Napoleon’s archaeological excavations at Alise-Sainte-Reine mobilised significant funds. Considerable archaeological excavations, but badly published
Knowing the location of his final combat would shed light on the founding myths of the history of France. With the publishing successes of the Thierry brothers ( L’Histoire des Gaulois depuis les temps les plus r eculés jusqu’à l’entière soumission de la Gaule à la domination romaine, 1828) and of Henri Martin ( Histoire de France, 1833), Vercingetorix became a historic figure and the first hero of national history. The Gauls had been fashionable since the 1830s. The quarrel over Alesia took place in a very particular context. When Napoleon III asked the Commission de Topographie des Gaules (CTG) to carry out archaeological excavations at Alise-Sainte-Reine in May 1861, the academic debate over the location of Alesia had already been raging for six years.
