The Sequani in 71 BCE, before the arrival of Julius Caesar in Gaul, had taken the side of the Arverni against their rivals the Aedui and hired the Suebi under Ariovistus to cross the Rhine and help them.

Although his assistance had enabled them to defeat the Aedui, the Sequani were worse off than before, for Ariovistus had deprived them of a third of their territory and threatened to take another third, while subjugating them into semi-slavery.

The Sequani had then appealed to Caesar, who had driven back the Germanic tribesmen in 58 BCE but at the same time obliged the Sequani to surrender all that they had gained from the Aedui.

This had so exasperated the Sequani that they have joined in the revolt of Vercingetorix and share in the defeat at Alesia in 52.

Caesar takes the region of Franche-Comte in eastern Gaul, occupied by the Sequani since the fourth century.