Gallie est omnis divisa in partes tres. (All Gaul is divided into three parts.)
So starts Julius Caesar's Gallic War in which he describes his conquest of Northern Gaul. The three parts he named were Belgica, Celtica and Aquitania. There were actually two more parts. Cisalpine Gaul lay in what is now northern Italy, Transalpine Gaul, north of the Alps consisted of Caesar's three plus 'the Province' (now Provence in France) which had been conquered earlier. The Belgae were mostly of German extraction and the residents of Aquitania were mixed with the Iberians. Norma's people lived in what it now northern France. These were the ones Caesar said were called Celts in their own language and Gauls by the Romans.
Gaul Before Caesar | Caesar and Gaul | Gaul After Caesar
GAUL BEFORE CAESAR
The early Gauls were a warlike people, bent on conquest. Diodorus Siculus and
Livy tell how, about 390 BC they streamed across the Alps seized northern Italy
and headed south to Rome. The Romans took refuge on the Capitoline Hill. The
Celts managed to climb a cliff up to the top of the hill unnoticed by the Roman
guards, but the sacred geese of Hera heard them and set up a cackling. Warned,
the Romans were able to defend the height, and they negotiated with the Celts,
who agreed to withdraw on receipt of one thousand pounds of gold. They left
Rome, gorged on their booty, and made camp. The Romans followed, attacked the
unguarded camp, and killed most of the Celts. Polybius tells how the Gauls struck
again about 225 BC. A Roman army attacked them three days north of Rome, but
the Celts prevailed until Roman reenforcements arrived and there was a
great battle. Gaius, the Roman consul fell and his head was brought to the Celtic
kings. The Celts were eventually defeated; at least 40,000 were slain and at
least 10,000 were taken prisoners (probably an exaggeration). Polybius describes
how the Celts set up a dreadful din to frighten their enemies. "There were innumerable
horn-blowers and trumpeters, and, as the whole army were shouting their war-cries
at the same time, there was such a tumult of sound that it seemed that, not
only the trumpets and the soldiers but all the country around, had got a voice
and caught up the cry. Very terrifying too were the appearance and the gestures
of the naked warriors in front, all in the prime of life, and finely built men,
with leaders richly adorned with gold torques and armlets".
A few years later, the Romans had managed to conquer all of northern Italy and invaded the territory around Marseilles. A century later they created the province of Gallia Narbonensis in southern France. It was governed by a Roman pro-consul. (NOTE: Pollione is called a Roman proconsul in Norma, but Celtic Gaul did not have a proconsul.) The Province's importance was due to the fact that it provided a land route to the important Roman province of Spain. There were contacts with the northern tribes but no conquest of what the Romans called Gallia Comata or Hairy Gaul. To satisfy the Celtic love of wine, tens of thousands of amphorae made their way north before Caesar's conquest. The contacts were numerous enough that many of the northern natives were already trying to imitate Roman life styles.
CAESAR AND GAUL
In the mid-first century BC there was no Roman Empire. Rome was a Republic governed
by the Senate. Ambitious men fought for power among themselves; by 60 BC these
were reduced to Pompey, Crassus and Julius Caesar, the first Triumvirate. Caesar,
the weakest of the three, had been the proconsul of Further Spain and was then
made the proconsul of the Province and Cisalpine Gaul. He immediately thought
of a campaign to the north. He got his chance in 58 BC when the Gauls asked
for his help against the Germans. In next few years he used Gaul as a base from
which to advance against other peoples. In 57 BC he advanced against the Belgae,
and in 55 and 54 BC made visits to Britain.
Caesar returned to Rome where he became first the consul, then a dictator. Many Gauls had become Roman citizens and Caesar admitted some to the Roman Senate. This contributed to the dissatisfaction which, in 44 BC led to his assassination the Ides of March. A popular song of the time ran:
Caesar led the Gauls in triumph,
Led them uphill, led them down,
To the Senate House he took them,
Once the glory of our town.
'Pull those breeches off', he shouted,
'Change into a purple gown'.
Gaul seemed to be pacified but, in 52 BC a revolt broke out under Vercingetorix. The leaders of the Celtic tribes called an assembly, and all agreed to revolt. Vercingetorix was acclaimed king and led the combined forces — his tactics showed he had had experience with the Roman army. When the Celts were finally defeated, Vercingetorix took responsibility and told his followers they could either put him in the hands of the Romans alive or could put him to death. He was handed over and, in 46-45 BC, paraded through the streets of Rome and executed.. The disobedience was stamped out, and loyalty to Rome was enforced. But Vercingetorix was not forgotten. In the twentieth century, he became a French national icon in resistence against Hitler.
NOTE: Norma is usually set in 50 BC soon after this revolt.
GAUL AFTER CAESAR
One of the Roman tactics was to settle Roman army veterans in a conquered territory,
thus providing a showcase for Roman living, and furthering Romanisation of the
local population. It was also the practice to enlist conquered people into the
Roman army which consisted of the regulars in legions of about 5,500 men and
the auxiliaries recruited in the provinces. The latter were usually used away
from home and they obtained Roman citizenship on their discharge. They were
organized by cohorts of 1,000 or 500 men. The standard of the Roman army was
the eagle, mentioned in Norma.
Gradually northern Gaul developed into a relatively homogeneous society. Roads were built and a census instituted. The Gauls started to build houses in the Roman pattern and to live in towns. Communities produced their own coinage. In 10 BC a great altar was constructed near what is now Lyons with the names of about 60 Gallic civitates. The Romans also imposed taxes. These became so onerous that, in AD 21, Gallic aristocrats, who were Roman citizens, led a revolt. It was quickly squelched but pockets of anti-Roman feeling remained, especially when Claudius moved to eradicate the Druids.
There was a further revolt under Nero. When Nero heard the news, "for eight days he wrote no orders and issued no special announcements; apparently trying to ignore the whole affair". Later he summoned the leading citizens, but after brief discussion of the situation in Gaul, he spent the rest of the time demonstrating a new type of water-organ. At first he wanted to depose all the Roman army commanders and provincial governors and execute them on a charge of being involved in the uprising. He also wanted to kill all Gallic residents of Rome and considered giving the army permission to pillage Gaul itself. Finally he declared himself Consul and resolved to go to Gaul where he would step in front of the enemy and weep, thus softening their hearts and bringing them back to loyalty. In preparation, he was most concerned with the wagons to carry his stage equipment, and he had all of his concubines given male haircuts and equipped with shields and arms. He never went.
Uprisings continued sporadically but with decreasing frequency until the final fall of Rome.