Roman Gaul

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The Vachères warrior, a statue of a Gaulish warrior wearing Roman armour (ca. 1st century BC).

Roman Gaul consisted of an area of provincial rule in what would become modern day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and western Germany. Roman control of the area lasted for 600 years. The Roman Empire began its take-over of what was Celtic Gaul in 121 BC, when it conquered and annexed the southern reaches of the area. Julius Caesar completed the task by defeating the Celtic tribes in the Gallic Wars of 58-51BC. Roman Gaul was succeeded by the Merovingian period following the Roman defeat at the Battle of Soissons in AD 486.

[edit] Geographical divisions

Gallia Cisalpina or "Gaul this side of the Alps", was an area of the Po Valley in modern Italy.

Gallia Narbonensis formerly Gallia Transalpina or "Gaul across the Alps". The area originally conquered and annexed in 121BC in an attempt to solidify communications between Rome and the Iberian peninsula.

Gaul in the Roman Empire

Gallia Comata or "long haired Gaul". Comata encompassed the lands gained through the victory over the Celts in the Gallic Wars, and would be divided into three provinces:

Before the Roman conquest, the villages of Gaul were divided into tribal groups. The Romans gave these groups the term pagi (from which comes the French word pays, "region"); these pagi were organizaed into civitates (provinces). These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses, which would remain in place -- with slight changes -- until the French revolution.

Map of Gaul circa 58 BC

[edit] Language and culture

The Gaulish language and cultural identity would, in the five centuries between Caesar's conquest and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, undergo a syncretism, and evolve into a hybrid Gallo-Roman culture. The Druidic religion which existed in the area was ordered suppressed by Emperor Claudius I, and Christianity was introduced. The last pockets of Gaulish speakers appear to have lingered until the 6th century. The Gallo-Roman, Vulgar Latin, language of the period then transformed, under various linguistic influences, into the dialects of the modern French language. The Roman administration finally collapsed as troops were withdrawn south 455-475 and the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks replaced the leadership of the Empire there.