Vercingetorix 28mm

Today I painted the notorious and unfortunate Avernian chieftain, Vercingetorix. The figure is from the warlord games "Hail Caesar" range and is a delight to paint. Just a word of warning though the figure is quite large in scale. I have added a bit of historical information below the pictures for those interested.

When Julius Caesar's conquest of Gaul was complete he had several revolts to deal with in the following years. The most organised and successful of these revolts was in 52 BC under the command of Vercingetorix, an ambitious young  nobleman of the Averni tribe. Initially he was ejected from the tribe by his uncle and other tribal leaders for trying to raise a rebellion against the Romans. Vercingetorix was however able to raise a strong force and took control of the Avernian capital of Gergovia. He continued by forging alliances with other Gallic chieftains who were eager to be rid of Roman dominion.
Vercingetorix gave Caesar a lot of logistic problems by using a scorched earth policy. He was even able to defeat the Roman conqueror at the battle of Gergovia in the same year. Vercingetorix tried to follow up on his victory, but suffered heavy losses with a failed ambush attempt whilst pursuing the Roman army. Afterwards he decided to retreat to the town of Alesia.

Caesar followed the Avernian chieftain to Alesia and build a fortification wall around the city to seal in the defenders. Vercingetorix had, however already summoned his allies to come to his aid. When Caesar got wind of these intentions he ordered his troops to build a second wall of outer fortifications effectively sealing his troops in between the village of Alesia and the Gallic relief force.
According the Caesar's "Commentarii de Bello Gallico" on one occasion the combined forces launched an attack that almost broke through the fortifications and it was only when Caesar personally led his last reserve troops into battle that he was able to repulse both the relieve force and the besieged (Lets face the fact that modesty wasn't Caesar's strong suit).

Vercingetorix surrendering to Caesar, painting by Lionel Royer

After being repulsed the Gallic relief force tried to flee but were intercepted and slaughtered by the Roman cavalry. At this point the brave Avernian chieftain had little other choice then surrender to Caesar. According to the Greek biographer Plutarch Vercingetorix rode from the village of Alesia into the roman camp with his finest horse richly adorned. He dismounted before Caesar, took off his armor and kneeled before his nemesis. Caesar had him imprisoned for 5 years in the Mamertine prison(Tullianum) until he could use the Avernian chieftain in his Triumph in 46 BC.
After the humiliation of being dragged through the streets of Rome during Caesar's Triumph, he was executed in his prison, most likely by strangulation.

And with that ends my little blog post, thanks for reading, feel free to subscribe to my feedburner to follow my slow, but steady progress in painting miniatures.
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Leo