Their raids throughout the three parts of Gaul were traumatic: Gregory of Tours ( died ca 594 ) mentions their destructive force at the time of Valerian and Gallienus ( 253 – 260 ), when the Alemanni assembled under their " king ", whom he calls Chrocus, who " by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother, and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times.

The city had not been under the control of a foreign force since an invasion of Gauls some eight centuries before.

During his first Consulship, he was awarded a triumph for his victory over the Ligurians, a tribe of Gauls, whom he had defeated and then driven into the Alps.

Having already acculturated various aspects of Hellenic culture, ancient writers and up through the 17th century such as Francis Bacon and other Renaissance writers called them " Gallo-Graeci ", " Gauls settled among the Greeks " and the country " Gallo-Graecia ", as had the 3rd century AD Latin historian Justin.

The Gauls had some success at first at Gergovia, but were ultimately defeated at Alesia in 52 BC.

Hannibal quartered his troops for the winter with the Gauls, whose support for him had abated.

From its foundation Rome, although losing occasional battles, had been undefeated in war until 386 BC, when it was briefly occupied by the Gauls.

In Asia Minor too, the Seleucid dynasty seemed to be losing control — Gauls had fully established themselves in Galatia, semi-independent semi-Hellenized kingdoms had sprung up in Bithynia, Pontus, and Cappadocia, and the city of Pergamum in the west was asserting its independence under the Attalid Dynasty.

In addition to the Gauls, there were other peoples living in Gaul, such as the Greeks and Phoenicians who had established outposts such as Massilia ( present-day Marseille ) along the Mediterranean coast.

It had been presumed that this title was by this time purely nominal, with auxiliary troops being recruited locally, but an inscription found in a recent season of excavations suggests that native Gauls were still to be found in the regiment and that they liked to distinguish themselves from British soldiers.

The stone buildings were demolished, and a large new stone fort was built where the huts had been, for the 4th Cohort of Gauls.

In the 1st century AD, sterling qualities such as those enumerated above by Fénelon ( excepting perhaps belief in the brotherhood of man ) had been attributed by Tacitus in his Germania to the German barbarians, in pointed contrast to the softened, Romanized Gauls.

Now being emperor of the Gauls, Victorinus was soon to be in a precarious position, for the Spanish provinces had deserted the Gallic Empire and declared their loyalty to Claudius, while in southern France, Placidianus had captured Grenoble.

When many were evidently taking the side of the Gauls and Germans, the time had come for him to act on public opinion.

According to " later accounts, more or less trustworthy ", Fabian sent out the " apostles to the Gauls " to Christianize Gaul after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian communities.

During the 3rd century BCE, the Romans subdued the Insubres, Gauls who had crossed the Alps and settled around Mediolanum ( now Milan ).

The alliance had allowed the Triumvirs to dominate Roman politics completely, but it would not last indefinitely due to the ambitions, egos, and jealousies of the three ; Caesar and Crassus were implicitly hand-in-glove, but Pompey disliked Crassus and grew increasingly envious of Caesar's spectacular successes in the Gallic War, whereby he annexed the whole of the Three Gauls to Rome.

In 268 BC at the mouth of the Ariminus river, in an area that had previously been inhabited by the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Greeks and the Gauls, the Romans founded the colony of Ariminum, probably from the name of a nearby river, Ariminus ( today, Marecchia ).

Once the Gauls were repelled, the senate built a temple and altar ( known as Ara Aius Locutius, or Ara Saepta ) to propitiate the unknown deity who had offered the warning.

By c. 391 BC, the city's overspill had overtaken the Aventine and the Campus Martius, and left the city vulnerable to attack ; around that year, the Gauls overran and temporarily held the city.

In the West, this was a novelty, as the Gauls, Germans and Celts had no native precedent for ruler cult or a Roman-style administration.

Clusium was reached by the Gauls, who had invaded most of Etruria already, and its people turned to Rome for help.

According to Caesar, the captured Roman soldiers were ordered to pass through under a yoke set up by the triumphant Gauls, a dishonour that called for both public as well as private vengeance.

The distinction between the Belgae to the North and the Gauls to the south of them, whom Caesar called Celts, is disputed.

The original population appears to have consisted of Pannonians ( a people kin to the Illyrians ), who, after the great migration of the Gauls, became subordinate to various Celto-Ligurians tribes, chief amongst them being the Taurisci, who were probably identical with the Norici of Roman sources, so called after their capital Noreia, whose location is, as yet, unknown.

Lodi was a Celtic village ; in Roman times it was called in Latin Laus Pompeia ( probably in honor of the consul Gnaeus Pompeius Strabo ) and was known also because its position allowed many Gauls of Gallia Cisalpina to obtain Roman citizenship.

Originally called Samarobriva (" Somme bridge ") by the Gauls, the town was later given the name Ambianum by the Romans as it was a settlement of the Gallic Ambiani people.

In modern Spanish Guaraní is also applied to refer to any Paraguayan national in the same way that Mexicans are labelled Aztecs and French are called Gauls.

The Trojans win most of their battles but are conscious that the Gauls have the advantage of numbers, so go back to their ships and sail for Britain, then called Albion.

In addition to the levies of militia the Franks normally called up to buttress their forces, he formed an army of Gauls and Germans approximately 30, 000 strong.

For those who first passed the Rhine and expulsed the Gauls, and are now named Tungrians, were then called Germani.

The Gauls called the area Mol-Dum ( sand dune ), and the Romans Latinized the name as Moldunum.

Julius Caesar describes Gaul at the time of his conquests ( 58-51 BC ) as divided into three parts, inhabited by the Aquitani in the southwest, the Gauls of the biggest central part, who in their own language were called Celtae, and the Belgae in the north.

" He was, nevertheless, of some benefit to the Gauls, for he crushed the Alamanni — who then were still called Germans — and not without illustrious glory, though he never fought save in brigand-fashion " ( Historia Augusta )

In a comment in his Germania Tacitus remarks that Germani was the original tribal name of the Tungri with whom the Gauls were in contact ; among the Gauls the term Germani came to be widely applied. The name Germany, on the other hand, they say, is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans.

Tacitus suggests that it was in this very region that the term Germani started to be used, even though he mentions a tribe Caesar did not mention, the Tungri. The name Germany, on the other hand, they say, is modern and newly introduced, from the fact that the tribes which first crossed the Rhine and drove out the Gauls, and are now called Tungrians, were then called Germans.

In the early 4th century BC ( 391 BC according to Varronian chronology ) it was besieged by Gauls, and the Clusines called upon Rome to intermediate.

His scouts met the Gauls ' advanced foragers head on near Telamon ( modern Talamone ), in an area called Campo Regio.

In the second half of the 3rd century BC, the Boii allied with the other Cisalpine Gauls and the Etruscans against Rome.

Everyone expected to soon see the new Gauls outside of the gates of Rome.

* 390 BC – Roman-Gaulish Wars: Battle of the Allia – a Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome.

According to the legend, the Gauls offered to deliver Rome back to its people for a thousand pounds of gold, but the Romans refused, preferring to take back their city by force of arms rather than ever admitting defeat, after which the Romans recovered the city in the same year.

The tablets were probably destroyed when Rome was conquered and burned by the Gauls in 387 BC.

The prosperity of Mediterranean Gaul encouraged Rome to respond to pleas for assistance from the inhabitants of Massilia, who were under attack by a coalition of Ligures and Gauls.

Gauls in Rome

In 390 BC the city of Rome was attacked by the Gauls, and as a result may have lost many-though not all-of its earlier records.

It was an all-out attempt by all the neighbors of Rome: Italics, Etruscans and Gauls, to check the power of Rome.

* Gaius Flaminius Nepos is elected consul for the first time, and with Publius Furius Philus he forces the Cisalpine Gauls to submit to Rome, creating the province of Cisalpine Gaul.

* A formidable host of Gauls, some of them from across the Alps, threaten Rome.

Outside Lugdunum was the Condate Altar, where representatives of the Three Gauls met to celebrate the cult of Rome and Augustus.

* The Gauls, once more threatening Rome, are decisively beaten by an army comprising Rome and its allies.

* Quintus Fabius Ambustus and two other Fabii are sent as ambassadors by Rome to a wandering tribe of Celts ( whom the Romans call Gauls ), under Brennus, who are advancing down the Tiber while the Celtic army is besieging Clusium.

After Quintus Fabius ' group become involved in a skirmish with the Gauls and kill one of the Gauls ' leaders, the offended Gauls demand that Rome surrender the Fabii members to them.

The Romans refuse, so the Gauls advance on Rome.

* July 18 – Battle of the Allia: Brennus, a chieftain of the Senones of the Adriatic coast of Italy, leads an army of Cisalpine Gauls in their attack on Rome.

In an initial battle through Rome's streets, the Gauls are ejected from the city and in a second battle away from the city, Camillus defeats the invaders, earning the title of the " Second Founder of Rome " for saving the city.

* Rome begins to rebuild after being invaded by the Gauls under Brennus.