Chapter 10. The Aquitaine wars.
240-239 BC.
In 240 BC, Xenon directed his attention towards the Aquitaine tribes west of Tolosa, where the strong Sotiates tribe was causing troubles on his highly profitable trade network on the Garonne river. In the spring of 239BC, Xenon invaded Sotiates lands,leaving his son Ariogaisos, age 17 now, in charge as regent and heir apparent. During Xenon’s absence, the Celtiberian tribe of Elesyces revolted. Ariogaisos responded quickly and with a small force marched south to subdue the revolt. Ariogaisos conducted a hard-fought guerrilla campaign against the Elesyes for several months, during which he was seriously wounded( loosing his left hand).
The Aquitaine war
The opening encounter between Xenon and the Sotiates involved a large scale battle. The Sotiates king, Adcantuni, deliberately planned for his cavalry to break off the fight and lure the Gauls into a trap. Despite this partly successful trap/ambush, the Sosiates lost the battle against the numerous and better trained and equipped Volcae army. Adcantuni withdraw with his remaining forces into his fortified stronghold capital, Sotium.
Xenon responded by erecting siege towers and the two sides sparred for a while. Eventually, the Sosiates sent emissaries to Xenon offering to surrender. Xenon accepted and ordered them to begin stacking their arms. However, as this was being done, Adcantuni and 400 of his most elite warriors suddenly attacked the Gauls. After a ferocious hand to hand battle, all the Sosiates warriors fell dead. Xenon infuriated by this attack killed all the male population of Sotium and all the women and children were sold into slavery.
When news of the Sotiates defeat spread, the Aquitaine tribes farther south began efforts to form a coalition to fight the Volcae. Upon hearing the news of this coalition Xenon stormed with his army to the south to deal with any potential threats. After some small skirmishes he arrived to Bigorra, the fortified capital of Bigerrones.
Upon arriving, Xenon camped near the northern side of the city and deemed the northern walls as the weakest. Three days during the siege, a relief army of the Tarbelli and Conveni tribes arrived at Bigorra. With the relief army arrival the Bigerrones found the courage to exit the walls and engage the Gauls. After another brutal battle the combined Aquitane forces were utterly crushed. The sacred segos once again proved to be a lethal force and no match for the rather poor equipment Aquitaine warriors. After establishing a garrison, Xenon left Bigorra and marched for Tarbellica the capital of the Tarbeli tribe.
Having heard of the latest battle, the greatest part of Aquitaine fearing the fate of Sotium surrendered itself to Xenon, and of its own accord sent nobles as hostages. Tarbelli,Bigerrones and Conveni were forced to a vassal status with Gaul garrisons in their capitals. All of Sosiates tribe were sold as slaves and their lands were distributed among the Gaul warriors.
Illustration of a Noble Gaul warrior( pretty close to what a sacred segos warrior would look like):