Gaul: 600 BCE.

I have recently learned about the Gallic Cubi-Biturige, whom were based on the site of modern French Bourges. Apparently, for a brief period in 600's BCE, they ruled over a tribal confederacy so powerful, that they practically unified Gaul for a time.

I'm tring to find some proper authoritive sources Online, but embarrassingly, the only forum with the most extensive information is the Europa Barbarorum website. Other Celtic history forums only seem to hint vaguely at it, so I'm not sure if this was a historical reality or a modern myth.
 
My Pauly-Wissowa says our sole source is Livy, so I'd be wary of putting great trust in the statement. This is not to say it didn't happen, but rather that it probably goes back to some tenuous transmission, maybe oral Gallic tradition, and may reflect wishful thinking or some kind of arrangement that had cvery little to do with political rule.
 
I wouldn't really put it past the Gauls. The premise was that they were a tribal confederation. Such a thing probably didn't last beyond the lifetime of its founding ruler. Like Rome itself in the early years of the Republic lead an enforced alliance of otherwise autonomous Italian city-states.

Even before Caesar's conquests, certain Gallic tribes, like the Arverni, the Aedui, the Carnutes, and the Belgae, held some kind of political, economic or military influence over smaller tribes.
 
The problem is that the 6th c. BCE is a bit early for a tribal confederation covering most of Gaul. At least, anything like what, say, Vercingetorix had. It's not impossible or even implausible that something like it existed, vbut I doubt it implied actual political control or coercive power.
 
Vercingetorix led an alliance of rebellious tribal entities. Something which may have deteriorated even if there was the likelyhood of his success against Roman expansion.

The way I saw it was that the Bituriges were at one point the richest and most militarily dominant among its neighbours, and could use threats of military action to bend their peers to their will, before whatever it was they did to lose this edge compelled all the other tribal entities to simply ignore their decrees and proclamations from that point on. By the First Century BCE, Gaul was dominated by tribal alliances that led throngs of smaller client-tribes.
 
This is slightly off-topic, I realize, but if Vercingetorix's plan succeeded, Caesar was killed, and the Roman Legions were expelled from northern Gaulish territory, the Arverni-led alliance might dissolve, but everyone will remember that it was under the leadership of that particular tribe which freed the Gauls in the first place. This may have done much to boost the nationalistic self-esteem of the Arverni. Neighbouring smaller tribal bodies could have aligned themselves to the Arverni for protection and paid tribute to them.

Discharged Gallic auxilliaries from the Roman Army might return to Gaul and hire themselves out to those that require warriors to build up a new standing army. Vercingetorix, having served at one time in the Roman Army, was said to have trained his fellow Arverni in the Roman mode of combat. Perhaps the surviving Vercingetorix would use his newfound prestige to build up a new model army from all this.

The Aedui tribe, being divided between the Pro-Roman faction (one notable member being the Druid Diviciacus), and the Anti-Roman faction (once led by Diviciacus' brother Dumnorix until his death in 54 BCE). A purging of the aristocracy among the Aedui could be the beginnings of a new civil war that could sunder the tribal confederation. Vercingetorix or his heirs could use this as an opportunity to expand their control over one of their nations oldest enemies.

Having established proper control over all of central Gaul within ten or twenty years after Caesar's failed conquest of Gaul, the Arverni could lead new expeditions to subdue the Belgae alliance in the north, the Aquitanii in the south, and swallow up the tribes in the regions of Brittany and Normandy.

By the end of the First Century BCE, with much of Gaul united by the military might of the Arverni, and with an abundance of precious metals and iron deposits to help pay for and maintain their new professional army, the Gauls could next wage a military campaign to capture the Roman province of Narbonensis. Thus gaining access to the Mediterranean sea.
 
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