Gallo-Roman culture

This article is about the culture of Romanized areas of Gaul. For the political history of the brief "Gallic Empire" of the third century, see Gallic Empire.

Wall fragment with fresco of a Gallo-Roman man, from Evreux, 250–275 AD
Gallo-Roman figures found in Ingelheim am Rhein

Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context.[1] The well-studied meld of cultures[2] in Gaul gives historians a model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other less-studied Roman provinces.

Interpretatio romana offered Roman names for Gaulish deities such as the smith-god Gobannus,[3] but of the Celtic deities, only the horse-patroness Epona penetrated Romanized cultures beyond the confines of Gaul.[4]

The barbarian invasions began in the late 3rd century and forced upon Gallo-Roman culture fundamental changes in politics, economic underpinning and military organization. The Gothic settlement of 418 offered a double loyalty, as Western Roman authority disintegrated at Rome. The plight of the highly-Romanized governing class[5] is examined by R.W. Mathisen,[6] the struggles of bishop Hilary of Arles by M. Heinzelmann.[7]

Into the 7th century, Gallo-Roman culture would persist particularly in the areas of Gallia Narbonensis that developed into Occitania, Cisalpine Gaul, Orléanais, and to a lesser degree, Gallia Aquitania. The formerly-Romanized northern Gaul, once it had been occupied by the Franks, would develop into Merovingian culture instead. Roman life, centered on the public events and cultural responsibilities of urban life in the res publica and the sometimes luxurious life of the self-sufficient rural villa system, took longer to collapse in the Gallo-Roman regions, where the Visigoths largely inherited the status quo in 418. The Gallo-Roman language persisted in the northeast into the Silva Carbonaria, which formed an effective cultural barrier with the Franks to the north and the east, and in the northwest to the lower valley of the Loire, where Gallo-Roman culture interfaced with Frankish culture in a city like Tours and in the person of that Gallo-Roman bishop confronted with Merovingian royals, Gregory of Tours. Based upon mutual intelligibility, David Dalby counts seven languages descended from Gallo-Romance: Gallo-Wallon, French, Franco-Provençal (Arpitan), Romansh, Ladin, Friulian, and Lombard.[8] However, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing the Rhaeto-Romance languages, Occitano-Romance languages and Gallo-Italic languages.

  1. ^ For a recent survey on the Romanization of Gaulish culture, see Woolf, Greg (1998). Becoming Roman: The Origins of Provincial Civilization in Gaul. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (published 2003). doi:10.1017/CBO9780511518614. ISBN 0-521-41445-8.
  2. ^ Modern interpretations are revising the earlier dichotomy of "Romanization" and "resistance", especially as viewed, under the increased influence of archaeology, through the material remains of patterns of everyday consumption, as in Woolf 1998:169–205, who emphasised the finds at Vesontio/Besançon.
  3. ^ Pollini, John, ed. (2002). Gallo-Roman Bronzes and the Process of Romanization: The Cobannus Hoard. Monumenta Graeca et Romana. Vol. 9. Leiden: Brill Publishers. ISBN 978-90-04-12437-0.
  4. ^ Oaks, L. S. (1986). "The Goddess Epona: Concepts of Sovereignty in a Changing Landscape". In Henig, Martin; King, Anthony (eds.). Pagan Gods and Shrines of the Roman Empire. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monographs. Vol. 8. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 77–83. ISBN 0-947816-08-9.
  5. ^ Gilliard, Frank D. (October 1979). "The Senators of Sixth-Century Gaul". Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies. 54 (4). University of Chicago Press, on behalf of the Medieval Academy of America: 685–697. doi:10.2307/2850323. JSTOR 2850323. S2CID 162653671.
  6. ^ Mathisen, Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul: Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition (University of Texas Press) 1993.
  7. ^ M. Heinzelmann, "The 'affair' of Hilary of Arles (445) and Gallo-Roman identity in the fifth century" in Drinkwater and Elton 2002.
  8. ^ David Dalby, 1999/2000, The Linguasphere register of the world’s languages and speech communities. Observatoire Linguistique, Linguasphere Press. Volume 2. Oxford.[1]