France
History : the Gaul
Gallia (in English Gaul)
is the Roman name for the region of western Europe occupied
by present-day France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts
of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine
river. In English the word Gaul commonly refers to a Celtic
inhabitant of that region in ancient times.
But the Gauls were widespread in Europe by Roman times,
speaking Celtic languages that had diverged into two groups.
Besides the Gauls of modern-day France, Gauls had settled in the
plains of northern Italy, in the province Romans knew as Gallia
Cisalpina ("Gaul this side of the Alps"). Other Gauls
had migrated across the Pyrenees into Spain, where they mixed with
the indigenous Iberians as "Galloiberians."
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Gauls under Brennus sacked Rome circa 390 BC, destroying all Roman
historical records to that point.
In the Aegean world, a huge migration of Eastern Gauls
appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281 BC. Another Gaulish
chieftain named Brennus, at the head of a large army, was only
turned back from desecrating the Temple of Apollo at Delphi at the
last minute, alarmed, it was said, by portents of thunder and
lightning.
At the same time a migrating band
of Celts, some 10,000 fighting men, with their women and children
and slaves, were moving through Thrace. Three tribes of Gauls
crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor at express invitation of
Nicomedes I of Bithynia, who required help in a dynastic struggle
against his brother. Eventually they settled down in eastern
Phrygia and Cappadocia in central Anatolia, in a region henceforth
known as Galatia.
Roman rule in Gaul was established by Julius Caesar, who
defeated the Celtic tribes in Gaul 58-51 BC and described his
experiences in De Bello Gallico, which means About the Gallic War.
The war cost the lives of more than a million Gauls, and a million
further were enslaved. The area conquered by Caesar was Gallia
Comata: literally, "long-haired Gaul."
The area was subsequently governed as a number of provinces, the
principal ones being Gallia Narbonensis, Gallia Lugdunensis,
Gallia Aquitania and Gallia Belgica. The capital of the Gauls was
Lyon (Lugdunum).
On December 31, 406 the Vandals, Alans and Suebians crossed the
Rhine, beginning an invasion of Gallia.
After coming under increasing pressure from the tribes of Germany
from the middle of the 3rd century AD, Roman rule in Gaul ended
with the defeat of the Roman governor Syagrius by the Franks in AD
486.
Gallo-Roman continuity
In the 6th century, the
former Gaul continued to be divided in three parts, as Caesar had
described. The Franks were in occupation of most of the territory.
A Visigothic kingdom was established in the southwest region that
would become Aquitaine. And in the areas that would become
Provence and Languedoc a Gallo-Roman culture continued into the
time of Gregory of Tours.
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