big armor made of many assembled silver pieces, reflecting the sun", and in particular copperwork They minted their own money, and had strong trade with nearby tribes They had ceramic manufacture (workshops in Lezoux, etc.) They had influence on nearby tribes and were able to rally the Aedui during the revolt of Vercingetorix. A shrine in Auvergne marks the Battle of Gergovia. Based on scholars' interpretation of books by Caesar, it took place about from present-day Clermont-Ferrand; this has not been conclusively proved. Vercingetorix beat Julius Caesar at Gergovia in 52 BC before he started chasing Caesar's troops. Roman troops won a victory in Alesia (Alise-sainte-Reine) in Burgundy. Roman legionaries had set traps and established over several hundred metres. They captured Vercingetorix and took him to Rome, where he was imprisoned. Augustonemetum (as Clermont was known) was developed, probably by displacing a settlement of the Arverni. A recent find is a stone foot, measuring , from a statue high, probably representing a god or a Roman emperor. In the 5th century, Sidonius Apollinaris, an Arvernian nobleman and first bishop of Clermont, made a statement about the end of the Roman age of the Auvergne. Feudal Auvergne In the 7th century, the Franks and the Aquitani competed for control of the Auvergne. Conquered by the Carolingians, it was integrated for a certain time into the kingdom of Aquitania. A section known as the county of Aurillac was given to the father of Géraud d’Aurillac; this grant was made directly by the king. The counts of Auvergne, the Guilhemides, slowly obtained their independence. In the 10th century, Auvergne was subject to rivalry between the counts of Poitiers and Toulouse. Under the reign of the Carolingians, the Auvergne included five secondary counties with a particular administrative system (Clermont, Turluron, Brioude, Tallende, Carlat (comitatus Cartladensis)). During the Middle Age, the county of Auvergne covered the current departments of Puy-de-Dôme, the northern half of Cantal, as well as a small third in the North West of Haute-Loire, with the county of Brioude. The other part of Cantal constituted the direct territory of Aurillac Abbey, and a part of it was indentured to the viscounts of Millau, to form the Carlades. The Auvergne had gone through a very strict feudal regime, synonym for a dispersion of the political power. The Bishop of Clermont removed his city from the counts’ authority, who, as a result, favoured the