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08-30-2002, 10:37 AM

This is a list of all the known battles fought between Gauls and Romans prior to Caesar's conquest. I picked it up in a book by Jean Louis Brunaux et Bernard Lambot, the two leading archeologists in the field of gallic studies in France. 
The book is called "Guerre et armement chez les Gaulois". For the celtic reenactors there, there are numerous line drawings of different patterns of scabbards as well as shields, spears, belt hooks and chains etc.. 
The casualties figures are those given by the ancient sources and are to be taken with some suspicion. 
All dates are BC, of course. 
 
391 - Clusium. Siege and battle. Senones called by Etruscans against the Romans. The Senones win. 
390 - Allia. Battle. Senones against Romans. The Romans break and run. 
390 - Rome. Siege. The Senones burn part of the city before wandering away. Legend of the capitoline geese. "Vae Victis" episode. 
361 - Anio. Battle. Gauls against Romans. The Gauls lose. Legend of Manlius Torquatus. 
350 - Monte Albano. Siege of the Gallic camp. The besieged Gauls are defetated. 
349 - Pomptinum. Battle. Gauls Vs. Romans. The Romans win. Legend of Valerius Corvinus. 
295 - Sentinum. Battle. Gauls and Samnites Vs. Romans. Devotio of Decius. 66.000 Romans, 1.000 gallic chariots. The gallo-samnites lose with 25.000 casualties. 
284 - Aretium. Siege and battle. Senones Vs. Romans. The Senones win. 
283 - Lake Vadimon. Gauls and Etruscans Vs. Romans. The Romans win and begin colonization of the Senone country. 
225 - Fesules. Battle. Insubres and Gaesates Vs. Romans. The Gauls win. 6.000 roman casualties. 
225 - Telamon. Battle. Insubres, Boii, Gaesates Vs. Romans. Double envelopment by the Romans. Chariots on the wings. The Gauls lose. 40.000 casualties. 
222 - Clastidium. Battle. Gaesates Vs. Romans. The Gauls lose. Duel between Marcellus and Viridomar. Gallic cavalry and infantry operate together. Fall of Mediolanum. First roman colonies in Insubre country. 
218 - Mutina. Siege and ambush. Boii and Insubres Vs. Romans. The Gauls win. 
218 - Trebbia. 4.000 Gallic warriors are on Hannibals side. The Carthaginians win. 
217 - Lake Trasimene. Battle. 30.000 Carthaginians, 60.000 Boii, Insubres and Ligurians Vs. Romans. The Romans are wiped out. 15.000 Romans and 6.000 Gallic casualties. 
217 - Cannae. Battle. The Gauls figure prominently in the center of Hannibal's army and bear the brunt of the roman's onslaught. Roman defeat. 70.000 casualties. 5.500 on the Carthaginian side, of which 4.000 are Gauls. 
216 - Litana Forest. Ambush. 25.000 Romans under the command of Postumius are slaughtered by the Boii who fell trees on the column. Postumius's skull is turned into a drinking cup. 
207 - Metaurus. Batle. 60.000 Iberians, Ligurians and Gauls under command of Hasdrubal Vs. Romans. The Romans win. 10.000 casualties on the gallic side, 2.000 on the roman's. 
201 - Mutilum. Ambush. Boii surprise two legions and four auxiliary cohorts. 7.000 legionaries killed with their legate Caius Oppius. 
200 - Placentia. Fall and sack of the town. 40.000 Boii, Insubres and Ligurians. 4.000 casualties on the gallic side. 
200 - Cremona. Siege and battle. Again Insubres, Boii and Ligurians. Gallic defeat. 35.000 casualties ans prisonners. 80 gallic standards captured. 
197 - Mincio. Battle. Insubres and Cenomanni Vs. Romans under Cornelius consul. The Cenomans struck a deal with the consul and change sides in the middle of batte. The Insubres are annihilated. 
196 - Near Cuomo. Battle. Insubres Vs. Claudius Marcellus. Roman victory. 40.000 casualties. Cuomo is taken as well as 28 fortified positions. 
195 - Near the previous battlefield. Boii Vs. Valerius Flaccus. Roman victory. 8.000 casualties. 
194 - Near Mediolanum. Battle. Boii and Insubres Vs. Valerius Flaccus. Roman victory. 10.000 casualties. 
194 - Near Placentia. Battle. Boii vs. Sempronius consul. Seem to have been a draw. 11.000 gallic and 5.000 roman casualties. 
193 - Near Mutina. Ambush and battle . Boii Vs. Cornelius Merula. Uncertain. A cohort of veterans is slaughtered by the Gauls. Near absence of gallic cavalry. 
154 - Antibes and Nice. Siege. Ligurians, Oxybes and Deceates Vs. greek colonies of Antipolis (Antibes) and Nikaia (Nice) defended by Romans. Roman victory. The country is put under the watch of Marseille, another greek colony allied to Rome. 
124/122 - Campaigning among the Salyans and the Voconcians. Fall of the oppidum at Entremont. First alliance of the Romans with the Aeduans while the Salyans and Voconcians get help from the Allobroges and Arvernians. 
122 - Near Vindalium. Battle. Allobroges Vs. Domitius Ahenobarbus. Roman victory. 20.000 gallic casualties. 
121 - Junction of the RhÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â´ne and IsÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â¨re rivers. Allobroges, Arvernians and Rutenians (200.000 total) Vs. 40.000 Romans, Massaliotes and Aeduans. Bituit, the Arvernian king, rides a silver gilded chariot. The Romans bring elephants. Gallic disaster. 120.000 casualties. Peace with the Arvernians and creation of the roman Provincia in southern Gaul. 
109 - RhÃƒÆ’Ã‚Â´ne river. Battle. Cimbri, Teutones and Helvetians Vs. Romans under Silanus. The Romans are wiped out. 
107 - Geneva. Battle. Romans under L. CAssius Vs. Tigurini. Roman defeat 
106 - Tolosa. Sack of the city. Tectosages Vs. Servilius Caepio. Roman victory. Ugly rumours circulate according to which Caepio kept all the gold of Tolosa for himself. 
105 - Arausio. Battle. Cimbres and Ambrones Vs. Manlius. Roman defeat. 80.000 casualties. 
102 - Aquae Sextiae. Marius defeats Ambrones and Teutones. 10.000 dead or prisoners. 
101 - Vercelli. Battle. Cimbres and Tigurini Vs. Marius and Catulus. The Gallic cavalry performs a dangerous envelopment. Roman victory and great slaughter of warriors as well as their families. At the end the women fought as well. 
Number of casualties between 100.000 and 120.000 
58/51 - Julius Caesar. Gallia Capta Est... 
Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/bromanarmytalk.showLocalUserPublicProfile?login=antoninuslucretius>Antoninus Lucretius</A> at: 8/30/02 1:41:42 pm

08-30-2002, 12:02 PM

Roughly starting with Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres and ending with Galli sunt omnes divisi in partes tres. 
 
Regards, 
 
Sander van Dorst

08-30-2002, 12:36 PM

I'm interested to know how many of these were the result of Roman aggression or Gaulish. 
 
Susan

Goffredo · 08-30-2002, 01:20 PM

Gauls first entered Italy and attacked Etruria and Rome way back and so they started out as the "bad guys"! 
Then Rome started expanding north and outwards and they would then be called the "bad guys"! 
 
"Living room cried Daniel Boone" 
 
 
Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub45.ezboard.com/ugoffredo.showPublicProfile?language=EN>goffredo</A> at: 8/30/02 3:22:43 pm

**richsc** · 08-30-2002, 01:57 PM

Ha ha ha Sander. 
 
I just have to wonder how peoples can absorb casualties like that and keep going. Aren't these numbers (like Caesar's of the Helvetians and the Boudicca casualties) somewhat inflated? Or do we have a different understanding of 'anihilate' than they did? Richard Campbell, Legio XX.
http://www.geocities.com/richsc53/studies/

08-30-2002, 02:03 PM

I'm not so sure they did. Didn't for example Julius Caesar say that once he had finished with the Nervii they existed only as "a memory"? 
 
Susan

08-30-2002, 02:50 PM

Well... Both... 
Indeed the Gauls, probably after a ver sacrum, initially demanded unusued land to settle from the Etruscans, who squarely refused. 
Both parties called the Romans to arbitrate. 
The Romans told the Gauls that taking land by the force of arms was not the custom. To which the Gauls replied more or less that they didn't know any other way. 
T'seems that tempers flared up until the Roman envoys sided with the Etruscans and killed the Gallic emissaries, thus starting the war. 
So: invading other people's lands is not very nice. 
But the killing of diplomatic personnel by people supposed to arbitrate a dispute is not very nice either.. DE EM

08-30-2002, 06:50 PM

Caesar bragged a lot about the annihilation of the Usipetes and the Tencteri, two german tribes, and wrote he destroyed four hundred thousand of them.. DE EM 
After that, Cato Cernsor suggested that Caesar's head be cut off and sent to the survivors as an apology... EM 
The Usipetes and the Tencteri indeed disappeared from hisory. 
It is obvious there was a population explosion in the region at that time. That would explain the vast numbers of warriors involved and the apparent ease of replacement. However it was estimated that as far as losses were concerned, the Punic wars did Rome as much harm as the 1914/18 war did to France and Germany: several generations purely and simply decimated, generating incalculable economic losses.

09-01-2002, 11:40 AM

Hello, 
 
Cato the Younger, I think you mean (Cato the Censor's grandson). Cato the Censor was the "delenda est Carthago" guy. 
But thanks for the information about Caesar's "ethnic cleansing" activities in Germany. 
 
Sue

09-02-2002, 09:21 PM

Antoninus: 
 
Thanks for bringing up my thoughts. I will also expound that the Gaul emissaries were unarmed, because they were led to believe they were there to talk peace. That was Celt custom. It was a huge affront to them, that the Romans did not play by the same rules, and they did indeed, attack the Romans, in retaliation. 
 
Bou <center>What bargains we have made, we have kept. And as the dogs of the hours close in,</center>
<center>nothing can be taken from us but our lives.</center>
 
<center> "Victory" - Charles Bukowski</center>

Gregg · 09-03-2002, 12:18 AM

That period of Rome's history is so shrouded in legend that nothing of what actually occurred can be known with any certainty. 
 
I've read a number of authors claim that Rome treated the "Celts" with unique savagery, even likening it to genocide. This is ridiculous. Pride and revenge were primary factors in Roman political motivation, and the Romans tended to respond with the same single-minded brutality to anyone who they perceived as standing in their way (as the residents of Corinth and Carthage might have stressed). 
 
Gregg

Thiudareiks Flavius · 09-03-2002, 08:15 PM

Antoninus wrote: 
 
 
Caesar bragged a lot about the annihilation of the Usipetes and the Tencteri, two german tribes, and wrote he destroyed four hundred thousand of them.. 
The Usipetes and the Tencteri indeed disappeared from hisory. 
 
 
Errr, not really. Tacitus has the Tencteri as allies of the Bructeri and Ampsivarii in about 58 AD and lists both the Tencteri and "Usipi" as still living on the Rhine near the Chatti in the early Second Century. 
 
I think this is another case of Caesar talking up Caesar's exploits. 
Cheers, 
Tim O'Neill / Thiudareiks Flavius
 

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