Gaul
Gaul names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below. 1 of them is described by more than one encyclopedia.
Gaul or GALLIA, the country of the ancient Gauls
Described by 2 of the 6 encyclopedias.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
or GALLIA, the country of the ancient Gauls. It extended at one time from the Pyrenees to the Rhir Rhine, and included also a part of Italy. Hence it was divided into Gaul on this side (the Roman side) of the Alps, or Gallia Cisalpina, and Gaul beyond the Alps, or Gallia Transalpina. Latterly the former was regarded quite as part of Italy, and the name Gallia was restricted to Transalpine Gaul, or the country nearly corresponding to modern France . Julius Cæsar, about the middle of the 1st century B. C., found Transalpine Gaul divided into three parts: (1) Aquitania, extending from the Pyrenees to the Garonne, chiefly occupied by Iberian tribes; (2) Gallia Celtica, Celtic Gaul, from the Garonne to the Seine and Marne ; (3) Gallia Belgica, Belgic Gaul, in the N., extending to the Rhine. Cisal
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
in ancient geography, the country of the Celtic people known as Gauls. Our knowledge of the Gauls and their country is derived chiefly from Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic Wars. Gaul in Caesar's day included a part of Italy and the vast extent of territory extending from the Rhine to the Pyrenees. Several important migrations took place. In 390 B. C. the Gauls sacked Rome. A colony intrenched in Asia Minor was known to the Apostles as the Galatians. France is sometimes called Gaul. See Celts
Gaul ALFRED ROBERT, an English composer and organist
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
ALFRED ROBERT, an English composer and organist; born in Norwich, England, in 1837. He was chorister and assistant organist of Norwich Cathedral 1846-1859; organist of St. Augustine's Church, Edgbaston, Birmingham; Mus. B., Cambridge, 1861 . An oratorio, "Hezekiah," the cantatas "Ruth" (1881), First Psalm, Ninetysixth Psalm, "Holy City" (1882), " Passion Music," "The Ten Virgins" (1890 ) , dedicated to the choirs of America, and secular part songs attained success. He died in 1913.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Both accounts lean almost wholly on Caesar — Aiton's says plainly in 1910 that "our knowledge of the Gauls and their country is derived chiefly from Caesar's Commentaries." That is no longer true: a century of excavation at the great hilltop towns, Bibracte on Mont Beuvray, Gergovia, and the siege works at Alise-Sainte-Reine identified as Caesar's Alesia, has produced Gaulish coinage, workshops, imported wine amphorae and planned streets, so the Gauls are now read as a literate-adjacent, urbanised, trading society rather than the tribal backdrop to a Roman campaign. Aiton's date of 390 B.C. for the sack of Rome is the traditional Roman one; most historians now follow Polybius and place it about 387 or 386 B.C. Scholars have also grown wary of "the Celtic people" as a single ethnic label, treating it as a description of language and material culture rather than of a nation.
Written for this edition, 2026.