The Gallic tribes lived in the regions north of Rome, in northern Italy, and beyond the Alps to the north and west. The Gauls were related to the wild Britons, who painted their skin blue before going into battle, and the stubborn Iberians of Spain, who, despite repeated Roman attempts to subdue them, continually rose up in rebellion. A terror of these fierce warriors had been instilled in the Roman collective memory when, in 390 B.C., Gaulish warriors swept through the Roman defenses and sacked the city of Rome itself. Romans determined never again to fall prey to the savages of the cold, misty north.
During the Second Punic War, the invasion route of the Carthaginian general Hannibal had passed from Spain through southern Gaul, across the Alps, and south into Italy, the same way the feared Gaulish invaders had come.
Over the course of the third and second centuries B.C., Rome gradually secured its northern borders, conquering the Gallic tribes in the northern part of the Italian peninsula or “Cisalpine Gaul.” In the first century B.C., in alliance with the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseilles), Rome also secured the southern, Mediterranean regions of “Transalpine Gaul,” or Narbonensis (named after the Roman colony of Narbo).
In 39 B.C., Julius Caesar was appointed governor of what was at that time Rome’s northern “barbarian” frontier: the three provinces of Illyricum, Cisalpine Gaul and Transalpine Gaul. Knowing that successful feats of military conquest would increase his popularity in Rome and help him amass greater wealth and political power, Caesar used the appointment as an opportunity to pick a fight with the Gauls. After several unsuccessful attempts to humiliate and provoke the Gauls into war, Caesar simply launched an unprovoked invasion. The Gaulish tribes were disunited and unprepared, and Caesar rapidly secured all of Gaul from the Pyrenees to the Rhine, and from the English Channel to the Mediterranean.
Heady with victory, he built a bridge on the Rhine River, marched his troops across, attacked the Germans, and then marched his troops back and burned the bridge behind him. In a feat that has been called the ancient equivalent of flying a rocket to the moon, Caesar then built a fleet on the north coast of Gaul and sailed for Britannia, where he again defeated the local tribes in battle and brought back some slaves. While Caesar was engaged in these acts of bravado, the Gauls meanwhile organized a revolt under the command of the chieftain Vercingetorix. Caesar was forced to rush back to Gaul, this time facing organized, furious resistance. Despite a number of Gaulish victories over unprepared Roman garrisons, Caesar finally defeated Vercigetorix at Alesia, where he received the chieftain’s arms and then clapped him in irons, taking him away as a trophy slave.
The death toll from Caesar’s campaign in Gaul – from starvation and disease as well as forced migrations, internments and battle – has been estimated in the millions. Caesar’s exploits were propagandized in Rome through the dissemination of his “Commentaries” on the Gallic Wars. The growing rift between Caesar and the Roman senate led Caesar to contemplate his most daring and fateful move, his refusal five years later to lay down arms before crossing the Rubicon River back into Italy with his legions.
From that time on, there were occasional revolts but never another serious challenge to Roman supremacy in Gaul until the Goth, Frank and Hun invasions of the fifth century A.D. As large numbers of Romans began to colonize the region, the language of Gaul became Latin and its people and culture grew heavily Romanized. To this day, the effects of Roman influence are still very evident, in the many impressive Roman roads, ruins, and aqueducts; in place names; and, of course, in the French language.
The last Roman outposts in Gaul surrendered to the Frankish king Clovis in 486 A.D.