Early History

Sometime about 1000 B.C., Celtic-speaking people began to migrate from the east. They were fierce warriors and soon came to dominate the native population. The southern coast was visited by Phoenician and Greek traders, and about 600 B.C. Greeks founded the city of Massalis (Marseille). Settlers and traders penetrated the interior along river routes. In the second century B.C., Rome began to extend its control over Gaul (the region occupied by the Celts, including what is now France) by military conquest and colonization. The successful military campaigns of Julius Caesar from 58 B.C. to 51 B.C. brought the entire region under Roman authority.