The Carnutes are the first to offer to take arms: as the necessity of acting secretly did not allow them to exchange hostages, they exact as security an oath of alliance. This oath is taken by all the ensigns in a meeting in which the moment for the rising is fixed.
On the day appointed, the Carnutes, led by two resolute men, Cotuatus and Conetodunus, rush to Genabum (_Gien_), plunder and slaughter the Roman merchants, amongst others the knight C. Fusius Cita, charged by Cæsar with the victualling department. These news reached every state in Gaul with an extreme celerity, according to the custom of the Gauls of communicating remarkable events by cries transmitted from neighbour to neighbour across the country.[460] Thus what had happened at Genabum at sunrise, was known by the Arverni before the end of the first watch (towards eight o'clock at night), at a distance of 160 miles.
Vercingetorix, a young Arvernan who possessed great influence in his country,[461] and whose father, Celtillus, for a time chief of all Gaul, had been put to death by his countrymen for having aspired to the royalty, calls his clients together, and excites their zeal. Expelled from Gergovia by those who were unwilling to tempt fortune with him, he raises the country, and, with the help of a numerous band, retakes the town, and causes himself to be proclaimed king. Soon he seduces the Senones, the Parisii, the Pictones, the Cadurci, the Turones, the Aulerci, the Lemovices of Armorica, the Andes, and the other peoples who dwell on the shores of the ocean. The commandment is given to him by unanimous consent. He exacts hostages from those peoples, orders a prompt levy of soldiers, fixes the number of men and arms which each country is to furnish in a given time, and occupies himself especially with the raising of the cavalry. Active, daring, severe, and inflexible even to cruelty, he subjects to the most atrocious tortures those who hesitate, and by these means of terror soon forms an army.
He sent a part of it to the Ruteni, under the command of Cadurcus Lucterius, a man full of daring; and to draw the Bituriges into the insurrection, he invaded their territory. By acting thus, he threatened the Province, and protected his rear whilst he moved towards the north, where the Roman occupation was concentrated. On his approach, the Bituriges solicited the help of the Ædui, their allies. The last, by the advice of Cæsar's lieutenants, who had remained with the army, sent them a body of cavalry and infantry to support them against Vercingetorix; but, when they reached the Loire, which separated the territory of the two peoples, these auxiliary troops halted for some days, and then returned, without having dared to cross the river, pretending that they had been betrayed by the Bituriges. Immediately after their departure, the latter joined the Arverni.[462]