During the Republic The
Roman Republic's influence began in southern Gaul. By the mid-2nd century BC, Rome was trading heavily with the Greek colony of
Massilia (modern
Marseille) and entered into an alliance with them, by which Rome agreed to protect the town from local Gauls, including the nearby
Aquitani and from sea-borne Carthaginians and other rivals, in exchange for land that the Romans wanted in order to build a road to
Hispania to improve troop movements to its provinces there. The Mediterranean settlements on the coast continued to be threatened by the powerful Gallic tribes to the north and in 122 BC the Roman general
Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus campaigned in the area and defeated the
Allobroges followed by
Quintus Fabius Maximus against the
Arverni under King
Bituitus in 121 BC. The Romans respected and feared the Gallic tribes. In 390 BC, the
Gauls had sacked Rome, which left an existential dread of barbarian conquest the Romans never forgot. In 109 BC, Italy had been
invaded from the north and saved by
Gaius Marius only after several bloody and costly battles. Around 62 BC, when a Roman client state, the Arverni, conspired with the
Sequani and the
Suebi nations east of the
Rhine to attack the Aedui, a strong Roman ally, Rome turned a blind eye. The Sequani and the Arverni sought
Ariovistus's aid and defeated the
Aedui in 63 BC at the
Battle of Magetobriga.
Gallic wars As 58 BC dawned, most of Gaul was still under independent rule. It was beginning to urbanize and shared many aspects of Roman civilization. Into this picture came the rising general
Julius Caesar, who had ensured himself the position of Governor of both
Transalpine and
Cisalpine Gaul. He sought to pay off debts and glorify himself, and so began a series of aggressive campaigns to conquer the Gallic tribes. The wars began with a conflict over the
migration of the Helvetii in 58 BC, which drew in neighboring tribes and the Germanic
Suebi. By 57 BC, Caesar had resolved to conquer all of Gaul, and led campaigns in the east, where the
Nervii nearly defeated him. In 56 BC, Caesar defeated the
Veneti in a naval battle and took most of northwest Gaul. In 55 BC, he sought to boost his public image, and undertook first of their kind expeditions across the Rhine river and the
English Channel. Upon his return from Britain, Caesar was hailed as a hero, though he had achieved little beyond landing because his army had been too small. The next year, he went back with a proper army and
invaded Britain. However, tribes rose up on the continent, and the Romans suffered a humiliating defeat. 53 BC saw a draconian campaign against the Gauls in an attempt to
pacify them. This failed and the Gauls staged a mass revolt under the leadership of
Vercingetorix in 52 BC. Gallic forces won a notable victory at the
Battle of Gergovia, but the Romans' indomitable siege works at the
Battle of Alesia utterly defeated the Gallic coalition. In 22 BC, imperial administration of Gaul was reorganised establishing the
provinces of
Gallia Aquitania,
Gallia Belgica and
Gallia Lugdunensis. Parts of eastern Gaul were incorporated into the provinces
Raetia (15 BC) and
Germania Superior (AD 83).
Roman citizenship was granted to all in 212 by the
Constitutio Antoniniana. Several significant Roman figures were born in Gaul, including Roman Emperors
Claudius,
Caracalla and probably
Carus, as well as the important general
Gnaeus Julius Agricola. Another general born in Gaul was
Marcus Antonius Primus. In addition, the family of
Antoninus Pius, which was also the adoptive family of
Marcus Aurelius, came from Roman Gaul. Among the Roman writers known or hypothesized to be born in Gaul there are
Tacitus,
Petronius,
Varro Atacinus,
Aemilius Magnus Arborius,
Frontinus,
Ausonius,
Rutilius Claudius Namatianus,
Sextus Pompeius Festus,
Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus and the authors of the important
Panegyrici latini. Many other writers were from the region of
Cisalpine Gaul, which was part of Italy, including
Virgil,
Caecilius Statius,
Catullus and
Pliny the Elder. In the
Crisis of the Third Century around 260,
Postumus established a short-lived
Gallic Empire, which included the Iberian Peninsula and Britannia, in addition to Gaul itself. Germanic tribes, the
Franks and the
Alamanni, invaded Gaul at this time. The Gallic Empire ended with Emperor
Aurelian's victory at
Châlons in 274. In 286–7
Carausius, commander of the
Classis Britannica, the fleet of the English Channel, declared himself Emperor of Britain and northern Gaul. His forces comprised his fleet, the three legions stationed in Britain and also a legion he had seized in Gaul, a number of foreign auxiliary units, a levy of Gaulish merchant ships, and barbarian mercenaries attracted by the prospect of booty. In 293 emperor
Constantius Chlorus isolated Carausius by besieging the port of
Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and invaded
Batavia in the Rhine delta, held by his Frankish allies, and reclaimed Gaul. A migration of Celts from Britain appeared in the 4th century in
Armorica led by the legendary king
Conan Meriadoc. They spoke the now extinct
British language, which evolved into the
Breton,
Cornish, and
Welsh languages. The
Goths, who had sacked Rome in 410, established a capital in
Toulouse and in 418 succeeded in being accepted by
Honorius as
foederati and rulers of the Aquitanian province in exchange for their support against the
Barbarian people in Spain. The Roman Empire had difficulty responding to all the barbarian raids, and
Flavius Aëtius had to use these tribes against each other in order to maintain some Roman control. He first used the
Huns against the
Burgundians, and these mercenaries destroyed
Worms, killed king
Gunther, and pushed the Burgundians westward. The Burgundians were resettled by Aëtius near
Lugdunum in 443. The Huns, united by
Attila, became a greater threat, and Aëtius used the Visigoths against the Huns. The conflict climaxed in 451 at the
Battle of Châlons, in which the Romans and Goths defeated Attila. ==After the fall of the Western Roman Empire==