Gallic and Roman Periods.—Paris grew up at the inter section of two great natural highways, one of them leading from the Rhine district to the south by way of what is now the rue Saint-Martin on the right bank of the Seine and the rue Saint-Jacques on the left bank, and the other being the river itself. The land route crossed the Seine at the point where it was most easily forded—the Ile de la Cite. Paris thus sprang up on the natural stronghold of the island. It was at first a fortified town of the Gallic tribe of the Parisii. It was called Lutetia, and was connected with the two banks of the river by two wooden bridges where the Pont Notre-Dame and the Petit Pont now stand. Caesar describes in his Commentaries how it was burnt during the Gallic War of Independence (52 B.c.).
During the 1st century A.D. we hear of Lutetia as a Roman town. Its character has now changed. The original island was about half the size of the modern Ile de la Cite, and was liable to be flooded by the river; it was not a normal site for a town, and could only have been selected for defensive reasons. Under the pax Rornana Lutetia spread beyond its island to the Montagne Sainte Genevieve which lay opposite it on the left bank; on the right bank there was only low-lying and uninviting ground, bounded by a semicircle of hills—those of Charonne, Menil montant and Belleville to the east, Montmartre in the north and Chaillot to the west. A new Roman city grew up on the northern slopes of the Montagne Sainte-Genevieve, with the straight roads and the public buildings characteristic of all Roman towns —the thermae or public baths, probably on the site of the Musee de Cluny, the theatre, about where the boulevard Saint-Michel crosses the rue Racine, and the arena on the site of the square which now bears that name. The town was supplied with water by the aqueduct of Arcueil. Lutetia was extended up the hillside, and was unfortified; its cemetery was by the side of the Roman road later to become the rue Saint-Jacques.
Lutetia was destroyed by the barbarian invasions of the 3rd century, but reappeared towards the end of the century on its original site, the Ile de la Cite, with its natural defences. A hastily erected rampart supplemented the protection afforded by the two branches of the river. The town was concentrated in this narrow space the better to resist attack. It had straight streets, and a few public buildings. There was probably a temple at the eastern end, and a palace, the headquarters of the Roman authorities, at the other end. There were two wooden bridges opposite what are now the rue Saint-Martin and the rue Saint Jacques. The name of the town changed from Lutetia to Paris.
This stronghold was built for protection against the dangers of the time, for it lay on the route followed by the barbarians on their way from the north to the south.
Christianity reached Paris from Lyons. The earliest Christian community or village was situated on the road from Lyons to Paris, near a ford over the Bievre, at a place where there were stone quarries which had been worked since early Roman times. The spot was near what is now the carrefour des Gobelins, where a Christian cemetery has been discovered with tombs the earliest of which date from the end of the 3rd century. In the following century Christianity gained a footing in the city itself.
In the 5th century the Franks made themselves masters of Paris; they did not, however, destroy the Roman civilization, but were themselves influenced by its more advanced culture. Under Clovis they became converted to Christianity and thus came doubly under the influence of Rome. By his victory over the Visigoths in A.D. 5o8, the Frankish leader made himself the ruler of the south of France. He established his capital at Paris in order to bring the seat of his authority nearer to the newly conquered territories.
Paris was now a royal and episcopal city, and churches began to be built on both banks of the Seine. These were the first buildings on its banks; houses later sprang up around them. Clovis and his wife Clothilde built a church dedicated to the Apostles on the left bank, on the top of the hill overlooking the Ile de la Cite, on the Lyons road. In the 6th century the relics of Sainte Genevieve were deposited in this church, which became the abbey of Sainte-Genevieve, behind where the Pantheon now stands. On the same bank, further west Childebert, one of the sons of Clovis, built a basilica in which Saint Germain, bishop of Paris, was buried towards the end of the 6th century. This later became the abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, the church of which still exists to-day. Another bishop of Paris, Saint Marcel, was buried during the 6th century on the banks of the Bievre, in the village where the first Christian community was situated. This village later developed round the collegiate church of Saint Marcel. During the same century two churches were built on the right bank of the river : that of Saint Gervais and Saint Protais on a little hill by the Seine, and that of Saint Laurent beyond the low-lying ground to the north of the river, near the modern Gare de l'Est. Many more churches were built in the following cen turies; they were particularly numerous in the Ile de la Cite, and many more sprang up along the two great roads on either side of the river.