Jill Wilson, age 15, of Camden, N.J., for her question:
WHO WERE THE GAULS?
Gaul is the English name for the region called Gallic by the ancient Romans. Gaul occupied the territory that now includes France, Belgium and that part of Germany west of the Rhine River. Gauls were the people who lived in this region.
The Gauls spoke forms of Celtic, a language group that includes modern Irish and Welsh. The leaders of their religion were priests called Druids. These priests had great influence in politics.
The Romans called some of the Gauls "long haired" because they did not shave their beards or cut their hair.
In 390 B.C., Gallic tribes crossed the Alps, swept down through Italy and sacked and burned Rome. The Gauls left the city, but for a time they held the northern part of the Italian Peninsula.
The region south of the Alps became known to the Romans as Cisalpine Gaul, or Gaul this side of the Alps. They called the region north of the Alps Transalpine or beyond the Alps Gaul. In the 200s B.C., Gallic tribes invaded Thrace and Macedonia and finally Asia Minor. There they became known as Galatians.
The Gauls were brave and warlike, but they proved no match for the well trained Romans. The Romans defeated the Gauls in Italy in the 200s B.C. and made them subjects of Rome.
Then the Roman invasions of Transalpine Gaul began. The Romans succeeded during the 100s B.C. in gaining mastery of the strip of Gaul along the Mediterranean Sea. This region is now known as Provence. The Romans did not conquer all Gaul until the time of Julius Caesar, between 58 and 51 B.C.
Emperor Augustus organized Gaul into four provinces for purposes of administration. This form of organization lasted for 400 years.
After 400 years under the organization established by Emperor Augustus, Gaul suffered heavily through civil wars and barbaric invasions. But it passed on a rich cultural tradition to its new masters.
Chief among the new invaders were the Franks, who came in the late A.D. 400s. From that time, most of Gaul was called France, after the Franks.
The Druids were members of a priestly cult among ancient Celts in Gaul. In forests and caves they gave instructions, foretold events and administered justice.
People know little about Druid rites because the priests handed down their doctrines by word of mouth and swore their members to secrecy.
The Druids held as sacred the hours of midnight and noon, the oak tree and the mistletoe. They forecast events by interpreting the flight of birds and the markings of the liver and other entrails of sacrificed animals.
The Druids urged their people to fight the Romans when Julius Caesar invaded Gaul.