62-6 7 Roman Gaul ROMAn PROVINCE DURING HADRIAN

Roman Gaul

Roman Gaul refers to Gaul^[1] under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century BC to the 5th century AD.

The Roman Republic began its takeover of Celtic Gaul in 121 BC, when it conquered and annexed the southern reaches of the area. Julius Caesar completed the task by defeating the Celtic tribes in the Gallic Wars of 58-51 BC. In 22 BC, imperial administration of Gaul was reorganized, establishing the provinces ofGallia Aquitania, Gallia Belgica and Gallia Lugdunensis. Parts of western Gaul were incorporated into Raetia (15 BC) and Germania Superior (AD 83).

During Late Antiquity, Gaulish and Roman culture amalgamated into a hybrid Gallo-Roman culture. The Gaulish language was marginalized and eventually extinct, being replaced by regional forms of Late Latin which in the medieval period developed into the group of Gallo-Romance languages (including Frenchand Occitan). Roman control over the provinces deteriorated in the 4th and 5th centuries, and was eventually lost to the kingdoms of the Franks, Visigoths andBurgundians. The last vestiges of any Roman control over parts of Gaul were effaced with the defeat of Syagrius at the Battle of Soissons (AD 486)

Gaul had three geographical divisions, one of which was divided into multiple Roman provinces:

1. Gallia Cisalpina or "Gaul this side of the Alps", covered most of present-day northern Italy.
2. Gallia Narbonensis, formerly Gallia Transalpina or "Gaul across the Alps" was originally conquered and annexed in 121 BC in an attempt to solidify communications between Rome and the Iberian peninsula. It comprised the present-day region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, most of Languedoc-Roussillon, and roughly the southeastern half of Rhône-Alpes.
3. Gallia Comata, or "long haired Gaul", encompassed the remainder of present-day France, Belgium, and westernmost Germany, which the Romans gained through the victory over the Celts in the Gallic Wars. The Romans divided Gallia Comata into three provinces:

Gallia Aquitania

Gallia Belgica

Gallia Lugdunensis

The Romans divided these huge provinces into civitates corresponding more or less with the pre-Conquest communities or polities sometimes described misleadingly as "tribes," such as the Aedui, Allobroges, Bellovaci, and Sequani (see List of Celtic tribes) but the civitates were too large and in turn were divided into smaller units, pagi, a term that eventually became the modern French word "pays".^[2] These administrative groupings would be taken over by the Romans in their system of local control, and these civitates would also be the basis of France's eventual division into ecclesiastical bishoprics and dioceses, which would remain in place—with slight changes—until the French revolution.