Gaul (Latin Gallia)
is a historical name used in the context of the Roman Empire in references to the region of
Western Europe approximating present
day France and Belgium, but also
sometimes including the Po Valley, western
Switzerland, and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west
bank of the River
Rhine. In English, the word
Gaul may also refer to an inhabitant of that
region ( ), although the expression may be used more generally for
all ancient speakers of the
Gaulish
language (an early variety of
Celtic). This language was widespread in
Europe, but it shared Gaul with other
languages (including at least the
Aquitanian language, and also possibly a
separate
Belgic language). The
Latin name for Gaul, still used as
the modern Greek word for France, is
Gallia.
Gauls under
Brennus defeated Rome in a battle circa
390 BC.
In
the Aegean world, a huge
migration of Eastern Gauls appeared in Thrace, north of Greece, in 281
BC. Another Gaulish chieftain also named
Brennus, at the head of a large army,
was only turned back from desecrating the
Temple of Apollo at Delphi in Greece
at the last minute—he was alarmed, it was said, by portents of
thunder and lightning. At the same time a
migrating band of
Celts, some 10,000
warriors,
with their women and children and
slaves, were moving through Thrace.
Three
tribes of Gauls crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor at the express invitation of Nicomedes I, king of Bithynia (which was a small geographical location
just south of the Bosphorus and the Black
Sea in the northern portion of modern-day Turkey, southeast
of modern-day Istanbul), who required help in a dynastic struggle against
his brother. Eventually they settled down in eastern
Phrygia and Cappadocia in central Anatolia, a region henceforth known as Galatia.
Name
Map of Gaul circa 58 BC.
The names
Gallia and
Galatia sometimes are
compared to
Gael, which is, however,
from
Goidhel or
Gwyddel, and cannot be directly
related, though it should be noted the term Goidhel is derived from
the Old Welsh Guoidel meaning "pirate, raider". It is uncertain
whether the
Gal- names are from a native name of a tribe,
or if they are
exonyms. Birkhan
(1997) considers a root
* g(h)al- "powerful" (
PIE * gelh, well-attested in Celtic, and with
cognates in Balto-Slavic), but speculates that the name also could
be taken from a
Gallos River, comparable to the names of
the
Volcae and the
Sequani which are likely derived from
hydronyms. There also have been attempts to trace
Keltoi and
Galatai to a single origin. It is most
likely that the terms originated as names of minor tribes
*
Kel-to and/or
Gal(a)-to- which were the earliest to
come into contact with the
Roman world,
but which have disappeared without leaving a historical
record.
Josephus claimed that the Gauls were
descended from
Gomer, the grandson of
Noah.
In English usage the words
Gaul and
Gaulish are
used synonymously with Latin
Gallia,
Gallus and
Gallicus. However the similarity of the names is probably
accidental: the English words are borrowed from French
Gaule and
Gaulois, which appear to have been
borrowed themselves from Germanic
walha-, the usual word for the
non-Germanic-speaking peoples (Celtic-speaking and Latin-speaking
indiscriminately). The Germanic
w is regularly rendered as
gu /
g in French (cf.
guerre =
war,
garder =
ward), and the diphthong
au is the regular outcome of
al before a
following consonant (cf.
cheval ~
chevaux).
Gaule or
Gaulle can hardly be derived from Latin
Gallia, since
g would become
j before
a (cf.
gamba >
jambe), and the
diphthong
au would be incomprehensible; the regular
outcome of Latin
Gallia is
Jaille in French which
is found in several western placenames.
Hellenistic
aitiology connects the name
with
Galatia (first attested by Timaeus of
Tauromenion in the 4th c. BC), and it was suggested that the
association was inspired by the "milk-white" skin (γάλα,
gala, "milk") of the Gauls (
Greek: Γαλάται,
Galatai,
Galatae).
History
Pre-Roman Gaul
A map of Gaul in the 1st century BC,
showing the relative positions of the Celtic tribes.
The early history of the Gauls is predominantly a work in
archaeology — there being little written information (save perhaps
what can be gleaned from coins) concerning the peoples that
inhabited these regions — and the relationships between their
material culture, genetic
relationships (the study of which has been aided, in recent years,
through the field of
archaeogenetics), and linguistic divisions
rarely coincide.
The major source of materials on the Celts of Gaul was
Poseidonios of Apamea, whose writings were quoted
by
Timagenes,
Julius Caesar, the
Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus, and the Greek geographer
Strabo.
Many cultural traits of the early Celts seem to have been carried
northwest up the
Danube Valley, although this
issue is contested. It seems as if they derived many of their
skills (like metal-working), as well as certain facets of their
culture, from
Balkan peoples. Some scholars
think that the
Bronze Age Urnfield culture represents an origin for
the
Celts as a distinct cultural branch of the
Indo-European-speaking peoples
(see
Proto-Celtic). The Urnfield
culture was preeminent in central Europe during the late Bronze
Age, from ca. 1200 BC until 700 BC. The spread of
iron-working led to the development of the
Hallstatt culture (ca. 700 to 500 BC)
directly from the Urnfield.
Proto-Celtic, the latest common ancestor of all
known Celtic languages, is considered by some scholars to have been
spoken at the time of the late Urnfield or early Hallstatt
cultures.
The
Hallstatt culture was succeeded by the La Tène
culture, which developed out of the Hallstatt culture
without any definite cultural break, under the impetus of
considerable Mediterranean influence from the Greek, Phoenician, and Etruscan civilisations. The La Tène culture developed and flourished
during the late Iron Age (from 450 BC to
the Roman conquest in the 1st century
BC) in France, Switzerland, Austria, southwest
Germany, Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Hungary.
Farther north extended the contemporary
Pre-Roman Iron Age culture of
northern Germany and
Scandinavia.
By the second century BC, France was called Gaul (Gallia
Transalpina) by the Romans.
In his Gallic
Wars, Julius Caesar
distinguishes among three ethnic groups in Gaul: the Belgae in the north (roughly between Rhine and Seine), the Celts
in the centre and in Armorica, and the
Aquitani in the southwest, the southeast
being already colonized by the Romans. While some scholars
believe that the Belgae south of the Somme were a
mixture of Celtic and Germanic elements, their ethnic affiliations
have not been definitively resolved. One of the reasons is
political interference upon the French historical interpretation
during the 19th century.
French historians adopted fully the
explanation of Caesar who stated that Gaul stretched from the
Pyrenees up to the Rhine in the north. This fitted
the French expansionist aspirations of the time under
Napoleon III of France.
In the north of
(modern) France, the Gaul-German language border was situated
somewhere between the Seine and the
River
Somme. Northern Belgic tribes like the
Nervians,
Atrebates or
Morini appear to be Germanic tribes who
migrated from the Germanic hinterland and adopted Celtic language
and customs , as all of the names of their leaders and towns are
Celtic.
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-day Marseille) along the Mediterranean coast. Also, along the southeastern
Mediterranean coast, the
Ligures had merged
with the Celts to form a Celto-
Ligurian
culture.
In the second century BC, Mediterranean Gaul had an extensive urban
fabric and was prosperous, while the heavily forested northern Gaul
had almost no cities outside of fortified compounds (or
oppida) used in times of war. The prosperity of
Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for
assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack
by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls. The Romans intervened in Gaul
in 125 BC, and by 121 BC they had conquered the Mediterranean
region called
Provincia (later named
Gallia Narbonensis). This conquest
upset the ascendancy of the Gaulish
Arverni
tribe.
Conquest by Rome
The Roman proconsul and general Julius Caesar pushed his army into
Gaul in 58BC, on the pretext of assisting Rome's Gaullish allies
against the migrating Helvetii. With the help of various Gallic
tribes (for example, the Aedui) he managed to conquer nearly all of
Gaul. But the Arverni tribe, under Chieftain
Vercingetorix, still defied Roman rule. Julius
Caesar was checked by Vercingetorix at a siege of Gergorvia, a
fortified town in the center of Gaul. Caesar's alliances with many
Gallic tribes broke. Even the Aedui, their most faithful
supporters, threw in their lot with the Arverni.
Caesar captured
Vercingetorix in the Battle of Alesia, which ended Gallic resistance to
Rome.
As many as a million people (probably 1 in 4 of the Gauls) died,
another million were
enslaved, 300 tribes were subjugated
and 800 cities were destroyed during the
Gallic Wars. The entire population of the city
of
Avaricum (Bourges) (40,000 in all) were
slaughtered. During Julius Caesar's campaign against the
Helvetii (present-day Switzerland) approximately
60% of the tribe was destroyed, and another 20% was taken into
slavery.
Roman Gallia
The Gaulish culture then was massively submerged by Roman culture,
Latin was adopted by the Gauls, Gaul, or Gallia, was absorbed into
the Roman Empire, all the administration changed and Gauls
eventually became Roman citizens. From the
3rd to 5th centuries, Gaul was
exposed to raids by the
Franks. The
Gallic Empire broke away from Rome from 260 to
273, consisting of the provinces of
Gaul,
Britannia, and
Hispania, including the peaceful
Baetica in the south.
Following
the Frankish victory at the Battle of Soissons in AD 486, Gaul
(except for Septimania) came under the rule of the Merovingians, the first kings 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 into
Occitania,
Gallia Cisalpina and to a lesser degree,
Aquitania. The formerly Romanized north of
Gaul, once it had been occupied by the
Franks, would develop into
Merovingian culture instead. Roman life,
centered on the public events and cultural responsibilities of
urban life in the
res publica
and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural
villa system, took longer to collapse in
the Gallo-Roman regions, where the
Visigoths largely inherited the status quo in the
early 5th century.
Gallo-Roman language persisted in the
northeast into the Silva Carbonaria
that formed an effective cultural barrier with the Franks to the
north and east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of the
Loire, where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish
culture in a city like Tours and in the
person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian
royals, Gregory of
Tours.
The Gauls
Social structure and tribes
The
Druids 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 tribe, which itself consisted of one or
more of what Caesar called "pagi." Each tribe had a council of
elders, and initially a king. Later, the executive was an
annually-elected magistrate. Among the Aedui, a tribe of Gaul, the
executive held the title of "Vergobret," a position much like a
king, but its powers were held in check by rules laid down by the
council.
The tribal groups, or
pagi as the Romans called them
(singular:
pagus; the French word
pays, "region",
comes from this term) were organised into larger super-tribal
groups that the Romans called
civitates. 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.
Although the tribes were moderately stable political entities, Gaul
as a whole tended to be politically-divided, there being virtually
no unity among the various tribes. Only during particularly trying
times, such as the
invasion 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 into
Provincia (the
conquered area around the Mediterranean), and the northern
Gallia Comata ("free Gaul" or "long haired
Gaul"). Caesar divided the people of Gaulia Comata into three broad
groups: the
Aquitani;
Galli (who in their own
language were called
Celtae); and
Belgae. In the
modern sense,
Gaulish tribes
are defined linguistically, as speakers of dialects of the Gaulish
language. While the
Aquitani were probably
Vascons, the
Belgae
would thus probably be counted among the Gaulish tribes, perhaps
with Germanic elements.
Julius Caesar, in his book,
Commentarii de Bello
Gallico, comments:
Religion
The Gauls practiced a form of
animism,
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 the
boar, which can be found
on many Gallic military standards, much like the Roman eagle.
Their system of gods and goddesses was loose, there being certain
deities which virtually every Gallic person worshiped, as well as
tribal and household gods. Many of the major gods were related to
Greek gods; the primary god worshiped at the time of the arrival of
Caesar was
Teutates, the Gallic equivalent
of
Mercury. The "father god" in
Gallic worship was "Dis Pater," (cf.
Dyaus
Pitar) who could be assigned the Roman name "
Saturn." However there was no real
theology, just a set of related and evolving traditions of
worship.
Perhaps the most intriguing facet of Gallic religion is the
practice of the
Druids. The druids presided
over human or animal sacrifices that were made in wooded groves or
rude temples. They also appear to have held the responsibility for
preserving the annual agricultural calendar and instigating
seasonal festivals which corresponding to key points of the
lunar-solar calendar. The religious practices of druids were
syncretic and borrowed from earlier pagan traditions, especially of
ancient Britain. 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 in
Anglesey, also known as Holyhead, 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, France, 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.
See also
References
Footnotes
- Caesar wrote that: "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."
Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt
Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra
Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se
differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen. (Julius Caesar, De bello Gallico, T. Rice Holmes, Ed.,
1.1)
- Pausanias, Description of Greece, Phocis
- Birkhan 1997:48.
- Oxford Dictionary of
English Etymology (OUP 1966), p. 391.
- Nouveau dictionnaire étymologique et historique
(Larousse 1990), p. 336.
- Julius Caesar The Conquest of Gaul
- Helvetti
External links