Beginning our inquiry into the identity of historic France, in this episode we discuss Gaul and Romano-Gallic civilisation from the pre-historical Hallstatt Culture to the fall of the Kingdom of Soissons.
Gaul from a thriving Bronze Age and later Iron Age culture would routinely engage with the Hellenic and Roman worlds as evidenced from their utilisation of the Greek alphabet. As a culture the 'Gauls' extended from modern day France and northern Spain, to northern Italy, the Balkans and Turkey, though never as a united Empire to rival the Romans. Only against Caesar's invasion would the Gauls politically unite under Vercingetorix only to be defeated at Alessia and Gaul transformed into three Roman provinces. Culturally, the Gauls were united by a druidic caste, that were systematically eliminated by the Romans. Ironically the last remnant of Roman authority in the West would exist as the rump state of the domain of Soissons to resist the German migrations before the conquest of Clovis.
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