Gauls

These were the people of Europe in the centuries immediately BC. They settled around France and Germany. They were Caucasian in appearance. They had no central government, but operated as a series of tribes, and were connected by a common language.

They were mainly labeled as the “Gauls” by the Romans, who were to the south of them. The Romans and the Gauls fought each other in a series of wars, eventually being won by Rome in the first century BC. The Gauls and the Romans intermixed, leading to the former eventually disappearing.

Romans often described the Gauls as being physically tall and large.

“Gaul” was a place name used by the Romans to refer to anywhere from the English Channel to Eastern Germany – essentially the entirety of Western Europe.

Why I Looked It Up

The novel The First Man in Rome is set during the the first century BC. One of the characters just went north to fight the Gauls.

In that book, the Gauls are also referred to as the “Germans.”