the name given by the Romans to the country that now forms the kingdom of France.—The original inhabitants were defeated from the Celtes or Gomerians, by whom the greatest part of Europe was peopled; the name of Galli or Gauls, being probably given them long after their settlement in that country. See GALLIA.

The ancient history of the Gauls is entirely wrapped up in obscurity and darkness; all we know concerning them for a long time is, that they multiplied so fast, that their country being unable to contain them, they poured forth in vast multitudes into other countries, which they generally subdued, and settled themselves in. It often happened, however, that these colonies were molested by their neighbours, that they were obliged to send for assistance to their native country. This was always very easily obtained. The Gauls were, upon every occasion, ready to send forth great numbers of new adventurers; and as these spread desolation wherever they came, the very name of Gauls proved terrible to most of the neighbouring nations.—The earliest excursion of these people, of which we have any distinct account, was into Italy, under a famed leader, named Bellovesus, about 622 years before Christ. He crossed the Rhone and the Alps, till then unattempted; defeated the Hetrurians; and seized upon that part of their country, since known by the names of Lombardy and Piedmont.—The second grand expedition was made by the Cænomani, a people dwelling between the rivers Seine and Loire, under a general named Elitius. They settled in those parts of Italy now known by the names of Brescia, Cremona, Mantuan, Carniola, and Venetian.—In a third excursion, two other Gaulish nations settled on both sides of the river Po; and in a fourth, the Boii and Lingones settled in the country between Ravenna and Bologna. The time of these three last expeditions is uncertain.

The fifth expedition of the Gauls was more remarkable than any of the former, and happened about 200 years after that of Bellovesus. The Senones, settled between Paris and Meux, were invited into Italy by an Hetrurian lord, and settled themselves in Umbria. Brennus their king laid siege to Clusium, a city in alliance with Rome; and this produced a war with the Romans, in which the latter were at first defeated, and their city taken and burnt; but at length the whole army was cut off by Camillus, infomuch that not a single person escaped.

Some other expeditions the Gauls undertook against the Romans: in which, though they always proved unsuccessful, by reason of their want of military discipline; yet their fierceness and courage made them so formidable to the republic, that, on the first news of their march, extraordinary levies of troops were made, sacrifices and public supplications offered to the gods, and the law which granted an immunity from military service to priests and old men, was, for the time, abolished.

Against the Greeks, the expeditions of the Gauls were very little more successful than against the Romans. The first of these we hear of was about 279 years before Christ, in the year after Pyrrhus had invaded Italy. At this time, the Gauls finding themselves greatly overstocked at home, sent out three great colonies to conquer new countries for themselves. One of these armies was commanded by Brennus, another by Cerethrus, and the third by Belgus. The first entered Pannonia or Hungary; the second Thrace; and the third marched into Illyricum and Macedonia. Here Belgus at first met with great success; and enriched himself by plunder to such a degree, that Brennus envying him, resolved to enter the same countries, in order to share the spoil. In a short time, however, Belgus met with such a total defeat, that his army was almost entirely destroyed; upon which Brennus halted to the same place. His army at first consisted of 150,000 foot and 15,000 horse: but two of his principal officers revolted, and carried off 20,000 men, with whom they marched into Thrace; where, having joined Cerethrus, they seized on Byzantium and the western coast of Propontis, making the adjacent parts tributary to them.—To retrieve this loss, Brennus sent for fresh supplies from Gaul; and having increased his army to 150,000 foot, and upwards of 60,000 horse, he entered Macedonia, defeated the general who opposed him, and ravaged the whole country. He next marched towards the straits of Thermopylae, with a design to invade Greece; but was stopped by the forces sent to defend that pass against him. He passed the mountains, however, as Xerxes had formerly done; upon which the guards retired, to avoid being surrounded. Brennus then, having ordered Acichoarius, the next to him in command, to follow at a distance with part of his army, marched with the bulk of the forces to Delphi, in order to plunder the rich temple there. This enterprise proved exceedingly unfortunate: a great number of his men were destroyed. by a dreadful storm of hail, thunder, and lightning; another part of his army was destroyed by an earthquake; and the remainder, some how or other, imagining themselves attacked by the enemy, fought against each other the whole night, so that in the morning scarce one half of them remained. The Greek forces then poured in upon them from all parts; and that in such numbers, that though Aciachorus came up in due time with his forces, Brennus found himself unable to make head against the Greeks, and was defeated with great slaughter. He himself was desperately wounded; and so disheartened by his misfortune, that, having assembled all his chiefs, he advised them to kill all the wounded and disabled, and to make the best retreat they could; after which he put an end to his own life. On this occasion, it is said that 20,000 of these unhappy people were executed by their own countrymen. Aciachorus then set out with the remainder for Gaul; but by being obliged to march through the country of their enemies, the calamities they met with by the way were so grievous, that not one of them reached their own country. A just judgment, say the Greek and Roman authors, for their sacrilegious intentions against Delphi.

The Romans having often felt the effects of the Gaulish ferocity and courage, thought proper at last, in order to humble them, to invade their country. Their first successful attempt was about 118 years before Christ, under the command of Quintus Marcius, surnamed Rex. He opened a way betwixt the Alps and the Pyrenees, which laid the foundation for conquering the whole country. This was a work of immense labour of itself, and rendered still more difficult by the opposition of the Gauls, especially those called the Stani, who lived at the foot of the Alps. These people finding themselves overpowered by the confederate army, set fire to their houses, killed their wives and children, and then threw themselves into the flames. After this Marcius built the city of Narbonne, which became the capital of a province. His successor Scannus also conquered some Gaulish nations; and in order to facilitate the sending troops from Italy into that country, he made several excellent roads between them, which before were almost impassable. These successes gave rise to the invasion of the Cimbri and Teutones; an account of whose unfortunate expedition is given under the articles Cimbri, Rome, Teutones, &c.

From this time, the Gauls ceased to be formidable to the Romans, and even seem to have been for some time on good terms with them. At last, however, the Helvetii kindled a war with the republic, which brought Caesar over the Alps, and ended in the total subjugation of the country. Orgetorix was the first cause of it; who had engaged a vast number of his countrymen to burn their towns and villages, and to go in search of new conquests. Julius Caesar, to whose lot the whole country of Gaul had fallen, made such haste to come and suppress them, that he was got to the Rhone in eight days; broke down the bridge of Geneva, and, in a few days more, finished the famed wall between that city and mount Jura, now St Claude, which extended seventeen miles in length, was sixteen feet high, fortified with towers and castles at proper distances, and a ditch that ran the whole length of it. If his own account of it may be relied upon, he did not set out till the beginning of April; and yet this huge work was finished by the ides or 13th of the month; so that, subtracting the eight days he was coming, it must have been all done in about five days: a prodigious work, considering he had but one legion there, or even though the whole country had given him assistance. Whilst this was doing, and the reinforcements he wanted were coming, he amused the Helvetii, who had sent to demand a passage through the country of the Allobroges, till he had got his reinforcements; and then flatly refused it to them; whereupon a dreadful battle ensued; in which they lost one hundred and thirty thousand men, in spite of all their valour; besides a number of prisoners, among whom was the wife and daughter of Orgetorix, the leader of this unfortunate expedition. The rest submitted, and begged they might be permitted to go and settle among the Aedui, from whom they originally sprung; and, at the request of these last, were permitted to go.

The Gauls were constantly in a state of variance with one another; and Caesar, who knew how to make the most of these intestine broils, soon became the protector of the oppressed, a terror to the oppressor, and the umpire of all their contentions. Among those who applied to him for help, were his allies the Aedui; against whom Ariovitus, king of the Germans, joined with the Averni, who inhabited the banks of the Loire, had taken the country of the Sequani from them, and obliged them to send hostages to him. Caesar forthwith sent to demand the restitution of both, and, in an interview which he soon after obtained of that haughty and treacherous prince, was like to have fallen a sacrifice to his perfidy; upon which he beat his whole power against him, forced him out of his strong intrenchments, and gave him a total overthrow. Ariovitus escaped, with difficulty, over the Rhine; but his two wives, and a daughter, with a great number of Germans of distinction, fell into the conqueror's hand. Caesar, after this signal victory, put his army into winter-quarters, whilst he went over the Alps to make the necessary preparations for the next campaign. By this time all the Belgae in general were so terrified at his confederacy success, that they entered into a confederacy against the Romans as their common enemy. Of this, Labienus, who had been left in Gaul, sent Caesar notice; upon which he immediately left Rome, and made such dispatch, that he arrived upon their confines in about fifteen days. On his arrival, the Rheni submitted to him; but the rest, appointing Galba, king of the Sueiones, general of all their forces, which amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men, marched directly against him. Caesar, who had seized on the bridge of the Axona, now Ainse, led his light horse and infantry over it; and whilst the others were encumbered in crossing that river, made such a terrible slaughter of them, that the river was filled with their defeated dead, insomuch that their bodies served for a bridge to those who escaped. This new victory struck such terror into the rest, that they dispersed themselves; immediately after which, the Sueiones, Bellovaci, Ambiones, and some others, submitted to him. The Neruvi, indeed, joined with the Atrebates and Veromundui against them; and having first secured their wives and children, made a vigorous resistance for some time; but... but were at length defeated, and the greatest part of them slain. The rest, with their wives and old men, surrendered themselves, and were allowed to live in their own cities and towns as formerly. The Aduatuci were next subdued; and, for their treachery to the conqueror, were sold for slaves, to the number of fifty thousand. Young Caius, the son of the triumvir, subdued likewise seven other nations, and took possession of their cities; which not only completed the conquest of the Belgae, but brought several nations from beyond the Rhine to submit to the conqueror. The Veneti, or ancient inhabitants of Vannes in Brittany, who had been likewise obliged to send hostages to the conqueror, were, in the mean time, making great preparations by sea and land to recover their liberty. Caesar, then in Illyricum, was forced to equip a fleet on the Loire; and having given the command of it to Brutus, went and defeated them by land, as Brutus did by sea; and having put their chief men to death, sold the rest for slaves. The Unelli, with Veridrix their chief, together with the Lexovii and Andercii, were about the same time subdued by Sabinus, and the Aquitani by Caius, with the loss of thirty thousand men. There remained nothing but the countries of the Morini and Menapii to be conquered of all Gaul. Caesar marched himself against them; but he found them so well entrenched in their inaccessible fortresses, that he contented himself with burning and ravaging their country; and having put his troops into winter-quarters, again passed over the Alps, to have a more watchful eye on some of his rivals there. He was, however, soon after obliged to come to defend his Gaulish conquests against some nations of the Germans, who were coming to settle there, to the number of four hundred thousand. These he totally defeated, and then resolved to carry his conquering arms into Germany; but for an account of his exploits there, see the article Germany.

Upon his return into Gaul, he found it labouring under a great famine, which had caused a kind of universal revolt. Cotta and Sabinus, who were left in the country of the Eburones, now Liège, were betrayed into an ambush by Ambiorix, one of the Gaulish chiefs, and most of their men cut off. The Aduatuci had fallen upon Q. Cicero, who was left there with one legion, and had reduced him to great straits: at the same time Labienus, with his legion, was attacked by Indutiomarus, at the head of the Rheni and Senones; but had better luck than the rest, and, by one bold fall upon them, put them to flight, and killed their general. Caesar acquired no small credit by quelling all these revolts; but each victory lost the lives of too many of his troops, that he was forced to have recourse to Pompey for a fresh supply, who readily granted him two of his own legions to secure his Gaulish conquests.

But it was not long before the Gauls, ever restless under a foreign yoke, raised up a new revolt, and obliged him to return thither. His fear lest Pompey should gain the affections of the Roman people, had obliged him to strip the Gauls of their gold and silver, to bribe them over to his interest; and this gave no small handle to those frequent revolts which happened during his absence. He quickly, however, reduced the Nervii, Aduatuci, Menapii, and Treviri; the last of whom had raised the revolt, under the command of Ambiorix: but he found the flame spread much farther, even to the greatest part of the Gauls, who had chosen Vercingetorix their generalissimo. Caesar was forced to leave Insubria, whither he had retired to watch the motions of Pompey, and, in the midst of winter and snow, to repass the Alps into the province of Narbonne. Here he gathered his scattered troops with all possible speed; and, in spite of the hard weather, besieged and took Noviodunum, now Noyons; and defeated Vercingetorix, who was come to the relief of that place. He next took the city of Avaricum, now Bourges, one of the strongest in Gaul, and which had a garrison of forty thousand men; of whom he made such a dreadful slaughter, that hardly eight hundred escaped. Whilst he was besieging Gergovia, the capital of the Arverni, he was informed that the Nitiobriges, or Agenois, were in arms; and that the Aedui were sending to Vercingetorix ten thousand men, which they were to have sent to reinforce Caesar. Upon this news, he left Fabius to carry on the siege, and marched against the Aedui. These, upon his approach, submitted, in appearance, and were pardoned; but soon after that whole nation rose up in arms, and murdered all the Italian troops in their capital. Caesar, at this, was in great straits what measures to take; but resolved at length to raise the siege of Gergovia, and at once attack the enemy's camp, which he did with some success; but when he thought to have gone to Noviodunum, or Noyons, where his baggage, military chest, &c. were left, he heard that the Aedui had carried it off, and burnt the place. Labienus, justly thinking that Caesar would want his assistance in the condition he now was, went to join him, and in his way defeated a Gaulish general named Camulogeno, who came to oppose his march; but this did not hinder the revolt from spreading itself all over Celtic Gaul, whither Vercingetorix had sent for fresh supplies, and, in the mean time, attacked Caesar; but was defeated, and forced to retire to Alefia, a strong place, now Alise in Burgundy, as is supposed. Hither Caesar hastened, and besieged him; and, having drawn a double circumvallation, with a design to starve him in it, as he was likely to have done, upon that account refused all offers of a surrender from him. At length, the long-expected reinforcement came, consisting of 165,000 men, under four generals; these made several fruitless attacks on Caesar's trenches; but were defeated in three several battles, which at length obliged Vercingetorix to surrender again. Caesar freed all his prisoners with great severity, except the Aedui and Arverni, by whose means he hoped to gain their nations, which were the most potent of Celtic Gaul; nor was he disappointed; for both of them submitted to him, and the former received him into the capital, where he spent the winter, after he put his army into winter-quarters. This campaign, as it proved one of the hardest he ever had, so he gained more glory by it than any Roman general had done before: yet could not at all by this procure from the servile senate, now wholly dedicated to his rival, a prolongation of his proconsulship; upon which he is reported to have laid his hand upon his sword, and said, that that should do it.

He was as good as his word; and the Gauls, upon their former ill success, resolving to have as many separate armies as provinces, in order to embarrass him... the more, Caesar, and his generals Labienus and Fabius, were forced to fight them one after another; which they did, however, with such success, that notwithstanding the hardness of the season, they subdued the Bituriges, Carnuti, Rheni, and Bellovaci, with their general Correns, by which he at once quieted all the Belgic provinces bordering on Celtic Gaul. The next who followed were the Treviri, the Eburones, and the Andes, under their general Dunmarus. The last place which held out against him was Uxellodunum; which was defended by the two last acting generals of the Gauls. Drapes, the Senonian, and Luterius the Cadurcean. The place being strong, and well garrisoned, Caesar was obliged to march thither, from the farthest part of Belgic Gaul; and soon after reduced it, for want of water. Here again he caused the right-hands of all that were fit to bear arms to be cut off, to deter the rest from revolting at first. Thus was the conquest of Gaul finished from the Alps and Pyrenees to the Rhine, all which vast tract was now reduced to a Roman province under the government of a praetor. During his several expeditions into Gaul, Caesar is said to have taken 800 cities; to have subdued 300 different nations; and to have defeated, in several battles, three millions of men, of whom one million were killed, and another taken prisoners.—The history of the country, from the time of its conquest by the Romans to the present, is given under the articles Rome and France.

The Gauls anciently were divided into a great number of different nations, which were continually at war with one another, and at variance among themselves. Caesar tells us, that not only all their cities, cantons, and districts, but even almost all families, were divided and torn by factions; and thus undoubtedly facilitated the conquest of the whole. The general character of all these people was an excessive ferocity and love of liberty. This last they carried to such an extreme, that either on the appearance of servitude, or incapacity of action through old age, wounds, or chronic diseases, they put an end to their own lives, or prevailed upon their friends to kill them. In cities, when they found themselves so strictly besieged that they could hold out no longer, instead of thinking how to obtain honourable terms of capitulation, their chief care very often was to put their wives and children to death, and then to kill one another, to avoid being led into slavery. Their excessive love of liberty and contempt of death, according to Strabo, very much facilitated their conquest by Caesar; for pouring their numerous forces upon such an experienced enemy as Caesar, their want of conduct very soon proved the ruin of the whole.

The chief diversion of the Gauls was hunting; and indeed, considering the vast forests with which their country abounded, and the multitude of wild beasts which lodged in them, they were under an absolute necessity to hunt and destroy them, to prevent the country from being rendered totally uninhabitable. Besides this, however, they had also their hippodromes, horse and chariot races, tilts and tournaments; at all of which the bards assisted with their poems, songs, and musical instruments.—For an account of their religion, see the article Druid.

The Gauls were excessively fond of feasting, in which they were very profuse; as, like all other northern nations, they were great lovers of good eating and drinking. Their chief liquors were beer and wine. Their tables were very low. They eat but little bread, which was baked flat and hard, and easily broken in pieces: but devoured a great deal of flesh, boiled, roasted, or broiled; and this they did in a very flowery manner, holding the piece in their hands, and tearing it with their teeth. What they could not part by this way, they cut with a little knife which hung at their girdle. When the company was numerous, the Coryphae, or chief of the feast, who was either one of the richest, or noblest, or bravest, sat in the middle, with the master of the house by his side; the rest took their places next according to their rank, having their servants holding their shields behind them. Their feasts seldom ended without bloodshed; but if by chance the feast proved a peaceable one, it was generally accompanied not only with music and songs, but likewise with dances, in which the dancers were armed cap-a-pee, and beat time with their swords upon their shields. On certain festivals they were wont to dress themselves in the skins of beasts, and in that attire accompany the processions in honour of their deities or heroes. Others dressed themselves in masquerade habits, some of them very indecent, and played several antic and immodest tricks. This last custom continued long after their conversion to Christianity.