17 Facts About Gauls

Gauls were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period .

Gauls emerged around the 5th century BC as bearers of La Tene culture north and west of the Alps.

Gauls were made up of many tribes, many of whom built large fortified settlements called oppida, and minted their own coins.

At that time it was a Greek province, and the Gauls' intent was to reach and loot the rich Greek city-states of the Greek mainland.

Many Gauls were recorded as serving in the armies of Carthage during the Punic Wars.

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The Gauls were so prosperous by the 2nd century that the powerful Greek colony of Massilia had to appeal to the Roman Republic for defense against them.

Gauls noted that the Gauls were one of the three primary peoples in the area, along with the Aquitanians and the Belgae.

The Transalpine Gauls continued to thrive for another century, and joined the Germanic Cimbri and Teutones in the Cimbrian War, where they defeated and killed a Roman consul at Burdigala in 107 BC, and later became prominent among the rebelling gladiators in the Third Servile War.

The Gauls were finally conquered by Julius Caesar in the 50s BC despite a rebellion by the Arvernian chieftain Vercingetorix.

Gauls are tall of body, with rippling muscles, and white of skin, and their hair is blond, and not only naturally so, but they make it their practice to increase the distinguishing color by which nature has given it.

Gauls speculates based on this comparison that the Britons originated from different peoples, including said Gauls and Spaniards.

One part of these, which it has been said that the Gauls occupy, takes its beginning at the river Rhone; it is bounded by the river Garonne, the Atlantic Ocean, and the territories of the Belgae; it borders, too, on the side of the Sequani and the Helvetii, upon the river Rhine, and stretches toward the north.

The Gauls seem to have had a father god, who was often a god of the tribe and of the dead ; and a mother goddess who was associated with the land, earth and fertility .

Caesar says the Gauls believed they all descended from a god of the dead and underworld, whom he likened to Dis Pater.

Romans said the Gauls held ceremonies in sacred groves and other natural shrines, called nemetons.

Gauls were made up of many tribes who controlled a particular territory and often built large fortified settlements called oppida.

Gauls played a certain role in the national historiography and national identity of modern France.