We are told that the revolt of 52 occured mainly because Caesar was away in Italy and gave the Gauls ample time to regroup and unite. This may or may not have been the actual initial reason for the revolt. As we have seen earlier in the Bellum Gallicum, Caesar had to deal with a number of uprisings throughout the duration of his campaign in Gaul, which is why the statement he makes seems to be so ambiguous.

Hac impulsi occasione, qui iam ante se populi Romani imperio subiectos dolerent liberius atque auacius de bello consilia inire incipiunt.
(DBG, VII, 1.)

It would actually be a wonder if these people were not chafed at the amount of men, women, and children Caesar killed and enslaved throughout this campaign, specifically the Helvetii. This is shown in the readiness of many of the tribes, even the most spiritual of them, to commit themselves to total warfare. The Carnutes declared "that there was no hazzard they refused for the general warfare, and promised that they would be the first of all to make war". As many know, in the grove of the Carnutes was the center of Gallic Druidism in which governed the political motivations of the rest of the Gallic tribal nations.

This was where the tinder was struck that laid the way for the rest of the Gallic revolt against Caesar. We are told in the DBC that, "Vbi ea dies venit, Carnutes Cotuato et Concon netodumno ducibus, desperatis homnibus, Cenabum signo dato concurrunt civesque Romanos, qui negotiandi causa ibi constiterant, in his Gaium Fufium Citam, honestum equitem Romanum, qui rei frumentariae iussa Caesaris praeerat, interficiunt bonaque eorum diripiunt." or that two desperate men by the names of Cotatus and Conconnetodumnos rushed at a given signal on Cenabum and killed any Roman citizens who were in the villiage for trading purposes.

In like fashion, an Averni chieftain by the name of Vercengetorix follows suit. It was Vercingetorix that rallied the troops of Gaul together and managed to unite a good percentage of the fighting Celts in Gaul.