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Alaric II, d. 507, Visigothic king of Spain and of S Gaul (c.484–507), son and successor of Euric. He issued (506) at Toulouse the Breviary of Alaric for his Roman subjects. Alaric's adherence to Arianism gave Clovis I, king of the Franks, an easy pretext for attacking him in the name of orthodoxy. Alaric was defeated and slain at Vouillé (507), and the Visigoths lost all their possessions in Gaul except Septimania. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aedui (ĕ′dyōōī) or Haedui (hĕ′dyōōī), Gallic people, occupying in the 1st cent. B.C. a part of what later became Burgundy. Defeated by Ariovistus and at odds with their Gallic neighbors, they were allies of the Romans. The Aedui at first aided Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars and later were not wholehearted in their support of Vercingetorix's revolt against Caesar. Their early capital was Bibracte. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Hilary of Arles, Saint (hĭl′ərē, ärl), d. 449, Gallo-Roman churchman. Forsaking riches, he entered the monastery at Lérins. He was made archbishop of Arles (c.429) against his wishes. As head of the church in Gaul, Hilary hastily deposed two bishops. They appealed to Pope Leo I, who thereupon deprived the see of Arles of its metropolitan powers, declaring the sovereignty of Rome. Later, Leo referred to him as Hilary of sacred memory. Feast: May 5. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gaul (gôl), Lat. Gallia, ancient designation for the land S and W of the Rhine, W of the Alps, and N of the Pyrenees. The name was extended by the Romans to include Italy from Lucca and Rimini northwards, excluding Liguria. This extension of the name is derived from its settlers of the 4th and 3d cent. B.C.—invading Celts, who were called Gauls by the Romans. Their cousins in Gaul proper (modern France) probably had been there since 600 B.C., for the Greeks of Massilia (Marseilles) knew them. The Gaul in Italy was called Cisalpine Gaul [Cisalpine, from Lat.,=on this side the Alps], as opposed to Transalpine Gaul; Cisalpine Gaul was divided into Cispadane Gaul [on this side the Po] and Transpadane Gaul. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Gallic Wars (găl′ĭk), campaigns in Gaul led by Julius Caesar in his two terms as proconsul of Cisalpine Gaul, Transalpine Gaul, and Illyricum (58 B.C.–51 B.C.). Caesar's first campaign was to prevent the Helvetii (who lived N of the Lake of Geneva) from crossing the Roman territory Provincia (Provence) on their way to a new home in SW Gaul. Inspired by Orgetorix, they had started from the Alps northwestward with Caesar in pursuit, but he split their forces as they crossed the Saône, and pursued them to Bibracte, where he defeated them. In the same year the Aedui asked Caesar's help against the German Ariovistus, whom Caesar routed. In 57 B.C., Caesar pacified Belgica (roughly Belgium). In the winter of the same year an anti-Roman confederacy was formed, and in 56 B.C. Caesar attacked its leaders, the Veneti, who maintained a fleet in what is now the Gulf of Morbihan, Brittany. He defeated them after building ships of his own. In 55 B.C., Caesar went to the Low Countries to repel a group of invading Germans and, as a punitive measure, in turn invaded German territory, crossing the Rhine on a bridge he built near Cologne. He then went to Britain on a brief exploring expedition. In 54 B.C. he invaded Britain and defeated the Britons and their leader Cassivellaunus. The following winter the Roman legions were quartered separately because of the scarcity of food, and some Belgian tribes led by Ambiorix raised a revolt. One legion was utterly defeated and another, under Quintus Cicero, was in dire straits when Caesar arrived and routed the rebels. In 53 B.C., Caesar put down another Belgian revolt and entered Germany again. But the real test came when, in the dead of winter, Caesar, in Italy, learned that all central Gaul had raised a revolt, organized by Vercingetorix. With incredible speed and brilliant tactics, Caesar crossed the Alps and suppressed the Gauls. After 51 B.C., Caesar moved around Gaul putting down the last signs of disorder. Caesar's Gallic Wars were the theater in which he displayed his abilities, and his organization of the new territory was the seed of modern France. When Caesar became proconsul, he received a wide strip along the Mediterranean beyond the Alps; when he gave up his command, his territory included everything from the Rhine to the Pyrenees, from the Alps to the Atlantic. The prime source of the Gallic Wars is Caesar's own commentaries, De bello Gallico. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Druids (drōō′ĭdz), priests of ancient Celtic Britain, Ireland, and Gaul and probably of all ancient Celtic peoples, known to have existed at least since the 3d cent. BC. Information about them is derived almost exclusively from the testimony of Roman authors, notably Julius Caesar, and from Old Irish sagas, supplemented to some extent by archaeological evidence. The druids constituted a priestly upper class in command of a highly ritualistic religion, which apparently centered on the worship of a pantheon of nature deities. Druids were also responsible for the education of the young and generally for the intellectual life of the community; although apparently literate, they taught by oral transmission, and their courses are said to have lasted as long as 20 years. The druids believed in immortality of the soul in a nonjudgmental world of the dead. Their religious ceremonies seem to have been performed chiefly in tree groves (the oak and the mistletoe that grows on the oak were held sacred) and at river sources and lakes. The druids performed animal and human sacrifices and practiced divination and other forms of magic. Tacitus mentions a Celtic tribe, the Bructeri, that was led by a prophetess, and Irish legend confirms that there were women druids, although their precise role is not known. According to Caesar, the druids in Gaul were organized into a federation or brotherhood that extended across tribal divisions and was headed by an archdruid; they met once a year, probably on the site of Chartres, to arbitrate private and intertribal disputes. They thus wielded great political power and were an important cohesive force among the Celtic tribes. The druids in Gaul were the core of the rebellions against Rome. Their power, although broken by the Romans, finally yielded only to Christianity. In the late 18th and 19th cent., interest in the druids was spurred by archaeological discoveries and by the romantic movement. The megalithic monuments of France and Great Britain, notably those at Carnac and Stonehenge, were once ascribed to them, but these are now known to predate Celtic culture. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Carausius (kərôsh′ēəs), d. 293, Gallo-Roman military commander. He was stationed in Gaul, but Emperor Maximian suspected him of conspiring with the Germans and condemned him to death. Carausius fled to Britain and established his rule there, defying attempts to conquer him. Diocletian and Maximian finally recognized (c.289) him as coemperor, and he established his rule in NE Gaul as well as in Britain. In 293, however, Constantius (later Constantius I) defeated him, and he was murdered by one of his own men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Brennus, d. 279 B.C., Gallic leader. He was in command of the band of Gauls (or Galatians) who invaded Greece in 279 B.C. At first halted at Thermopylae, he later turned and took the pass into Doris. He was wounded in an unsuccessful attack on Delphi and is supposed to have committed suicide on the northward retreat after the Gauls were attacked by the Thessalians. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Brennus, fl. c.389 B.C., legendary Gallic leader. He occupied Rome but failed to take the Capitol from Manlius (Marcus Manlius Capitolinus). According to legend, when the tribute that the Romans had agreed to pay was being weighed, a Roman complained, whereupon Brennus threw his sword on the scale, crying,Vae victis! [woe to the vanquished]. His historical existence is dubious. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Vigilantius (vĭj″ĭlăn′shəs), fl. 400, Christian priest of Gaul who was violently opposed by St. Jerome. Jerome's letters and a tract, Liber contra Vigilantium, declare that Vigilantius denied the efficacy of relics, prayers to the saints, almsgiving, celibacy of the clergy, and monasticism. His works are not extant. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Senones (sēnō′nēz, sĕn′ōnēz), name of two distinct groups of ancient people of Gaul. One settled in NE Italy S of the Po in the 4th cent. B.C; the other lived in the valley of the Seine. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Rubicon (rōō′bĭkŏn), Lat. Rubico, small stream that flows into the Adriatic and in Roman times marked the boundary between Cisalpine Gaul and ancient Italy. In 49 B.C., after some hesitation, Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon to march against Pompey in defiance of the senate's orders. He thus committed himself to conquer or to perish, and to cross the Rubicon now means to take an irrevocable step. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Nervii (nûr′vēī), ancient people of Belgica, Gaul. They revolted against the Romans and were crushed by Julius Caesar (57 B.C.). Their capital was Bagacum, the present-day Bavay, France. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]