Roman Gaul - After The Fall of Rome

After The Fall of Rome

The Roman administration finally collapsed as remaining troops were withdrawn southeast to protect Italy. Between 455 and 476 the Visigoths, the Burgundians, and the Franks assumed power in Gaul. However, certain aspects of the ancient Celtic culture continued after the fall of Roman administration and there was a remnant of the Empire for ten more years.

In 486, Gaul ceased to be a Roman state by the Franks at the Battle of Soissons. Almost immediately afterwards, Gaul came under the rule of the Merovingians, the first kings of France.

Certain Gallo-Roman aristocratic families continued to exert power in episcopal cities (as in the cases of the Mauronitus family in Marseilles and Bishop Gregory of Tours). The appearance of Germanic given and family names becomes noticeable in France from the middle of the 7th century on, most notably in powerful families, thus indicating that the centre of gravity had definitely shifted.

The Gallo-Roman, or Vulgar Latin, dialect of the late Roman period evolved into the dialects of the Oïl languages and Old French in the north, and Occitan in the south.

Gallia and its equivalents continued to be used, at least in writing, until the end of the Merovingian period. Slowly, during the Carolingian period, the expression Francia, then Francia occidentalis spread to describe the political reality of the kingdom of the Franks (regnum francorum).