GAUL, an extensive country in the west of Europe, the boundaries of which in the later times of the Romans were, on the west the Atlantic, on the north the German Ocean, on the east the river Rhine and Alps, and on the south the Mediterranean and Pyrenees.

To the earliest writers we find no part of this country known, except a small portion to the south along the coast of the Mediterranean, and at that time it seems to have had no general name. The tribes on the coast were Bebryces and Ligures, and in the interior they only knew that the people were called Celtae. The extent of their kingdom, and the shape of their land, remained perfectly unknown to the Greeks. Through Pytheas (about 334, B. c.) they first discovered that it was bounded to the north by the ocean, and that the inhabitants in the interior resembled each other in their manner of living. They therefore concluded that the Celtae extended over the whole of the north-western portion of Europe. It was not till the conclusion of the second Punic war (201, b. c.) that the Romans began to acquire a firm footing in the south of Gaul, and thereby to obtain somewhat more accurate information respecting the interior. Scipio the elder discovered that there was a river Liger, Loire, in the country, and a commercial city of the Celtae situated upon it. Still their knowledge was confined to a few scanty facts, and it was the Gallic wars of Caesar which at last enabled them to form a correct idea of the country. They saw that the river Rhine separated the Celtae from a perfectly different people, the Germani, and they became acquainted with the Belgae, formed by a mixture of the two, and whose name they had never before heard. From this period no province of the kingdom became better known, nor more frequently travelled through, than Gallia, on account of the wars with the Germani, and its proximity to Britain.

Gaul was inhabited by four tribes, dissimilar to each other both in language and customs. The Aquitani, of Iberian origin; the Ligures, dwelling from the foot of the Pyrenees along the coast as far as the river Arno in Italy; the Belgae, of Germanic and Celtic origin; and the Celtae or Galli in the Roman language, who may be considered as the principal nation in the country. Their possessions extended from the extremities of Bretagne, through the whole country lying between the Seine and Garonne, as far as the Rhine and the Alps. There seems every reason to believe that these Celtae came from the east, along the banks of the Danube; at least we find them in the very earliest ages settled in the south of Germany, and in the greater part of Hungary. That their occupation of Gaul must have taken place at an early period, is proved by the immigration of large bodies into Italy in the re⅛n of Tarquinius Priscus (616-578, b c.).

Before the time of Caesar, the Celts lived throughout the country, divided into a number of small tribes, having each an aristocratic constitution, such as Poland once enjoyed. There was no king over the whole; but in many of the tribes we find a prince at their head. Every thing was transacted in the national assemblies, where the nobles only had a place. The lower orders seem to have been regarded in not much better light than slaves. In a country possessed by so many independent tribes, there must of course have been continual disputes; and scarcely a year passed without war. The less strong united themselves to their more powerful neighbours, and made common cause with them in their wars. The whole power seems to have been generally in the hands of the nobility, who had regular guards to protect their persons and dig nity. AD ancient writers speak of the strange mixture of excessive levity in the character of the Celts with foolhardiness and timidity. They were of a slender form, robust, furious in the first assault, but unable to persevere when fatigue and hardships were to be endured.

In the reign of Augustus, Gallia was first divided into regular provinces by Agrippa. These were Aquitanica, Belgica, Lugdunensis, and Provincia Romana, or Narbonensis. The inhabitante led a quiet and peaceful life under the dominion of the Romans, though they occasionally broke out in rebellion, which was generally caused by the oppression of the tax-gatherers and governors. Julius Vindex, a noble of Gaul, made an attempt in the reign of Nero to free his country from a foreign yoke; but though he managed to collect an army of a hundred thousand men, they were easily defeated by the disciplined troops of the Romans. The rebellion of the Batavi, and of the German and Belgic tribes, threatened more danger at a later period; but it was put down partly by force and partly by conciliatory measures. The inhabitants of Gaul continued to cultivate their fields in peace till the end of the second and third centuries, when the Francs and Alemanni began to make incursions into their territory. See France.