Italy, into Spain, into eastern Europe, and into the western fringes. The Greeks had established a trading colony at Massilia (Marseilles) in 600 b.c., making it into one of the great commercial centres of the Mediterranean world. In 125 b.c. the Romans saw an opportunity to interfere with this independent Greek city-state by offering military support to the Massilots against the surrounding Celts. The Romans conquered the Celtic tribes in this area and by 118 b.c. established their own colony at Narbo (Narbonne) and created a province called Gallia Narbonensis. It was later simply called “the province” and has remained Provence until modern times. Not only the Celts were absorbed into this part of the Roman Empire but also the Massilots.

It was not until 58 b.c. that the Romans seized an opportunity to enter Gaul proper. The Celtic Helvetii of Switzerland began one of the last great Celtic migrations westward at this time and Rome used the excuse to send an army into Gaul, under Julius Caesar, to turn them back into Switzerland. Caesar then used the opportunity to begin the conquest of Gaul. By 55 b.c. it was thought the Gauls had been defeated and Rome was in control. Caesar was able to launch two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 b.c. But in 54 b.c., during the winter, Gaul rose up in general insurrection against Rome. It was not until 51 b.c. that the last independent Celtic hill fort was destroyed. Nevertheless, insurrections continued in Gaul in 46 b.c., 44 b.c., 33–30 b.c., and 27–5 b.c., when Gaul was finally declared a Roman province.

The Celts of Gaul, pressed first by the Romans and then by the westward sweep of the Germanic tribes—particularly the Franks—finally disappeared, annihilated or assimilated. Only the peninsula of Amorica (the land by the sea, later to become Brittany), reinforced by Celtic migrations from Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries, retained its Celtic heritage. See Gaulish and Gaulish Mythology.

Gaulish

The language of Continental Celts, imperfectly known from inscriptions. The longest inscription in Gaulish was found in 1983 in L’Hospitalet du Larzac (Aveyron). It is written in Latin cursive on a lead tablet. [Études celtiques, vol. XXII, 1985.] Prior to this time the Coligny calendar (Musée des Arts, Lyons), dated to the first century b.c., was considered the most extensive document. Gaulish has been identified as similar to the Brythonic (British)