Concept in Definition ABC

Probably, if the Gauls are famous today it is thanks to the Roman military and politician Julius Caesar, his military campaigns in Gaul (now France) and the book that he wrote narrating themOf beautiful gallico, "The Gallic War" in Latin). And also, why not, to the adventures of Asterix and Obelix, the most famous Gauls among us, with the permission of Vercingetorix.

The Gauls were a Celtic people who lived in the Gaul region (territory that largely coincides with present-day France, in addition to Belgium, and part of Switzerland and Germany.

In fact, the current French are historically considered heirs - both cultural and "racial" - of those Gauls, without limitation, for the historiography official of the country, the contribution of other peoples, such as the Franks.

In fact, the name "Gauls" is nothing more than the name by which the Romans knew those peoples that the Greeks called "Celts." We, today, distinguish as Gauls those who inhabited the area of ​​present-day France and adjacent, Belgium and west of the River Rhine (which separated them from the Germans), while, as Celts, we know the ancient inhabitants of the British Isles and the north of the peninsula Iberian.

Before the Roman conquest of the Italian Peninsula, the Celtic inhabitants of the north of what is now Italy were also known as Gauls.

As Celts, the Gauls formed a cultural unit, but not a political one.

This worked against him and helped the Romans to conquer the Celtic world. And even at the level cultural, the Gauls showed differences in remote regions, something normal if we take into account that, in any country (however small it may be), we already find differences between the people of the north and the south, whether in the dialect of a common language, such as traditions, festivals, clothing traditional...

The Romans also saw these subtle differences between Gauls from different regions, in turn dividing Gaul into several regions:

• Cisalpine Gaul. The one corresponding to the Italian Peninsula, before crossing the Alps in the direction of what is now Switzerland or France.


• Gaul Transalpina. Once crossed the Alps, also called Gaul comata or hairy, for the long manes that the Gauls left.


• Gaul Belgium, thereby differentiating the Belgian tribes from the rest. Perhaps due to the German influence, geographically close?


• Gaul Aquitaine where, due to influences from other peoples (including perhaps the Iberians?), the Gauls were more “heterodox”.

The coexistence of Gauls with Romans and Germans was never without problems.

At the beginning of the IV century a. C, several Gallic tribes cross the Alps and pounce on Italy. In 390 a. C. besiege Rome and manage to reach a surrender agreement with the Romans, a defeat that the latter will save in their memory collective and that will avenge centuries later by conquering Gaul.

From this episode the phrase of Breno, the Gallic leader, is famous, go victis ("Ai of the vanquished" in Latin) pronounced when throwing his sword on the scales of which the Romans complained that they were rigged. These scales weighed the gold that both parties had agreed that Rome would pay to get rid of the Gauls.

The expansion of the Roman Republic, first by Italy and then by all the territories that surrounded the Mediterranean as a result of the Punic Wars, opened the Roman appetite for Gaul.

The Romans regarded the Celts as barbarians because of their traditions, with special repugnance to the human sacrifices that they made.

Said sacrifices, mainly of prisoners of war, were made in honor of the gods, and were part of Celtic culture from its beginnings to its final days. This was a practice that only the irruption of Christianity in scene and the conversion of these peoples was able to stop.

Once Gaul and part of Britain (the current British Isles) were conquered by the Romans, Gallic culture began a decline, product of its fusion with the culture of the conquerors.

This process, called "Romanization", not only occurred with the Celts of Gaul, but also in other parts of the Empire, such as the Iberian Peninsula, or in the Italian Peninsula itself, leading in the latter to the disappearance of the Etruscan culture, assimilated by the Roman.

So it happened, for example, with language; the language Celtic is the direct predecessor of modern Gaelic, which in various forms is spoken on the island of Ireland, Wales and Scotland, the last remaining Celtic territories. In France, in the Brittany area, a Celtic language, Breton, is spoken.

Apart from this, the Gallic Celtic was practically erased, with only a few linguistic loans surviving in modern French, in addition to place names and proper names.

With regard to religion, the Gauls - like the other Celtic peoples - had a large polytheistic pantheon, highly based on nature, with which they were in direct relationship.

The priests of this cult were the Druids, who also had a deep knowledge of the natural environment that surrounded them, and of the use of herbs and drugs for medicinal purposes.

Among the best known gods of the Gallic pantheon are Toutatis and Belenos.

Although we have the image of the Gallic peoples as warriors, the archaeological evidence also presents them as great merchants.

The remains appeared in several oppida they reveal commercial relations and a fluid commercial network, with Germanic, Greek and Italian peoples, as well as between the different Gallic tribes, which does not restrict their bellicosity.

Photos: Fotolia - wladislawka / maxiharmony

Themes in Gauls