At first glance, Vercingetorix appears the greater hero of these two kings, and Vortigern the greater fool. After all, it was Vercingetorix who almost achieved the establishment of the first Celtic supra-tribal nation state, whereas it was Vortigern who committed the unforgivable error of inviting the cruel Saxons into his country, with devastating consequences for all the Celtic peoples. Ironically, Vortigern later became a saint. He emerges as St. Gwrthiern in the kingdom of Bro Waroch in southern Brittany. Many Celts fled from the Saxons across the Channel, and there are countless Breton saints who came originally from mainland Britain. However, it does seem ironic that the supposedly foolish tyrant Vortigern should end up being canonized.
In reality, Vortigern was in many ways closer to the archetype of the Celtic king than Vercingetorix, who has become a virtual symbol of Celtic leadership. Both kings attempted to achieve a Celtic kingdom larger than the tribe, a pattern which obtained in Ireland in the form of the Ard Ri, but which was never achieved in Gaul and only uncertainly achieved in Britain. In that sense, both kings were atypical. Vortigern, however, was as much a Roman as he was a Celt. In his predominantly Christian Romano-Britain, it could be argued that his invitation to Hengist and Horsa was an error of judgment, but not of principle.
Although Vortigern is historically more modern than Vercingetorix by a few hundred years, in cultural terms he seems infinitely more modern. Statecraft, diplomacy, doing deals with foreigners in the national interest: these were all Roman tricks which would have had no appeal, or even much meaning, to a Celtic king of Vercingetorix’s age. Yet Vercingetorix, too, had learned much from the Romans, and not just in terms of how to use sappers and engineers in warfare. For Vercingetorix to have achieved what he did, his diplomatic and oratorical skills must certainly have matched those of Caesar, and probably exceeded them, bearing in mind the intractable nature of the petty Celtic kings with whom he was dealing. So both Vercingetorix and Vortigern have characteristics which set them apart from other Celtic kings, the common feature linking them being their preoccupation with nation rather than tribe. Yet both also have distinctly Celtic characteristics, including inordinate pride and enormous ambition, physical courage and battle skill, a sense of destiny, a firmness which seems tyrannical to modern sensibilities, and the apparently inescapable Celtic fate of ultimately failing. Vercingetorix remains a Celtic hero, and Vortigern a Celtic villain, but in reality their different historical and political contexts explain a great deal about the way they conducted themselves, and their differences in essential character appear to be not so great after all.
World History
