Archaeologically, theGauls were bearers of theLa Tène culture during the 5th to 1st centuries BC.[3] Thismaterial culture was found not only in all of Gaul but also as far east as modern-day southern Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary.
Warbands led by the GaulBrennos sacked the city of Rome in 387 BC, becoming the only time Rome was conquered by a foreign enemy in 800 years. However,Gallia Cisalpina was conquered by the Romans in 204 BC andGallia Narbonensis in 123 BC. Gaul was invaded after 120 BC by theCimbri and theTeutons, who were in turn defeated by the Romans by 103 BC. Julius Caesar finally subdued the largest part of Gaul in hiscampaigns of 58 to 51 BC.Roman control of Gaul lasted for five centuries, until the last Romanrump state, theDomain of Soissons, fell to theFranks in AD 486.
While the Gauls shifted from a primarily Celtic culture duringLate Antiquity, becoming amalgamated into aGallo-Roman culture,Gallia remained the conventional name of the territory throughout theEarly Middle Ages, until it acquired a new identity as theCapetianKingdom of France in the high medieval period.Gallia remains a name of France inmodern Greek (Γαλλία) andmodern Latin (besides the alternativesFrancia andFrancogallia).
The Greek and Latin namesGalatia (first attested byTimaeus of Tauromenium in the 4th century BC) andGallia are ultimately derived from aCeltic ethnic term or clanGal(a)-to-.[4] TheGalli ofGallia Celtica were reported to refer to themselves asCeltae by Caesar. Hellenisticetymology connected the name of theGalatians (Γαλάται,Galátai) to the supposedly "milk-white" skin (γάλα,gála "milk") of the Gauls.[5] Modern researchers say it is related to Welshgallu,[citation needed]Cornish:galloes,[6] "capacity, power",[7] thus meaning "powerful people".
Despite its superficial similarity, the normalEnglish translation ofGallia since the Middle Ages,Gaul, has a different origin than the Latin term. It stems from the FrenchGaule, itself deriving from theOld Frankish*Walholant (via a Latinized form*Walula),[8] literally the "Land of the Foreigners/Romans".*Walho- is a reflex of theProto-Germanic*walhaz, "foreigner, Romanized person", anexonym applied by Germanic speakers to Celts and Latin-speaking people indiscriminately. It iscognate with the namesWales,Cornwall,Wallonia, andWallachia.[9] The Germanicw- is regularly rendered asgu- /g- in French (cf.guerre "war",garder "ward",Guillaume "William"), and the historic diphthongau is the regular outcome ofal before a following consonant (cf.cheval ~chevaux). FrenchGaule orGaulle cannot be derived from LatinGallia, sinceg would becomej beforea (cf.gamba >jambe), and the diphthongau would be unexplained; the regular outcome of LatinGallia isJaille in French, which is found in several western place names, such as,La Jaille-Yvon andSaint-Mars-la-Jaille.[10][11] Proto-Germanic*walha is derived ultimately from the name of theVolcae.[12]
Also unrelated, in spite of superficial similarity, is the nameGael.[14] TheIrish wordgall did originally mean "a Gaul", i.e. an inhabitant of Gaul, but its meaning was later widened to "foreigner", to describe theVikings, and later still theNormans.[15] Thedichotomic wordsgael andgall are sometimes used together for contrast, for instance in the 12th-century bookCogad Gáedel re Gallaib.
As adjectives, English has the two variants:Gaulish andGallic. The two adjectives are used synonymously, as "pertaining to Gaul or the Gauls", although the Celtic language group once spoken in Gaul is predominantly known asGaulish.
Map of Roman Gaul (Droysens Allgemeiner historischer Handatlas, 1886)
There is little written information concerning the peoples that inhabited the regions of Gaul, save what can be gleaned from coins. Therefore, the early history of the Gauls is predominantly a matter of archaeology, and the relationships between theirmaterial culture, genetic relationships (the study of which has been aided, in recent years, through the field ofarchaeogenetics) and linguistic divisions rarely coincide.
Out of this Hallstatt background, the La Tène culture arose during the 7th and 6th century BC, presumably representing an early form ofContinental Celtic culture and likely under Mediterranean influence from theGreek,Phoenician, andEtruscan civilizations. This culture spread out in a number of early centers along theSeine, theMiddle Rhine and the upperElbe. By the late 5th century BC, La Tène influence spread rapidly across the entire territory of Gaul. The La Tène culture developed and flourished during the lateIron Age (from 450 BC to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC) not only in France but also what is nowSwitzerland, northernItaly,Austria, southernGermany,Bohemia,Moravia,Slovakia andHungary.
A major archaeogenetics study uncovered a migration into southernBritain in the Bronze Age, during the 500-year period from 1300 to 800 BC. The newcomers were genetically most closely related to ancient individuals from Gaul. The authors describe this as a "plausible vector for the spread of earlyCeltic languages into Britain".[16]
In the 4th and early 3rd century BC, Gallic clan confederations expanded far beyond the territory of what would becomeRoman Gaul (which defines usage of the term "Gaul" today), into Pannonia, Illyria, northern Italy, Transylvania and even Asia Minor.By the 2nd century BC, the Romans describedGallia Transalpina as distinct fromGallia Cisalpina. In hisGallic Wars, Julius Caesar distinguishes among three ethnic groups in Gaul: theBelgae in the north (roughly between theRhine and the Seine), the Celtae in the center and inArmorica, and theAquitani in the southwest, the southeast being already colonized by the Romans. While some scholars believe the Belgae north of theSomme were a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations have not been definitively resolved.
In addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia (present-dayMarseille) along the Mediterranean coast.[18] Also, along the southeastern French Mediterranean coast, theLigures had merged with the Celts to form a Celto-Ligurian culture.
In the 2nd century BC Mediterranean Gaul had an extensive urban fabric and was prosperous. Archeologists know of cities in northern Gaul including the Biturigian capital ofAvaricum (Bourges),Cenabum (Orléans),Autricum (Chartres) and the excavated site ofBibracte nearAutun in Saône-et-Loire, along with a number of hill forts (oroppida) used in times of war. The prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants ofMassilia, who found themselves under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls.[19] The Romans intervened in Gaul in 154 BC and again in 125 BC.[19] Whereas on the first occasion they came and went, on the second they stayed.[20] In 122 BCDomitius Ahenobarbus managed to defeat theAllobroges (allies of theSalluvii), while in the ensuing yearQuintus Fabius Maximus "destroyed" an army of theArverni led by their kingBituitus, who had come to the aid of the Allobroges.[20] Rome allowed Massilia to keep its lands, but added to its own territories the lands of the conquered tribes.[20] As a direct result of these conquests, Rome now controlled an area extending from thePyrenees to the lowerRhône river, and in the east up theRhône valley toLake Geneva.[21] By 121 BC Romans had conquered the Mediterranean region calledProvincia (later namedGallia Narbonensis). This conquest upset the ascendancy of the Gaulish Arverni peoples.
The Roman proconsul and general Julius Caesar led his army into Gaul in 58 BC, ostensibly to assist Rome's Gaullish allies against the migratingHelvetii. With the help of various Gallic clans (e.g., theAedui) he managed to conquer nearly all of Gaul. While their military was just as strong as the Romans', the internal division between the Gallic tribes guaranteed an easy victory for Caesar, andVercingetorix's attempt to unite the Gauls against Roman invasion came too late.[22][23] Julius Caesar was checked by Vercingetorix at asiege of Gergovia, a fortified town in the center of Gaul. Caesar's alliances with many Gallic clans broke. Even the Aedui, their most faithful supporters, threw in their lot with the Arverni but the ever-loyalRemi (best known for its cavalry) andLingones sent troops to support Caesar. TheGermani of theUbii also sent cavalry, which Caesar equipped with Remi horses. Caesar captured Vercingetorix in theBattle of Alesia, which ended the majority of Gallic resistance to Rome.
As many as a million people (probably 1 in 5 of the Gauls) died, another million wereenslaved,[24] 300 clans were subjugated and 800 cities were destroyed during the Gallic Wars.[25] The entire population of the city of Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000 in all) were slaughtered.[26] Before Julius Caesar's campaign against the Helvetii (Switzerland), the Helvetians had numbered 263,000, but afterwards only 100,000 remained, most of whom Caesar took asslaves.[27]
Soldiers of Gaul, as imagined by a late 19th-century illustrator for theLarousse dictionary, 1898
After Gaul was absorbed asGallia, a set of Roman provinces, its inhabitants gradually adopted aspects of Roman culture and assimilated, resulting in the distinctGallo-Roman culture.[28] Citizenship was granted to all in 212 by theConstitutio Antoniniana. From thethird to 5th centuries, Gaul was exposed to raids by theFranks. TheGallic Empire, consisting of the provinces of Gaul,Britannia, andHispania, including the peacefulBaetica in the south, broke away from Rome from 260 to 273. In addition to the large number of natives, Gallia also became home to someRoman citizens from elsewhere and also in-migrating Germanic and Scythian tribes such as theAlans.[29]
The religious practices of inhabitants became a combination of Roman and Celtic practice, with Celtic deities such asCobannus andEpona subjected tointerpretatio romana.[30][31] Theimperial cult and Easternmystery religions also gained a following. Eventually, after it became the official religion of the Empire and paganism became suppressed, Christianity won out in the twilight days of the Western Roman Empire (while the Christianized Eastern Roman Empire lasted another thousand years, until the invasion of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453); a small but notableJewish presence also became established.
The Gaulish language is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable Romanization of the local material culture.[32] The last record of spoken Gaulish deemed to be plausibly credible[32] concerned the destruction by Christians of a pagan shrine in Auvergne "called Vasso Galatae in the Gallic tongue".[33] Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape theVulgar Latin dialects that developed into French.[34][35][36][37][38]
The Vulgar Latin in the region of Gallia took on a distinctly local character, some of which is attested in graffiti,[38] which evolved into theGallo-Romance dialects which include French and its closest relatives. The influence ofsubstrate languages may be seen in graffiti showing sound changes that matched changes that had earlier occurred in the indigenous languages, especially Gaulish.[38] The Vulgar Latin in the north of Gaul evolved into thelangues d'oïl andFranco-Provencal, while the dialects in the south evolved into the modernOccitan andCatalan tongues. Other languages held to be "Gallo-Romance" include theGallo-Italic languages and theRhaeto-Romance languages.
Following Frankish victories atSoissons (AD 486),Vouillé (AD 507) andAutun (AD 532), Gaul (except forBrittany andSeptimania) came under the rule of theMerovingians, the firstkings of France. Gallo-Roman culture, the Romanized culture of Gaul under the rule of the Roman Empire, persisted particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed intoOccitania,Gallia Cisalpina and to a lesser degree,Aquitania. The formerly Romanized north of Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks, developed into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on the public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in theres publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient ruralvilla system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where theVisigoths largely inherited the status quo in the early 5th century. Gallo-Roman language persisted in the northeast into theSilva Carbonaria that formed an effective cultural barrier, with the Franks to the north and east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of theLoire, where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city likeTours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals,Gregory of Tours.
Massalia (Marseille) silver coin with Greek legend, 5th–1st century BC.
A map of Gaul in the 1st century BC, showing the relative positions of theCeltic ethnicities:Celtae,Belgae andAquitani.Expansion of the Celtic culture in the 3rd century BC.
TheDruids were not the only political force in Gaul, however, and the early political system was complex, if ultimately fatal to the society as a whole. The fundamental unit of Gallic politics was the clan, which itself consisted of one or more of what Caesar calledpagi. Each clan had a council of elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui, a clan of Gaul, the executive held the title ofVergobret, a position much like a king, but his powers were held in check by rules laid down by the council.
The regional ethnic groups, orpagi as the Romans called them (singular:pagus; the French wordpays, "region" [a more accurate translation is 'country'], comes from this term), were organized into larger multi-clan groups, which the Romans calledcivitates. These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and thesecivitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division intoecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses, which would remain in place—with slight changes—until theFrench Revolution.
Although the clans were moderately stable political entities, Gaul as a whole tended to be politically divided, there being virtually no unity among the various clans. Only during particularly trying times, such as theinvasion of Caesar, could the Gauls unite under a single leader like Vercingetorix. Even then, however, the faction lines were clear.
The Romans divided Gaul broadly intoProvincia (the conquered area around the Mediterranean), and the northernGallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "long-haired Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gallia Comata into three broad groups: theAquitani;Galli (who in their own language were calledCeltae); andBelgae. In the modern sense,Gaulish peoples are defined linguistically, as speakers of dialects of the Gaulish language. While the Aquitani were probablyVascons, the Belgae would thus probably be a mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements.
All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae inhabit, the Aquitani another, those who in their own language are called Celts, in our Gauls, the third. All these differ from each other in language, customs and laws. The river Garonne separates the Gauls from the Aquitani; the Marne and the Seine separate them from the Belgae. Of all these, the Belgae are the bravest, because they are furthest from the civilization and refinement of [our] Province, and merchants least frequently resort to them, and import those things which tend to effeminate the mind; and they are the nearest to the Germans, who dwell beyond the Rhine, with whom they are continually waging war; for which reason the Helvetii also surpass the rest of the Gauls in valor, as they contend with the Germans in almost daily battles, when they either repel them from their own territories, or themselves wage war on their frontiers. One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine, and stretches toward the north. The Belgae rises from the extreme frontier of Gaul, extend to the lower part of the river Rhine; and look toward the north and the rising sun. Aquitania extends from the river Garonne to the Pyrenaean mountains and to that part of the ocean which is near Spain: it looks between the setting of the sun, and the north star.[39]
The Gauls practiced a form ofanimism, ascribing human characteristics to lakes, streams, mountains, and other natural features and granting them a quasi-divine status. Also, worship of animals was not uncommon; the animal most sacred to the Gauls was theboar[40] which can be found on many Gallic military standards, much like theRoman eagle.
Their system of gods and goddesses was loose, there being certain deities which virtually every Gallic person worshipped, as well as clan and household gods.[41]
Perhaps the most intriguing facet of Gallic religion is the practice of theDruids. The druids presided over human or animal sacrifices that were made in wooded groves or crude temples. They also appear to have held the responsibility for preserving the annual agricultural calendar and instigating seasonal festivals which corresponded to key points of the lunar-solar calendar. The religious practices of druids were syncretic and borrowed from earlier pagan traditions, with probably indo-European roots. Julius Caesar mentions in his Gallic Wars that those Celts who wanted to make a close study of druidism went to Britain to do so. In a little over a century later, Gnaeus Julius Agricola mentions Roman armies attacking a large druid sanctuary inAnglesey in Wales. There is no certainty concerning the origin of the druids, but it is clear that they vehemently guarded the secrets of their order and held sway over the people of Gaul. Indeed, they claimed the right to determine questions of war and peace, and thereby held an "international" status. In addition, the Druids monitored the religion of ordinary Gauls and were in charge of educating the aristocracy. They also practiced a form of excommunication from the assembly of worshippers, which in ancient Gaul meant a separation from secular society as well. Thus the Druids were an important part of Gallic society. The nearly complete and mysterious disappearance of the Celtic language from most of the territorial lands of ancient Gaul, with the exception of Brittany, can be attributed to the fact that Celtic druids refused to allow the Celtic oral literature or traditional wisdom to be committed to the written letter.[42]
^Drinkwater 2014, p. 6. "[...] the most important outcome of this series of campaigns was the direct annexation by Rome of a huge area extending from the Pyrenees to the lower Rhône, and up the Rhône valley to Lake Geneva."
^"Julius Caesar: The first triumvirate and the conquest of Gaul".Encyclopædia Britannica Online.Encyclopædia Britannica. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2015.Indeed, the Gallic cavalry was probably superior to the Roman, horseman for horseman. Rome's military superiority lay in its mastery of strategy, tactics, discipline, and military engineering. In Gaul, Rome also had the advantage of being able to deal separately with dozens of relatively small, independent, and uncooperative states. Caesar conquered these piecemeal, and the concerted attempt made by a number of them in 52 BC to shake off the Roman yoke came too late.
^Pollini, J. (2002).Gallo-Roman Bronzes and the Process of Romanization: The Cobannus Hoard. Monumenta Graeca et Romana. Vol. 9. Leiden: Brill.
^Oaks, L.S. (1986). "The goddess Epona: concepts of sovereignty in a changing landscape".Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire.
^abLaurence Hélix (2011).Histoire de la langue française. Ellipses Edition Marketing S.A. p. 7.ISBN978-2-7298-6470-5.Le déclin du Gaulois et sa disparition ne s'expliquent pas seulement par des pratiques culturelles spécifiques: Lorsque les Romains conduits par César envahirent la Gaule, au 1er siecle avant J.-C., celle-ci romanisa de manière progressive et profonde. Pendant près de 500 ans, la fameuse période gallo-romaine, le gaulois et le latin parlé coexistèrent; au VIe siècle encore; le temoignage de Grégoire de Tours atteste la survivance de la langue gauloise.
^Hist. Franc., book I, 32Veniens vero Arvernos, delubrum illud, quod Gallica lingua Vasso Galatæ vocant, incendit, diruit, atque subvertit. And coming to Clermont [to theArverni] he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatæ in the Gallic tongue.
^Henri Guiter, "Sur le substrat gaulois dans la Romania", inMunus amicitae. Studia linguistica in honorem Witoldi Manczak septuagenarii, eds., Anna Bochnakowa & Stanislan Widlak, Krakow, 1995.
^Eugeen Roegiest,Vers les sources des langues romanes: Un itinéraire linguistique à travers la Romania (Leuven, Belgium: Acco, 2006), 83.
^Savignac, Jean-Paul (2004).Dictionnaire Français-Gaulois. Paris: La Différence. p. 26.
^Matasovic, Ranko (2007)."Insular Celtic as a Language Area".The Celtic Languages in Contact (Papers from the Workshop within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies). Potsdam University Press. p. 106.ISBN978-3-940793-07-2.
^Caesar, Julius (1869).The Gallic Wars. Translated by McDevitte, W. A.; Bohn, W. S. New York: Harper. p. 9.ISBN978-1604597622. Retrieved8 January 2017.
Ñaco del Hoyo, Toni; Principal, Jordi; Dobson, Mike, eds. (2022).Rome and the north-western Mediterranean : integration and connectivity c. 150–70 BC. Oxford: Oxbow Books.ISBN9781789257175.
