A growing
taste for arts and civilization was leading to Romans of inferior
classes settling themselves in other Gallic cities.
The first rising of the Gauls began by a quarrel at the city we now call
Orleans, ending in a massacre of all the Romans there. The tidings were
spread through all the country by loud shouts, repeated from one to the
other by men stationed on every hill, and thus, what had been done at
Orleans at sunrise was known by nine at night 160 miles off among the
mountains, which were then the homes of a tribe called by the Romans the
Arverni, who have left their name to the province of Auvergne.
Here dwelt a young chieftain, probably really called Fearcuincedorigh,
or Man who is chief of a hundred heads, known to us by Caesar's version
of his name, as Vercingetorix, a high-spirited youth, who keenly felt
the servitude of his country, and who, on receiving these tidings,
instantly called on his friends to endeavor to shake off the yoke. His
uncle, who feared to provoke Roman vengeance, expelled him from the
chief city, Gergovia, the remains of which may be traced on the mountain
still called Gergoie, about six miles from Clermont; but he collected
all the younger and more high-spirited men, forced a way into the city,
and was proclaimed chief of his tribe.
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