Gaul or Gallia was a historical region located in modern-day France, ultimately conquered by and absorbed into the Roman Republic as it was transitioning into the Roman Empire.
"The Gauls" is a collective term used to describe a loose assortment of Celtic cultural identities in Gallia, Italia, Belgica, and Hispania, during the same time periods.
By AD 7, Gaul had been a Roman province for more than 50 years. While still primitive, Publius Quinctilius Varus did see signs of Romanization. After his first summer in Germany, he no longer disparaged Gaul, as he had discovered what primitive really meant.
During Gaul's conquest by Roman politician-general Julius Caesar in the 50s BCE, three Roman cohorts led by a tribune named Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, along with a Gaul named Viridovix, disappeared without a trace after being surrounded by a glowing dome of light.
The history of Gallia was of no small import to Monique Dutourd, as it had become her country of France. She wrote several theses about obscure points in Gallia's history, including its past relations with Germania which had become Allemagne.[2]