Remi

The Remi occupied the chalk country of the Champagne with their stronghold at Durocortorum, and they are the people who chose Rome and profited by it. When Caesar entered Belgic territory in 57 BC they broke from the confederation immediately, offered hostages, supplied grain and intelligence, and stayed loyal through everything that followed - including the revolt of 52 BC, when almost every other people in Gaul joined Vercingetorix and the Remi did not. Their neighbours the Bellovaci besieged them for it. The calculation was straightforward and it worked: they were rewarded with the position the Aedui had held as Rome's chief friends in Gaul, with authority over neighbouring peoples, and with treatment as allies rather than subjects. Durocortorum became the capital of the province of Gallia Belgica and one of the largest cities in the north, and its name eventually became Reims. The choice looks like collaboration and was understood as such at the time by the peoples who fought; it also meant the Remi were not massacred, enslaved or dispersed, which happened to several of those peoples. Their independence ended with everyone else's in 51 BC, formally by absorption rather than by conquest. The later importance of Reims as the coronation city of the kings of France descends directly from the provincial status the Remi bought in 57 BC. Caesar's own text is the main evidence for their loyalty, and he had every reason to present a cooperative people favourably. Their cavalry served with him throughout the war. The cathedral where French kings were crowned stands on ground that has been the centre of the same city since the Remi chose their side in 57 BC.

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