet of Caesarwere probably Germanic tribesmen in Gaius Julius Caesar's service-the elite of his auxiliary horse.

BY THE TURN OF THE FIRST century BC,the cavalry of the Roman Republic wastypically made up entirely of auxiliaries.In his Gallic campaigns, Gaius JuliusCaesar relied heavily on several thousandhorsemen levied from allied Gallic tribesand smaller numbers of Iberians. After hebeat back German tribal intrusions intoGaul in 58 and 55 BC, Caesar furtherboosted his cavalry by enlisting 400German mencenaiies and former hostages.They bailed out his Gallic cavalry in 52BC, when the latter ran into troubleagainst rebellious Gauls at the Battle of

Noviodunum. Later that year, more Ger-mans swelled his cavalry and light in-fantry ranks to about 1,000.

The fact that Caesars former Germanfoes were willing to fight for him is nottoo surprising. The retainers, or comita-tus, of a German chief were drawn notJust from his own tribe but also from war-riors who wandered the land in search ofmartial glory and plunder. To such menit did not matter if they served a Germanchief of a different tribe, a Gallic lord oreven a Roman consul Germans evenserved as bodyguards for Cleopatra VII of

Egypt and Herod the Great in Judaea.Caesars Gemians included the feared

Suebi, the Usipetes and the Tenctheri.They were the tribes that Caesar hadfought, but one might also see a Harii,who blackened his shield, dyed his bodyand preferred to fight in the dead of night,or an Aestii, who wore a protectiveemblem of the wild boar, symbol of themother of the gods.

Caesar learned to respect the Teutonicwarriors. When he fought them in 58,mere rumors spread by the Gauls of thevalor, strength and martial skill of the

66 MILITARV HISTORY JUtY2005

Suebi sent even battle-hardened le-gionaries into a panic. "All over the campmen were signing and sealing their wills,"lamented Caesai: After all, half a centuryearlier the Gennanic Cirabri and Teu-tones had crushed four Roman armiesbefore finally being defeated.

During the 55 BC campaign against theUsipetes and Tenctheri, Caesars 5,000Gallic cavalrymen were scattered by 800GeiTnans. Caesar wrote that "as warriorsthey are superior to the Gauls...they [theGauls] do not even compare themselvesin point of valor with the Germans,"adding that even the "fierce glance oftheir eyes was more than they couldendure." Caesar valued his German re-cruits so highly that he replaced theirponylike horses with the lai^er steeds ofhis bodyguard, Iribunes and knights.

When fighting for Caesar, the Gennanslikely retained most of their native offen-sive tactic, a columnar or "boar's head"charge. Ostensibly carried out by a massof enraged berserkers, such an attack wascalculated to break the enemy by its sheerferocity, and was dubbed Furore Teuloni-ctis by the Romans.

Like hounds of war, fleet infantrymenran alongside the cavalrymen protectingthe ridei"s' flanks, coming to their rescueif they were dismounted or wounded. Ina lengthy advance or retreat, they wouldhang onto ihe horse's mane to keep pace.

The Germans' tough little steeds werewell trained. At times the rider leapt offhis mount to fight on foot, and in thechaos of battle, his horse would remainon the spot. How the Gennans faredwith Caesar's larger, faster steeds is un-clear Possibly they continued to use theirponies in most battles unless speed wasimportant.

Even in Roman service, a German in-fantryman had little more than a wattleshield and an ash-wood spear with apoint of bone or iron with which to pix)-tect himself. Horses were usually re-served for warriors of high merit. Thehostages who joined Caesar in 55 BC weremostly chiefs and their attendants.Among such men, mail hauberks, hel-mets and swords were much morecommon, and others surely acquiredsuch arms from war booty.

INITIAL DISUNITY BETWEEN the Gallictribes allowed Caesar to defeat thempiecemeal, but in 52 BC, the victory of therebellious chief Vercingetorix at Gergoviaenflamed a pan-Gallic uprising againstthe Roman overlords. Caesars legions

could still hold their own against theGallic infantry, but with few of the Gallictribes remaining loyal to him his defi-ciency in cavalry became critical, com-pelling him to hire additional Germans.

Forced onto the defensive, Caesarmoved toward the threatened Romanprovince of Gallia Narbonensis. In earlySeptember, Vercingelorix sent his cavalryagainst the Roman column near what isnow Dijon. The three-pronged attacks ontheir vanguard and flanks took themarching Romans by surprise, butCaesar's cavalrv managed to keep theGallic horse ft om ovenianning their bag-gage train, while his legionaries formed adefensive square. The Gennans, mean-while, gained the summit of a nearby hilland then charged, driving a body of theattacking Gauls back upon Vercinge-torix's nearby infantry. Alanned at therout of their comrades, the entire Galliccavalry force took flight. Vercingetorix or-dered a retreat toward the fortifiedstronghold of Alesia. Caesar immediatelyled his legions in pursuit, engaged theGallic rear guard and inflicted up to 3,000casualties. The battle completely reversedthe course of the war. With the defeat oftheir cavalry arm, Gallic spirits sank,while Caesar regained the initiative.

Still, perched on a plateau and sur-rounded by hills and streams, Alesiaseemed impervious to assault. Caesar de-cided to surround the city with two con-centric 14-mile-long rings of earthworks,ditches, ramparts, spikes, stakes, coveredpits, forts and camps. The inner ring, theline of contravallation, faced Alesia's de-fenders, while the outer, the line of cir-cumvallation, protected the Romansfrom anticipated relief forces.

Barely had the siege begun in late Sep-tember when Vercingetorix's cavalry as-sailed Caesar's horsemen, presumably toreduce the Romans' foraging capability.Perceiving that his auxiliary Gallic andSpanish cavalry were taking the worst ofit, Caesar unleashed his Germans anddrew up his legions for support, stoppingthe Gallic assault cold. The Gennans thenhanied the Gauls back against their outerwall and ti ench, slaughtering those whocould not scramble through.

Changing to a defensive strategy,Vercingetorix sent his cavalry abroadamong the rebellious tribes. A Gallicrelief army led by Commius anivedaround noon on September 30. Commiussent his cavalry, archers and light troopsto assault the line of circumvallalion, andVercingetorix's infantry stormed the line

of contravallation. While his legionariesheld Vercingetorix's men at bay, Caesarsent his cavalry to engage Commius'troops. As the sun dipped neai' the hori-zon, the Germans massed all theirsquadrons for a charge that sent Com-mius' cavalry reeling. That exposed theGallic archers, who were surrounded andannihilated by the Geiman cavaliy

Seeing Commius' force routed,Vercingetorix retreated back into Alesia.The Gauls rallied to launch a second as-sault on the night of October 1, but thatattacked died in the fire of Roman siegeengines. A third attack on October 2 sawCaesar's cavalry strike at Commius' in-fantiy from the rear, utterly beating them.Demoi'alized, Vercingetorix surrenderedto Caesar, bringing to an end the siege ofAtesia and with it, apart fi'om minor en-gagements, the end of the Gallic revolt.

THREE YEARS LATER, IN 49 BC, Caesarplunged the Roman Republic into civilwar when he marched his legions acrossthe Rubicon River into Italy. For the nextfour years his Gallic and German cavalryaccompanied his legions against GnaeusPompeius Magnus (Pompey the Great).After performing admirably in the Iber-ian Ilerda campaign of 49 BC, Caesar'sauxiliary cavalry crossed the Adriatic Seato Greece in 48 BC. There, Caesar movedto block Pompey from reaching his baseat Dyrrachium, but in turn found his ownsupply route to Italy severed by Pompey'snaval dominance of the Adriatic.

Pompey eventually forced Caesar towithdraw into Thessaly, where CaesarstoiTned the defiant town of Gomphi andgave it over to be ransacked by his half-starved soldiers. The whole army, espe-cially the Germans, embarked on an orgyof gluttony and drinking. Pompey finallycaught up with Caesar at Pharsalus, onlyto go down in defeat. Pompey fled to Egypt,where Pothinus, chief adviser to PtolemyXIU, had him murdered.

Arriving in pursuit of Pompey, Caesarbecame involved with Cleopatra VII andher dynastic struggles with her brother andco-regent Ptolemy XIII. With the aid ofMithridates of Per^amum, on Januaiy 13,47 BC Caesar cornered Ptolemy near theNile, where his army sought protectionon a hill flanked by a canal. German cav-alrymen were the first to swim the canaland struck the Egyptians in the flank, al-lowing the Romans to cross on hastilyconstructed bridges. In the ensuing battlethe Romans annihilated the Egyptians,with Ptolemy drowning in the Nile.

68 MILITARY HISTORY JULY 2005

After the Egyptian interlude, Caesarconducted a lightning campaign againstPhamaces o( Pontus, who had occupiedAimenia and Cappadocia. Near Zela thelegionaries defeated Phamaces in a de-fensive battle. With atfaii's in the Asianprovinces settled, Caesar relumed to Italy.

By 46 BC, Caesar was ready to continuethe civil war against Pompey's followersin Noiih Africa but found himself vastlyoutnumbeted by the forces of QuintusMetellus Scipio and King Juba of Nu-midia. His predicament was exacerbatedby his cava]r\ s failure to deal with the hit-and-run tactics of the Numidian cavalrvand light troops. Caesar overcame thoseproblems thtough extensive maneuver-ing, the iron discipline of his legions, in-genious use of entrenchment and bytraining some of his legionaries to act aslight tr<X)ps in support of his cavaln;

When Caesar finally received rein-lorcemenLs. the campaign was brought toan end at Thapsus. His overeager veter-ans launched themselves into battlebefore the lines had been formed andwithout waiting for Caesars order. Pep-pered with Roman arrows, the enemy'selephants panicked and steamrolledthrough their own lines. Juba's Numidi-

ans and Scipio's legions collapsed likedominos, and Caesars soldiers butchered10,000 Pompeians and Numidians.

With Scipio's forces crushed in NorthAfrica, the only Pompeians remainingwere the younger Gnaeus Pompeiiis andhis brother Sextus, who together withfugitives from Africa raised 13 legions inIberia. In 45, Caesar faced Gnaeus atMunda. In addition to eight legions,Caesar possessed more than 8,000 cav-alrv; including his veteran Gauls and Ger-mans, and King Bogud of Mauretania,with his coips of Moorish horsemen.Caesar's Legio X caved in tbe Pompeianleft flank while the cavalry, with Bogud inthe lead, vanquished the Pompeian horseand fell upon their flank and rear.

THE DEFEAT OF GNAEUS brought thecivil war to an end. Caesar returned toRome and became dictator for life. Afterhis triumphs, he awarded each of his vet-eran legionaries a war gratuity of 240aureus, or gold coins, in addition to the20 paid at the outbreak of the wars—to-gether the equivalent of 27 years' pay.

Caesar disbanded his Praetorian body-guard and his Iberian cohorts. When theycould, his Gallic cavalrv usually returned

to their tribes after each campaign, andhis German cavaln' almost certainly wasdisbanded as well. It is reasonable toassume that Caesar rewarded his auxil-iary cavalr\- handsomely. Perhaps a fewwere even granted Roman citizenshipand settled down inside the bordet̂ s of theempire. Others may have wandered backto their tribal homelands across theRhine, where their loot and experienceincreased their prestige. No doubt manystayed in some sort of Roman militarysenice. There was certainly no lack of op-portunity for a skilled sword-for-hirewhen Caesars assassination in 44 BCbrought on a new civil war.

The career of Caesars German cavalryillustrates how a small but crack corps ofsoldiers can influence the course ofcombat. Their success was due to a com-bination of his skilled generalship andtheir own prowess. Though they were fewin number, Caesar treated his Germancavalry as an elite unit and often heldthem in reserve until the situationbecame desperate. In many ways, theywere the prototype of the dual-purposemounted troops, the Cohors Eqidtatae,that would one day replace the legions asthe backbone of the Roman armv. MH

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