The brave and numerous inhabitants [of Auvergne] displayed a singular trophy — the sword of Caesar himself, which he had lost when he was repulsed before the walls of Gergovia.
-Edward Gibbon
One of the most legendary defeats in Roman military history took place fifty two years before the birth of Jesus, at the mountain fortress of Gergovia. The battle, which pitted the soldiers of Gaul’s resistance leader, Vercingetorix, against those of Julius Caesar, forced the Roman general to mount a hasty retreat, during which scores of his men were killed. But according to one obscure legend, Caesar’s losses on that fateful day also included his own sword. The story goes that the Arverni, Vercingetorix’s tribe, later displayed it in one of their temples. Is there any truth to this tale? Could a sword of one of the most influential rulers the world has ever seen be buried somewhere in the Auvergne highlands?
The legend itself probably started, as classics scholar Christopher Pelling has suggested, from a local Gallic oral tradition. The written distillation of the tale, however, first appeared in a biography of Caesar by the Greek philosopher Plutarch. Writing over 150 years after Caesar’s death, Plutarch claimed that the Roman statesman lost his sword during clashes with “tens of thousands” of Gauls prior to the battle of Alesia in 52 BC. Notably, his description, while mentioning the Arverni, makes no explicit reference to Gergovia. “In the main,” he wrote, “he [Caesar] got the best of the struggle, and after a long time and much slaughter overpowered the Barbarians; but it appears that at first he met with some reverse, and the Arverni show a short-sword hanging in a temple, which they say was captured from Caesar.” Sometime later, Caesar saw the sword on display and, considering it “sacred”, refused to take it down.
It would not be until the Enlightenment era that some historians began to associate the legend of Caesar’s lost sword with his failed siege of Gergovia. In fact, it seems the first person to popularise the anecdote was the British historian Edward Gibbon, who included it in the third volume of his magnum opus, the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1781). Subsequently, various nineteenth-century writers recycled the anecdote, such as William Cookworthy Compton, Henri Martin and even the emperor Napoleon III.
As tempting as it is to think that Caesar’s sword could still be sitting like an unaging holy relic in a yet-to-be-discovered Gallo-Roman temple, the reality is that there’s no way to know whether the legend represents an actual historical event. Even if Caesar had lost his sword in the Gallic Wars, it would still be a Herculean task to pinpoint the artefact’s final resting place. Instead, those interested in Auvergne’s Gallic treasures should visit the Gergovie Museum, which has an impressive archaeological collection that includes helmets, swords, coins, vases, and other antiquities.
Another fascinating Gallic site is the oppidium (fortified town) of Corent. Located fifteen minutes south of Gergovie, the ancient centre, which has been partially rebuilt, was once home to a major Gallic sanctuary. Perhaps this sacred temenos housed the legendary sword of Caesar for a time. Maybe, after a while, it was whisked away by uncertain persons to regions unknown for purposes not well understood. Whatever the case, the mystery lives on.
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