Maciamo Posted July 28, 2021 Report Share Posted July 28, 2021 (edited) I am currently reading Simon Turney's Marius' Mules, book VIII, which is set during the 8th year of the Gallic Wars in 51 BCE. One of the main battles that year involved the rebellion of Commius of the Atrebates and Correos of the Bellovaci. Caesar first brought four legions to crush the rebellion, but after seeing the huge number of Gallic warriors (around 45,000), he called for three more legions in reinforcement. It was a huge battle, nearly equivalent to Alesia but against the western Belgae and other tribes from Normandy. Yet the battle's name does not appear anywhere. I googled it in English and in French, searched articles on Wikipedia, but nowhere does it appear. On one French website I found that the first encounter, where the Gauls took position on a hill surrounded by marshes took place near Compiègne. The Gauls' camp was at mont Saint-Marc, while Caesar's camp opposite the Aisne river was at mont Saint-Pierre. The Belgae, seeing that Caesar got three more legions, fled. Pursued by the Romans, they established a new camp at Mount Ganelon. The Belgae were eventually defeated in the plain of Choisy-au-Bac. If you look at the map, everything took place on the eastern outskirt of Compiègne. The city didn't exist back then, so that's probably why historians didn't call it the Battle of Compiègne. They could have called it the Second Battle of the Axona (Aisne), the first one having taken place in 57 BCE. Does anyone know if this battle has an official name, and if not, why not? Edited July 28, 2021 by Maciamo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caldrail Posted July 28, 2021 Report Share Posted July 28, 2021 I can't find any official name either. There was a Battle of Compiègne in 715 but that has nothing to do with the Romans. Why does an anci.ent battle have no name? Usually because the Roman sources don't get very specific about it, commenting that a battle was fought with such and such an outcome and don't relate it to anything except a general area. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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