ERCINGETORIX and Vortigern were both Celtic kings who took calculated political risks, provoked warfare and distinguished themselves in battle, but who ultimately died wretched deaths. They came from different eras, however; with different enemies. Vercingetorix’s enemy was Julius Caesar, and the critical siege of Alesia, at which Vercingetorix was finally forced to surrender, took place in 52 BC. Vortigern’s enemies, the Saxons under their leaders Hengist and Horsa, were originally his allies (or so he thought), and his battles date from the fifth century AD. What the men had in common was their distinctively Celtic style of
Vercingetorix as a young man, from a Gallic coin.
Vercingetorix depicted on a Roman coin. Note the beard (to indicate * barbarian*) and the spiky, lime-washed hair.
Leadership. Long before the historical Arthur, let alone the mythologized Arthurian legends and the chivalric code which emerges from the Matter of Britain, the lives of leaders like Vercingetorix and Vortigern exemplified a typically Celtic pattern of personal courage, battle skill, political intrigue, high honour and a certain vanity combined with vaulting ambition. These were warrior kings whose exploits were inspirational to their peoples. To this day, Vercingetorix remains a potent symbol of Gallic nationhood to the French, and his name, and by implication the fierce spirit of independence which he represents, are still invoked in modern French political rhetoric. Vortigern, whose political machinations were more sophisticated, has also become semi-mythologized. These two men were very different in character and ambition, but their deeds and exploits tell us a great deal about the Celtic style of kingship which they had in common.
World History
