Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/659

GAUL 647 it without being disturbed. See Symons's "Practical Gauger," Leadbetter's "Treatise on Gauging," Hutton's "Mensuration," &c. GAUL (Lat. Gallia), the name applied by the Romans to two great divisions of their empire, Cisalpine and Transalpine (in regard to Rome). I. Cisalpine Gaul (Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior), comprising the north of Italy to the confines of Etruria and Umbria, was divided by the Po (Padus) into Oispadane and Transpadane. It was also called Gallia Togata, or Romanized Gaul, from the inhabitants wearing togas like the Romans. It was bounded N. W. and N. by the Alps, E. by the Athesis (now Adige), S. E. by the Adriatic, S. by the Rubicon, the Apennines, the Macra (Magra), and the moun- tains of Liguria. Both divisions of this por- tion, like all Transalpine Gaul, were inhabit- ed mostly by people of Celtic race (Gaelic and Kymric), called by the Romans in general Gauls (Galli), by the Greeks Ketocu or TaTiarai ; the Tuscan and some other elements of the population in Cisalpine Gaul, and the Gel to- Teutonic, Teutonic, Celto-Iberian, Iberian, and Greek in Transalpine Gaul, were comparative- ly small. (See CELTS.) It is generally believed that the Gauls, who are undoubtedly a branch of the great Indo-European family, left their Asiatic homes before the dawn of European history, and occupied the western regions on the Rhine, Seine, Rh6ne, and Garonne, Ebro, and Tagus, as well as the islands of Britain, when the Roman state was still in its infancy. Turbulent, roving, and warlike, some of the tribes entered northern Italy, according to Livy, under Bellovesus, a nephew of King Ara- bigatus, in the time of Tarquin the Elder. Others are said by the same historian to have returned eastward toward the Hercynian for- est, under Sigovesus, another nephew of Ambi- gatus. Still others appeared later, though it is uncertain whence they came, in Macedonia, Thrace, and Greece, where they were reported at Delphi, 278 B. 0. ; and even in Asia Minor, where they founded Galatia or Gallo-Grascia (see GALATIA), in Syria, and in Egypt. There are no precise historical dates for the consecu- tive invasions of Cisalpine Gaul by the Celts ; they are supposed to have occupied several centuries. Tribe followed tribe, and finally we find the Salassians settled in the vicinity of Ivrea (Eporedia), the Insubrians about Milan (Mediolanum), the Cenomani in the region of Verona and Mantua, the Boii in the country lately forming the duchies of Parma and Mo- dena and about Bologna (Bononia), the Lin- gones about Ravenna, the Senones, who came last, in the S. E. part of Cispadane Gaul, and other tribes in various other parts of the coun- try. It was not long after the conquest of Veil by the Romans that this people came in contact with the Gauls. These invaders had conquered the northern possessions of the Etruscan confederacy while the Romans were making their attacks on its southern districts. They had pushed the Umbrians southward. taken Melpum (about 396 B. 0.), crossed the Apennines under one of their Brenni, as their chiefs were called, and advanced as far as Clusium. The Tuscans of this city sought aid from the Romans, who sent no army to their assistance, but despatched the Fabii as envoys to deter the barbarians. The envoys only pro- voked them, and excited their hostility against Rome. Brennus broke up the camp before Clusium, crossed the Tiber, routed the Romans on the Allia, entered Rome through open gates, and pillaged it ; but after an obstinate siege of the capitol, he sold his conquest for gold and retired with his army. Subsequent invasions proved disastrous to the barbarians. In 367 they were routed near Alba by Marcus Camillus. In 361 another host, like the first of the Senonian tribe, encamped before the Anio bridge, but marched further toward Cam- pania before fighting a battle. Shortly after returning from Campania they renewed their ravages, and fought unsuccessfully against the dictators Ahala and Peticus. In 350 they again encamped before Rome, keeping it in perpetual terror ; but in the following year L. Furius Camillus, a nephew of Marcus, compelled them to retire. When in a later period the Gauls assisted the Umbrians and Etruscans against the advancing Romans, they were routed in the battle of Sentinum (295), where many of them fought on war chariots, and near Lake Vadi- mon (283). These disasters, suffered chiefly by the Senonian and Boian Gauls, put an end to Gallic wars in Italy for nearly 60 years. The Romans, who had conquered Umbria, founded their first colony in Cispadane Gaul, in the land of the Senones, calling it Sena Gallica (now Sinigaglia) ; Ariminum (Rimini) was founded afterward. The Gauls were too much weakened to offer any opposition. Being strengthened by the arrival of large bodies from beyond the Alps, they took up arms again in 225, and crossed the Apennines, but were soon compelled to retreat, and were routed at Tela- mon. The Romans continued the war with great vigor, conquered the land of the Boii, crossed the Po, on the opposite banks of which they soon after founded Cremona and Placen- tia (Piacenza), and subdued the Insubrians (221). When Hannibal crossed the Alps (218) he was eagerly joined by numerous Gauls, but after his final defeat Cisalpine Gaul became an easy prey to the victorious legions. It was made a Roman province at the beginning of the following century, received numerous new Roman colonies, became civilized, industrious, and flourishing, and finally obtained the privi- leges of Roman citizenship. Of the eleven divisions of Italy, as established under Au- gustus, it formed the last four. The Salas- sians, who revolted under the same reign, were nearly exterminated. The Romanization of the province was rapidly developed, and from this time its history becomes identified with that of the Roman empire. II. Transalpine Gaul (Gallia Transalpine or Ulterior) was bounded