When Caesar returned from his foray to Britain at the end of 54 BC, he discovered that some of the Gallic tribes had been busily taking advantage of his absence. The Carnutes, Senones and Eburones were stirring up unrest, and a general assembly of tribes had gathered. As their leader the rebellious tribes elected an Arvernian chieftain named Vercingetorix... whose name, meaning "High King who marched against the foe", was to prove suitable prophetic. Vercingetorix was apparently a charismatic and forceful character, who had a vision of all the Gallic tribes rising up in unison to overthrow the Roman occupation of their lands. As soon as he assumed leadership, he set about winning over the majority of the tribes and planning his great uprising in a characteristically forceful way: "Himself a man of boundless energy, he terrorized waverers with the rigours of an iron discipline. Serious cases of disaffection were punished by torture and death at the stake, and even for a minor fault he would cut off a man’s ears or gouge out one of his eyes and send him home to serve as a warning to others of the severe chastisement meted out to offenders," writes Caesar somewhat sensationally in his "Gallic Wars".

Vercingetorix planned to start a widespread revolt before Caesar could rejoin his army after his winter visit to Northern Italy... it was a sound plan, but Caesar crossed into Gaul with unexpected swiftness, taking the rebellious tribes by surprise. Seeing it was useless to fight pitched battles against the Roman army, Vercingetorix then cunningly decided to starve the Romans by means of a ‘scorched-earth’ policy. Most of the tribes agreed with this and set about firing their homesteads and farmlands, but the Bituriges were unwilling to sacrifice their livelihood for the sake of the revolution... Caesar’s army besieged their town at Avaricum, and despite their brave and fierce resistance, captured it and slaughtered around 4,000 inhabitants (of whom by no means all were combatants). The wisdom of Vercingetorix’s plan was confirmed, and he came out of this with his authority reinforced.

Caesar then took the fight to the Celts: he laid siege to the chief Arvernian fortress, Gergovia. Here he was betrayed by his former allies, the Aedui, who rose up and massacred all Romans on their territory. Vercingetorix threw back the Romans from the very gates of Gergovia... Caesar’s army was put to flight and only a fierce rearguard action prevented their total annihilation. Caesar remarked dryly of the debacle: "Our losses that day amounted to nearly 700". This was the first time that Rome’s greatest general had suffered a defeat, and the only time he was defeated by a Celt.

However, Vercingetorix then made a fatal tactical error: he allowed Caesar to join up with the four legions held in the Seine Valley under T.Labienus, making the Roman army strong enough to move south gain on the offensive. Vercingetorix decided to attack the army while it was on the march, and after a fierce confrontation the Celts were repelled, and pursued by Caesar’s cavalry were forced to take refuge in Alesia, the main fortress of the Mandubii. Here they prepared for a siege, about 50,000 Celtic warriors inside the fortress facing twice that many Romans and Germanic mercenaries outside, with enough supplies to last 30 days. Vercingetorix tried to get all non-combatants, the women, children and elderly, out of the town, but Caesar simply turned them back. The Romans constructed around the fortress a network of defence that neither the besieged nor the hoped-for reinforcements could cross. Although Vercingetorix had sent out his cavalry to try and raise support from every tribe, by the time any help arrived the besieged men were just about at the end of their strength... the Gallic relief force was routed and dispersed back to their own communities.

Vercingetorix, seeing how matters stood, called a council of the chieftains in Alesia: "I did not undertake the war for private ends, but in the cause of national liberty. And since I must now accept my fate, I place myself at your disposal. Make amends to the Romans by killing me or surrender me alive as you think best."

The chieftains did neither, but surrendered unconditionally to Caesar. Caesar’s account of the surrender of Vercingetorix is rather terse, but the accounts of other historians such as Livy, Plutarch and Dio Cassius reveal a certain dignity and nobility: mounted on a horse, Vercingetorix galloped across the space between the Roman camps, rode a circle widdershins around the tribunal, as though to magically bind his conqueror, then cast his weapons without a word at the startled proconsul’s feet.

Although Caesar does, albeit grudgingly, pay tribute to Vercingetorix’s courage and qualities of leadership, in the event he either could not, or would not, protect him from his fate: he was taken in chains to Rome, where he languished in prison for 6 years, before being exhibited in Caesar’s triumph. He was finally executed in 46 BC.

"When the results of this year’s campaign were reported in his dispatches," Caesar concludes his narration of the rebellion, "a thanksgiving of twenty days was celebrated in Rome."

As far as the Gallic Celts were concerned, it was more or less the end of the road. A spark of resistance remained, but Gaul was never again to rise as a united country against Rome.