There were signs that the Aedui were on the brink of breaking their alliance with Rome. Their leaders told a force of ten thousand warriors escorting a supply convoy that Caesar had executed the Aeduian noblemen already serving with the Romans. The soldiers immediately rebelled, torturing to death those Romans who were accompanying them.

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Hearing of this, the proconsul rushed to the spot, bringing the Aeduian nobles he had supposedly killed. The warriors had another change of heart as their leaders fled. These fugitives prompted a similar rebellion by the entire tribe—and then an equally swift retraction when the tribesmen learned the truth. For the moment, the Aedui remained loyal to Caesar, but it was clear that the alliance with Rome was hanging on the weakest of threads.

Back at Gergovia, Caesar decided that he needed a token victory to allow him to disengage and rejoin the legions with Labienus. Feinting to draw off the main enemy strength, he then attacked the Gauls’ thinly defended camp outside the town. Several columns made their way up the ridge, with Caesar himself accompanying Legion X. The legionaries achieved complete surprise and easily overran the position—one Gallic king escaping half naked after being surprised in his tent. Caesar ordered the recall sounded, but only Legion X heard and obeyed the signal. The others pressed on through the camp and attacked the walls of Gergovia itself.

For a while it looked as if the Romans were about to win a spectacular victory. There were few defenders. Groups of women began to surrender, terrified of a repeat of the massacre at Avaricum. As the Gauls realized that they had been duped and began to return to the town and camp, however, the balance tipped against the Romans. Resistance grew, and the Gauls killed the few legionaries who had mounted the wall. The attack had never been properly coordinated, and no one was able to organize a proper fighting line to meet the new threat.

To add to the confusion, the Romans’ Aeduian allies suddenly appeared on their flank but were mistaken for hostile warriors. Caesar had ordered that those men keep their shoulders bare to show that they were friends, but in the heat of the moment and at a distance, the legionaries failed to notice that field sign.

The result was a rout. Catastrophic losses were only prevented because Legion X and other units brought up in reserve covered the retreat. Even so, Roman casualties totaled seven hundred men and no fewer than forty-six centurions. Those officers led from the front and usually suffered disproportionately heavy losses.

Caesar’s attempt at a token victory had turned into an embarrassing defeat. The consequences were soon apparent when the chieftains commanding the Aeduian auxiliaries with Caesar’s army asked permission to leave. The proconsul granted their request, reluctant to have men he did not trust in his camp. Almost as soon as they left, the Aedui as a whole erupted in rebellion, slaughtering the tiny Roman garrison and resident traders at the town of Noviodunum (modern Soissons). They also destroyed the vital grain supplies the Romans had been gathering there.

Caesar’s most important ally and his chief source of food had defected. After a bid to take command of all the rebel tribes, the Aedui grudgingly agreed to serve under Vercingetorix.

Caesar had lost the initiative and was now in a desperate position. He withdrew from Gergovia, shadowed at a safe distance by the Gallic army. Forcing the pace, he headed north and managed to unite with Labienus before the enemy could intervene.

The proconsul now had all ten legions—probably about thirty-five to forty thousand men—and a few thousand auxiliaries, including some cavalry. However, allied tribes had always supplied the bulk of his horsemen; now he was left weak in this arm. To compensate, he hired German mercenaries from beyond the Rhine, giving them horses taken from his own officers because their own mounts were of poor quality.

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