French history

First, it was influenced by ancient Greek civilization

Around 600 BC, the French aborigines were successively conquered by the Ancient Greeks and celts, and began to enter the civilized society.

At that time, the Ancient Greeks entered the Mediterranean coast of southern France by sea, established the earliest French cities; Then the Celts from eastern and northern Europe overland into France, conquered the Ancient Greeks and the Indigenous French, became the masters of France, later known as this group of Celts for Gaul (from the Celtic word "clan").

Earlier in the Neolithic period, the Iberians and Ligurians lived in the south and southeast of France. However, they were only some primitive tribes with backward production methods, and their civilization level was relatively backward compared with that of ancient Greece.

The ancient Greeks spread their civilization to the whole Mediterranean coast through navigation, trade and colonization, and southern France was also influenced by the ancient Greek civilization.

After the Ancient Greeks entered the southern part of France on the Mediterranean coast, they founded the colony of Marseille, France, which is the oldest city in France.

Origin of Gaul

There is a legend in Masalia that Euxineus, an ancient Greek, was a friend of a king in southern France. One day, when Euxinus went to a wedding held by the king for his daughter, the daughter gave him a glass of wine.

According to the local custom, if a girl likes a guest, she can hand him the wine. Whoever gets the girl's wine becomes the groom. Believing it to be the will of god, the king married his daughter to Euxinus.

The king also gave Massalia to Euxinus. Euxineus and his new wife built France's first city. The Greeks also founded cities like Provence and Nice in the south of France.

hundred years after the founding of Masalia, the Celts, who lived in central Europe, began to move into France in large numbers. The Celts soon conquered the natives of France and the cities founded by the Ancient Greeks.

After a long period of migration and reproduction, the Celts spread as far as the Rhine river in the east, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, the Pyrenees mountains and the Mediterranean Sea in the south. The Celts who lived in this region were called Gaul by the Romans, and the region they lived in was called Gaul.

Third, outward expansion

The Gauls formed tribal alliances in various places, slowly building on the settled tribes into villages and later cities.

In the fourth century BC, the Gauls began to expand into the Italian peninsula.

In 390 BC, Gaul commander Brenus led an invasion of the Roman Republic on the Italian peninsula. The Roman Senate hurriedly gathered more than ten thousand soldiers to meet the enemy on the banks of the Aria river outside Rome.

The Gauls had only three thousand men, but most of them were cavalry troops. They had the advantage over the Roman infantry and quickly defeated the Roman army. After the war, the Gauls sacked Rome. Later, the Gauls considered leaving Rome because of inadequate food supplies and widespread disease.

The beginning of decline

Brenus demanded that the Romans pay 1,000 pounds of gold for the redemption of Rome. When weighing gold, the Gauls rigged the scales, and Brennus even threw his sword into them.

The Romans protested, and Brunus said contemptuously, "What is that? It is only the conqueror who deserved it."

While the Gauls were still counting the gold, camillus, the Roman dictator, came with his army and repelled the Gauls and took back the gold, saying, "It is our custom that the Romans save their cities with iron, not gold."

Defeated, the Gauls had to withdraw from Rome.

After that, the Gauls and Romans were in a long standoff. Gallic civilization reached its zenith a century before Caesar's conquest, and then began to decline.