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Gaul () was the name given, in ancient times, to the region of Western Europe comprising present-day northern Italy , France , Belgium , western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river.

In English, the word ''Gaul'' () may also refer to a Celtic inhabitant of that region, although the expression may be used more generally for all ancient speakers of the Gaulish Language (a derivative of early Celtic ) who were widespread in Europe and extended even into central Anatolia by Roman times. In this way, "Gaul" and "Celt" are sometimes used interchangeably.

Gauls under band of Celts , some 10,000 Warriors , with their women and children and Slaves , were moving through Thrace. Three tribes of Gauls crossed over from Thrace to Asia Minor at the express invitation of Nicomedes I , king of Bithynia , who required help in a dynastic struggle against his brother. Eventually they settled down in eastern Phrygia and Cappadocia in central Anatolia , a region henceforth known as '' Galatia .''


NAME

, 1898.]]
  • g(h)al-'' "powerful" ( PIE ''---gelh'', well-attested in Celtic, and with cognates in Balto-Slavic), but speculates that the name also could be taken from a ''Gallos'' River, comparable to the names of the Volcae and the Sequani which are likely derived from Hydronym s. There also have been attempts to trace ''Keltoi'' and ''Galatai'' to a single origin. It is most likely that the terms originated as names of minor tribes ''---Kel-to'' and/or ''Gal(a)-to-'' which were the earliest to come into contact with the Roman World , but which have disappeared without leaving a historical record.Birkhan 1997:48.



Hellenistic Aitiology connects the name with Galatia (first attested by Timaeus of Tauromenion in the 4th c. BC), and it was suggested that the association was inspired by the "milk-white" skin (γάλα, ''gala'', "milk") of the Gauls ( Greek : Γαλάται, ''Galatai'', Galatae).


PRE-ROMAN GAUL

, 1st century BC, ( Cabinet Des Médailles , Paris).]]
The early history of the Gauls is predominantly a work in archeology — there being little written information (save perhaps what can be gleaned from coins) concerning the peoples that inhabited these regions — and the relationships between their Material Culture , genetic relationships (the study of which has been aided, in recent years, through the field of Archaeogenetics ), and linguistic divisions rarely coincide.

The major source of materials on the Celts of Gaul was Poseidonios Of Apamea , whose writings where quoted by Timagenes , Julius Caesar , the Sicilian Greek Diodorus Siculus , and the Greek geographer Strabo .