If Caesar had left for Britain believing that Gaul was pacified, he was soon disabused of the notion on his return. Gaul had suffered a drought through the summer of 54 and the harvest had been so poor that Caesar had to disperse his legions across the breadth of northern Gaul for the winter to ease provisioning problems. Caesar ensured that the legions were no more than a hundred miles apart but the danger was obvious and he decided to delay his departure to Italy. One newly raised legion and an additional five cohorts from another legion (around 7,500 soldiers in all) were quartered on the Belgic Eburones. The Eburones were thought to be friendly - Caesar had, after all, stopped the neighbouring Atuatuci collecting tribute from them - but there was resentment at the prospect of feeding several thousand Roman soldiers through the winter. When the Eburones rebelled, this isolated and very surprised Roman army was wiped out almost to a man in a clever ambush planned by their leader Ambiorix. Many of the Roman dead would have been of Celtic stock as the destroyed legion had been raised in Cisalpine Gaul. Caesar’s army also included thousands of Gauls - most of them cavalry - and, though some individuals spied on the Romans for their fellow Gauls, the vast majority proved loyal to their commander.
Ambiorix’s victory showed that the Romans were not invincible, and the Atuatuci, Nervii, Menapii and Treveri (who were famed for their cavalry) quickly Joined the rebellion. Fortunately for the Romans, other Belgic tribes, including the powerful Remi, remained loyal, and individual members of the rebel tribes, such as the Nervian noble Vertico, who arranged for messages to be passed through enemy lines, also actively supported them. Caesar cancelled his plans to return to Italy and took the field against the rebels even before the winter was over. There was little organised resistance as Caesar systematically devastated the Belgic countryside. The territory of the Eburones was singled out for especially rough treatment in the late summer of 53. Faced with overwhelming Roman force, Ambiorix ordered his followers to disperse and most, including he himself, evaded capture. Caesar felt confident that the fugitives would sooner or later die of starvation because he had destroyed the harvest, but Belgic resistance revived the next year and continued to the end of the war.
No sooner had Belgica been apparently pacified than a major rebellion broke out in central Gaul. This area, the most socially and economically advanced region in Gaul, had seen no fighting so far and was still filled with thousands of Roman merchants conducting business as usual. The outbreak started with the Carnutes, probably as a result of Druidical agitation. During the winter of 54-53, the Carnutes and the Senones had failed to attend a Gallic council meeting summoned by Caesar. Caesar, probably quite reasonably, believed that they had been plotting against him and by a timely show of force prevented the two tribes joining the rebellion. In the autumn of 53, after the end of campaigning against the Belgae, Caesar arrested and executed Acco, a chieftain of the Senones who was suspected to be the ringleader of the plot. The affair tidied up to his satisfaction, Caesar headed off to Italy for the winter.
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