GAULS, the chief branch of the great original stock of Celts. Migrations among the Gauls about 397 B. C., and their pas sage of the Alps, first bring the Gallic nation into the region of history. Hav ing crossed the Alps they fell on the Etruscans, defeated the Romans at Allia (390 B. c.), and sacked and burned Rome, the capitol, however, being saved by Camillus. More than a century after the burning of Rome, the E. Gauls, in 280 278 B. c., made three destructive irrup tions into Macedonia and Greece. Sev eral tribes pursued their course into Asia Minor, where, under the name of Galatians, they long retained their na tional peculiarities. After these migra tions the Gauls along the banks of the Danube and in the S. of Germany dis appear. Tribes of German origin oc cupy the whole country as far as the Rhine, and even beyond that river. The Belgw, who were partly German, occu pied the N. part of Gaul, from the Seine and Marne to the British Channel and the Rhine, from whence colonists passed over into Britain, and settled on the coast districts. The Celts in Gaul had attained some degree of cultivation by intercourse with the Greeks and Cartha ginians before they came in contact with the Romans. Those of Cisalpine Gaul continued formidable to Rome till after the first Punic war, when the nation was compelled as the result of a war of six years to submit to the Romans (220 B. c.). When Hannibal marched on Rome they attempted to shake off the yoke; but the Romans, victorious over the Car thaginians, reduced them again to sub mission. Thirty-one years later (189 B.
c.) their kindred tribe in Asia, the Gala tians, met with the same fate; they also were vanquished, and their princes (te trarchs) became tributary. In the years 128-122 B. c. the Romans conquered the S. part of Gaul along the sea from the Alps to the Pyrenees, and here estab lished their dominion in what was called the Province (Provincia), a name that still exists as Provence. Not long after Gaulish tribes shared in the destructive incursions of the Cimbri and Teutones on the Roman territory, which were ended by Marius in the battles of Aqua, &Aim (Aix) in 102, and Vercelli in 101 B. c. On the appointment of Julius Caesar to the proconsulship over the countries bordering on Gaul, he resolved to subject all Gaul, and executed his pur pose in less than nine years (58-50 B. c.). in eight bloody campaigns. The domin ion of the Romans in Gaul was confirmed by colonies, and the liberal grant of the Roman citizenship to several Gallic tribes. The religion of the Druids, being suppressed in Gaul by Tiberius and Claudius, gradually retreated into Brit ain, soon also conquered by the Romans. After the extinction of the Caesars, the Gauls once more attempted to recover their liberty by aid of the Germans, but after this last effort became entirely Romanized, even their ancient language, the Celtic, being supplanted by a corrupt Latin dialect. About the year 486 the Franks subdued the greater part of Gaul, and put an end to the dominion of the Romans in that country.