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Eras and Their Highlights

The Middle Ages

How were the Gauls related to the Celts?

The ancient Gauls were a Celtic people who spoke forms of the Celtic language. They occupied the ancient country of Gaul, a region west of the Rhine River and north of the Pyrenees Mountains (an area that today consists of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, part of Germany, and part of the Netherlands). The Gauls were led by priests, who were called Druids. By 390 B.C. the Gauls had moved southward, across the Alps and into Italy. In the third century B.C., they battled the powerful Romans and were briefly successful. Ultimately, however, they were defeated, becoming subjects of Rome. Later, under Julius Caesar, the Romans conquered all of Gaul, so that by 50 B.C. the region became part of the Roman Empire. Five centuries later, Gaul was overrun by the Franks, for whom the region was named. Thus, French people today are descendants of the Gauls. Also, the Galatians (one of the Christian peoples to whom the Apostle Paul wrote while he was in jail) were descendants of the Gauls who settled in Macedonia and Asia Minor (the peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, which today is occupied by Turkey).