I'm confused.
63 BCE - The Battle of Magetobriga happens, allowing the Suebi to take over a bunch of Sequani land and everyone does terrible things to the Aedui. The Aeduan, Diviciacus, survives the battle and absconds to Rome where he is a guest of the Consul, Cicero, and addresses the Senate (including Gaius Julius Caesar) requesting military aide.
At this point the Roman ally, Aedui, is a tributary to the Suebi and the Sequani. Not a good look for Rome to have their allies submitting to foreign powers, yeah? That can't inspire confidence in other allies.
And yet, Rome does nothing.
58 BCE - Ol' Jules Caesar hears rumors of the Helvetii migrating through the middle of Gaul and plotting all kinds of monarchy with a couple of other Gauls. He then proceeds to stamp the Helvetii mushroomly. Afterward, Diviciacus shows up again and asks Caesar to deal with the Suebi, which he does despite the fact that the Roman Senate said that Ariovistus and his German bros were "cool dudes" (direct quote) the year before.
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My question is this: Why didn't the Roman Senate act in 63 BCE?
It has to be more than just the crappy, realpolitik answer of Aedui simply not being worth committing troops to, right? Am I missing something? Thanks!
Are you referring to this Wikipedia article? I'm afraid there are several things wrong with it, the worst being the date of Diviciacus' visit to Rome. The OCD gives this date as 61, I suspect based on Caesar's attribution to the resulting SC to the consulship of Messala and Piso. Caesar seems to quote the text of the SC as his legal justification for supporting the Aedui in 58:
whoever should have the administration of the province of Gaul should, as far as he could do so consistently with the interests of the republic, protect the Aedui and the other friends of the Roman people
In 61 the proconsul in Transalpine Gaul was Pomptinus. He had one legion and had to deal with an early push by the Helvetii to move, and a revolt of the Allobroges. That took him into 60 to finish up.
The consul of 60, Metellus Celer, was supposed to take command of the province in 59, but domestic politics prevented him. The tribune Flavius was trying to pass an agrarian bill for Pompey in 60, which Metellus opposed (successfully), and as part of their fight Flavius not only imprisoned him, but apparently forced him to give up his province (which Cicero says he was happy about, because he wanted to win a triumph and didn't think it was a possibility that year), and he died sometime in 59.
There doesn't seem to be any promagistrate in Transalpine Gaul in 59 at all. Broughton continues to list Pomptinus as a promagistrate until 54. This is because of opposition to awarding him a triumph for his war against the Allobroges, which he finally got to celebrate that year. He clearly wasn't hanging out in Transalpine Gaul all that time.