Gauls in Pre-Roman and Early Republican Italy | Early European History And Religion

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GAULS IN NORTHERN ITALY

Celtic areas in Europe

The Gauls lived in extreme northern Italy and the areas now occupied by France and Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Crossing the Alps from western Europe, they had pushed back the Etruscans and occupied the plains of the Po; hence this region received the name which it long held, Cisalpine Gaul. They held this territory against the Ligurians on the west and the Veneti on the east; and for a long time were the terror of the Italian people. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901)]

The Gauls were the native tribe of Gaul (France). They are regarded as a Celtic-Druidic people. They crossed the Alps and expanded into the Balkans, north Italy and France around the third century B.C. and later they reached the British isles. They occupied most of western Europe by 300 B.C.

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: By 600 B.C. the Gallic people Insubres had already settled south of the Alps, where they founded Mediolanum (today’s Milan). Over the next two centuries, other Gallic peoples would do the same and expand into southern and western Europe. Around 400 B.C. the Senones settled on the shores of the Adriatic, in the region that the Romans would later call Ager Gallicus. But this settlement was still a safe distance from Rome and on the other side of the Apennines that form the mountainous backbone of the Italian peninsula.[Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

A decade later, the Senones crossed the mountains and attacked the Etruscan city of Clusium, about 90 miles north of Rome. Writing more than four centuries later, the Roman historian Livy described this Gallic expansion and how the people of Clusium appealed to Rome for help (they were denied). Roman historians described the Gauls in big sweeping strokes, which were likely exaggerated. The Gauls were tall, pale, long-haired, blond, and mustached. Some of them, according to first-century B.C. Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, lightened their hair with “lime-water.”

There are various theories as to why they made this incursion into the Italian peninsula. In general, Roman sources suggest that the Gauls were less developed as a society than the inhabitants of Italy and coveted their farmland, in particular their wine. In the first century A.D., centuries after early Gallic expansion, the Greek scholar Plutarch wrote that when the Gauls tasted wine for the first time they became “beside themselves with the novel pleasure which it gave” and they set off “inquest of the land which produced such fruit, considering the rest of the world barren and wild.” Although the Gauls’ fondness for wine did tend to be exaggerated, there was a kernel of truth to it. Later, Italian and Roman wine merchants would enter Gaul as the peaceful forerunners to the legions that would follow.

Romans and Gauls

The name"Gauls" is basically the name the Romans gave the Celts. Julius Caesar is the main source of information on the Gauls. The distinction between Gauls (Celts) and Germanic tribes can be traced back to Julius Caesar who decided that Gaul region was worth conquering and the Germanic region to north wasn't.

The Romans described the Celts as bloodthirsty barbarians with incredible strength, appetites and aggressiveness. Roman art showed them fighting naked with mud-stiffened hairdos and oval shields and double-twisted neck torques. According to the Romans, the Celts practiced human sacrifices at the their religious festivals. They established places of worship at wells and fountains and made offerings at these places of the severed heads of their enemies. Severed heads are a common theme in Celtic art.

Gaul

Laura Geggel of LiveScience wrote: “Before the Romans invaded the south of France, in 125 B.C., a culture speaking the Celtic language lived there and practiced its own customs. These Celtic people lived in densely settled, fortified sites during the Iron Age (750 B.C. to 125 B.C.), trading with cultures near and far, the researchers said. But after the Roman invasion, the Celtic culture at this location changed socially and economically, Luley said. For instance, the new findings suggest that some people under the Romans stopped preparing their own meals and began eating at communal places, such as taverns. Rome had a big impact on southern France,” Benjamin Luley, a visiting assistant professor of anthropology and classics at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, told Live Science. “We don’t see taverns before the Romans arrive.” [Source: Laura Geggel, LiveScience, March 10, 2016]

Crupellarii, heavily armored Gauls, fought against the Roman legionaries. Tacitus wrote: “Completely encased in iron in the national fashion, these crupellarii, as they were called, were too clumsy for offensive purposes but impregnable in defence……the infantry made a frontal attack. The Gallic flanks were driven in. The iron-clad contingent caused some delay as their casing resisted javelins and swords. However the Romans used axes and mattocks and struck at their plating and its wearers like men demolishing a wall. Others knocked down the immobile gladiators with poles or pitchforks, and, lacking the power to rise, they were left for dead. [Source: Tacitus Annales III. 43]

Gallic Warriors

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: The Gauls were visually striking because of their clothing, which was dyed with bright colors. Unlike the Romans, the men wore pants (bracae in Latin), a garment typical of the nomadic horsemen of the Eurasian steppes. The Greeks and Romans considered it barbaric—even effeminate—for men to wear such attire. The elite among the Gauls wore jewelry, most notably torques, which are thick metal necklaces of gold or silver, open at the front and twisted like braids. In 361 B.C., some years after the assault on Rome, a young Roman called Titus Manlius came face-to-face with a gigantic Gallic warrior in single combat. Despite the Gaul’s immense size—in Roman tales the height of the Celts is always emphasized—Titus defeated him, seized his torque, and was known thereafter as Torquatus, a moniker that would pass to his descendants. [Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

As for protection in conflict, many Gallic warriors had nothing more than an elongated oval shield and a helmet adorned with feathers. Their typical weapon was a long sword, best suited for slashing. Many stereotypes grew up about the ferocity with which the Gauls fought; allegedly it was more daunting than that of other adversaries the Romans had faced until then. Writing in the first centuries B.C. and A.D., Greek historian Strabo explained:The whole race which is now called both “Gallic” and “Galatic” is war-mad, and both high-spirited and quick for battle, although otherwise simple and not ill-mannered. And therefore, if roused, they come together all at once for the struggle ... As for their might, it arises partly from their large physique and partly from their numbers.

According to classical sources, the Gauls attacked en masse to the sound of their war horns, without the use of tactical formations or reserve troops. Strabo felt it would make it easier over time for the Romans to conquer Gaul than Hispania, home of the Iberians. Whereas the Gauls tended to “fall upon their opponents all at once and in great numbers,” meaning they would be “defeated all at once,” the Iberians “would husband their resources and divide their struggles, carrying on war in the manner of brigands, different men at different times and in separate divisions.”

First Sacking of Rome Was by the Gauls in 387 B.C.

Gauls

The Gauls—not the Vandals or Visigoths—were the first to sack Rome and plunder it of its wealth. Their leader's words — “Vae victis—Woe to the vanquished” — would haunt Romans for generation. [Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: The Roman Republic was booming in the beginning of the fourth century B.C. Wealthy and powerful, it had just defeated the Etruscan city of Veii, amassed an immense war chest, and doubled its territory. But then, out of the blue, the republic suffered the unthinkable: occupation by a Celtic people, the Gauls. This was the first time that Rome and Gaul would face off, but it would not be the last.

Over the coming centuries, the Romans and the Gauls would clash many times. But this first defeat in 387 B.C. caused a collective trauma for Rome that lasted generations, shaping Roman attitudes toward all peoples from the north. At that time the Senones attacked and captured Rome after the Battle of the Allia, fought at the confluence of the Tiber and Allia rivers 16 kilometers north of Rome.

Battle of the Allia

The Battle of the Allia was fought in 387 B.C. between the Senones – a Gallic tribe led by Brennus, who had invaded Northern Italy – and the Roman Republic. The battle was fought at the confluence of the Tiber River and Allia brook, 16 kilometers (10 miles) north of Rome. The Romans were routed and subsequently Rome was sacked by the Senones.

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: The Etruscans of Clusium called on Rome to help them. The Senate sent three ambassadors who entreated Brennus, leader of the Gallic Senones, to withdraw. When Brennus refused, the ambassadors, instead of returning to Rome, joined the ranks of Clusium in trying to repel the Gauls. By throwing their support so obviously behind the Clusines, they contravened the law of nations, the equivalent of current international law. This decision gave Brennus a pretext to declare war on Rome. After defeating the Clusines, Brennus led his troops south toward Rome. Livy described their terrifying procession: “The whole country in front and around was now swarming with the enemy, who, being as a nation given to wild outbreaks, had by their hideous howls and discordant clamor filled everything with dreadful noise.”

A Roman army marched north and intercepted the Gauls less than 10 miles outside the city on the banks of the Allia River, a tributary of the Tiber. It was the first time that the legions had fought against the Gauls, and the result was disastrous. The Romans were outnumbered, a situation that happened often in their clashes with the Gauls.

As a result, the tribunes of consular rank who commanded the Roman army redeployed soldiers to the flanks. The center, with ranks depleted, was soon breached, and the Gauls surged unstoppably forward. The legionaries from the left flank fled to the neighboring city of Veii, 10 miles northwest of Rome, while those on the right retreated to the capital itself.

Three days later, Brennus and his army of Gauls stood at the gates of Rome. The city was exposed, for it lacked a complete perimeter wall. The bulk of the population fled—even the Vestal Virgins, guardians of the city’s sacred fire. With no one to oppose them, the Gauls stormed into Rome and pillaged the city. High-ranking elderly senators, who had refused to be evacuated, sat in their curule chairs in the middle of the Forum or, according to some sources, in the atria of their houses.

Roman sources claim that when the first Gauls arrived, they were stunned by the dignity and composure of these elder statesmen. One invader allegedly tugged at the long white beard of Senator Marcus Papirius to see if the figure might be a statue. Papirius responded with a blow from his cane. The Gaul then killed Papirius with his sword, and his companions massacred the rest. Brennus’s men looted and destroyed the city as the terrified populace looked on. Livy wrote: In whatever direction, their attention was drawn by the shouts of the enemy, the shrieks of the women and boys, the roar of the flames, and the crash of houses falling in, thither they turned their eyes and minds as though set by Fortune to be spectators of their country’s fall, powerless to protect anything left of all they possessed beyond their lives.

Some Romans had managed to take refuge on the Capitoline Hill and were safely hidden. But the Gauls spotted footprints going up the hill that belonged to a messenger, who the Romans had sent to Ardea to seek help. The Gauls followed the same route and sent an advance party up the hillside that very night. Neither the Roman guards nor their watchdogs heard them coming, but geese sacred to the goddess Juno that lived there did. The alarmed honking alerted the Roman defenders, who took up arms and forced their attackers back.

Sacred Geese Save Romans From Complete Annihilation

The Gauls were unable to take the center of Rome, at Campidoglio, the legend goes, because, a group of honking geese alerted the Roman of the nighttime attack. According to National Geographic: Sacred geese lived in the goddess Juno’s temple on Capitoline Hill during the Roman Republic. This gaggle became a band of unlikely heroes when the Gauls sacked the city in 387 B.C. It was the geese that prevented the last stronghold in Rome from falling into the hands of the Gauls. [Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

The story appears in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, written around the second century A.D.: “There were some sacred geese near the temple of Juno, which were usually fed without stint, but at that time, since provisions barely sufficed for the garrison alone, they were neglected and in evil plight. The creature is naturally sharp of hearing and afraid of every noise, and these, being specially wakeful and restless by reason of their hunger, perceived the approach of the Gauls, dashed at them with loud cries, and so waked all the garrison.”

Woe to the Vanquished

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: Seven months passed and the Gauls held their siege. But it took its toll on them. According to Livy, “They had their camp on low-lying ground between the hills, which had been scorched by the fires and was full of malaria ... Accustomed as a nation to wet and cold, they could not stand this at all, and tortured as they were by heat and suffocation, disease became rife among them, and they died off like sheep.” [Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

At last, a negotiated settlement was reached. The Gauls agreed to leave Rome in exchange for a thousand pounds of gold. The defenders came down from Capitoline Hill bearing treasures and weighed them in the Forum before their conquerors. When the tribune Quintus Sulpicius noticed the Gauls were putting fake weights onto the scales in order to claim more riches, he complained. Brennus dropped his own sword onto the scales and exclaimed, “Vae victis—Woe to the vanquished.” Resigned, the Romans handed over even more gold to offset the weight of the sword.

Roman historians differ on how the Gallic siege ended. Both Plutarch and Livy say that Marcus Furius Camillus, an exiled general, responds to Rome’s call for help. He is appointed dictator and uses his might to expel the Gallic forces. Writing in the second century B.C., the historian Polybius makes no mention of Camillus or an expulsion of the Gauls. Rather, in his telling, Rome pays a ransom and the Gauls simply leave.

Legends and Facts from the Gallic Invasion of Rome

Javier Negrete wrote in National Geographic History: Classical sources undoubtedly contain factual details, but legendary elements and exaggerations are woven among them. There is some evidence to show that Rome did suffer a defeat and sacking around 387 B.C.: Greek authors such as Aristotle and Heraclides of Pontus, who were writing not long after the events, mention an invasion. Archaeologists, however, have not found evidence of mass destruction and fires as terrible as in Livy’s writings. Rome appears to have recovered very quickly in the years that followed, which would have been unlikely if the damage were as severe as described. Evidence suggests that rather than a Gallic army set on occupation, the invaders were a band of warriors who attacked Rome in a quick raid. They probably looted what they could but did not demolish buildings or set fire to the city. [Source Javier Negrete, National Geographic History, February 15, 2024]

The story of the Gallic invasion as retold in the histories written centuries later is evidence of metus gallicus, an exaggerated fear of Gauls and other northern peoples. This prejudice was galvanized at the end of the second century B.C. as groups of Germanic Cimbri and Teutoni people pushed south into Roman territory. Metus gallicus would become a driving force in Rome’s expansionary policy. The perceived threat would serve as the pretext for Julius Caesar’s first-century B.C. campaigns in Gaul, and it also explains why his victories over the Gauls were celebrated with an unprecedented 15 or even 20 days of thanksgiving back home in Rome.

Roman historians seemed to relish tales that highlighted the savagery of the Celtic Gauls, including how they decapitated their enemies and kept their heads as trophies. One particularly gruesome account was written by Livy in the first century B.C. He described the fate of Roman consul Lucius Postumius, who died in 216 B.C. fighting against the Boii people, who lived across an area from today’s northern Italy. As Livy recounts, the Boii took the consul’s head “into the most sacred temple ... Afterwards they cleansed the head ... and having covered the skull with chased gold, used it as a cup for libations in their solemn festivals.” Another account from Greek historian Diodorus Siculus details how the Gauls would also preserve the heads in cedar oil. These accounts may feel exaggerated, but in 2018 scholars found evidence to back them up. A research team tested 11 skulls that showed signs of decapitation and found evidence of conifer resin, supporting the tales of ritual embalming of heads.

Celts

Celtic statue

Some regard the Gauls as Celts. The Celts were a group of related tribes, linked by language, religion and culture, that gave rise to the first civilization north of the Alps. They emerged as a distinct people around the 8th century B.C. and were known for their fearlessness in battle. Pronouncing Celts with a hard "C" or soft "C" are both okay. American archeologist Brad Bartel called the Celts "the most important and wide-ranging of all European Iron Age people." English speakers tend to say KELTS. The French say SELTS. The Italian say CHELTS. [Source: Merle Severy, National Geographic, May 1977]

The origin of the Celts remains a mystery. Some scholars believe they originated in the steppes beyond the Caspian Sea. They first appeared in central Europe east of the Rhine in the seventh century B.C. and inhabited much of northeast France, southwest Germany by 500 B.C. They crossed the Alps and expanded into the Balkans, north Italy and France around the third century B.C. and later they reached the British isles. They occupied most of western Europe by 300 B.C.

On Celtic customs, Strabo wrote in “Geographia” (A.D., c. 20): “In Gaul, the heads of enemies of high repute they used to embalm in cedar oil and exhibit to strangers, and they would not deign to give them back ever for a ransom of an equal weight of gold. But the Romans put a stop to these customs, as well as to all those connected with the sacrifices and divinations that are opposed to our usages. They used to strike a human being, whom they had devoted to death, in the back with a sword, and then divine from his death-struggle. But they would not sacrifice without the Druids. We are told of still other kinds of human sacrifices; for example, they would shoot victims to death with arrows, or impale them in the temples, or having devised a colossus of straw and wood, throw into the colossus cattle and wild animals of all sorts and human beings, and make a burnt-offering of the whole thing.” [Source: Strabo, The Geography of Strabo: Literally Translated, with Notes, translated by H. C. Hamilton & W. Falconer, (London: H. G. Bohn, 1854-1857)]

Goths, Gauls and Franks

The Goths were one of the main groups that threatened Rome. Originally from Scandinavia, they were the first Teutonic people to be Christianized. They migrated from Sweden across the Baltic Sea, through what is now Russia and the Ukraine to the Black Sea. From there they migrated into the Balkans and divided into two groups the Ostrogoths (East Goths) and Visagoths (West Goths). Before their division the Goths were allowed by the Romans to settle within the borders of the Roman Empire. They rose against the Romans and killed the Roman emperor Valentinian in battle. His successor Theodosius sued for peace.

wealthy woman from the Hallstatt culture

The Goths were different from the Gauls. The Gauls lived in extreme northern Italy and the areas now occupied by France and Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Many centuries earlier they crossed the Alps from western Europe and pushed back the Etruscans and occupied the plains of the Po; hence this region received the name which it long held, Cisalpine Gaul. They held this territory against the Ligurians on the west and the Veneti on the east; and for a long time were the terror of the Italian people when Rome was a village in the 7th century B.C. [Source: “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901)]

The Franks, a federation Teutonic tribes, were another group that were around at the time Rome fell. They arrived from what is now Germany and settled as far as the Somme River around A.D. 250 during a westward drive by Germanic tribes. By the 5th century, the Merovingian Franks had thrown out the Romans, and swept over a large population of mostly Romanized Gauls, Burgundians and Gaohs. Childeric I became leader of the Merovingian Franks in A.D. 458. His son was Clovis, regarded by some as the foudner of France. Other Frank tribes spread as far as Greece.

An argument persists today on whether the French descended from the Germanic Franks from the north or the Romanticized Gauls from the south. The French right has traditionally linked themselves with the Franks while the left has traditionally claimed descent form the Gauls, who were regarded as libertarian and egalitarian without necessarily being Christian. The Franks are mostly closely linked with Christianity and Catholicism. Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Rome sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Internet Ancient History Sourcebook: Late Antiquity sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; “Outlines of Roman History” by William C. Morey, Ph.D., D.C.L. New York, American Book Company (1901) ; “The Private Life of the Romans” by Harold Whetstone Johnston, Revised by Mary Johnston, Scott, Foresman and Company (1903, 1932); BBC Ancient Rome bbc.co.uk/history/ ; Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org ; Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Live Science, Discover magazine, Archaeology magazine, Reuters, Associated Press, The Guardian, AFP, The New Yorker, Wikipedia, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopedia.com and various other books, websites and publications.

Last updated October 2024