The wars between the Gauls and the Romans cannot be reduced to the sole conquest of Gaul by Iulius Caesar. We must go back to the origins of Rome to explain the bitter struggle that defined the history of these two peoples.

In 396 BC, Camillus, dictator for six months, takes the city of Veies. Rome then fights the their neighbors and most dangerous enemies, the Etruscans. The arrival of Gallic peoples on the northern border of Etruria does not bother the Romans. It is, after all, a potential pressure on the Etruscans while themselves are attacking south.

In 390, Camille is removed and exiled due to his failure in the distribution of the spoils taken from Veies. Rome had lost its most skilled general, only to find that the Gauls were moving south, in mass, towards Rome. Resulting in a great battle with the Roman legions on the banks of River Allia, on July 18th.

Poorly commanded, the 40,000 Roman troops suffer a heavy defeat. Brennus, the Senon who leads the raid, finds himself three days later as the master of a city which had never been occupied during its 350 years of history. This defeat, engraved as "Allia Day" on Romans memories, will remain a deep wound in the Roman heart.

The struggle starts again and after nearly 150 years. The Gauls will take part to the "Samnite war", from 340 to 304 BC. Gauls will even take Delphs in 278 BC, and a few Gauls carry their campaign to Asia Minor where they form the Galate kingdom.

Meanwhile, the Romans, who have finally gained control of almost all Italia, collide with the Carthaginians in the Mediterranean. During this first "Punic war", Rome loses many soldiers. This state of weakness does not escape the Gauls’s attention, and they ally the Ligures and go to war with Rome yet again. Rome must fight on two fronts for another war.

Around 230 BC, at Chiusi, Rome finally wins. The victory is decisive, and consul Caius Flaminius’s legions continue forward and annex the Cisalpine Gaul, in 223 BC.

In 224, consul Marcellus defeats in single combat, under the eyes of both armies, Virdumar the king of Insubre Gauls. The Insubres surrender and Mediolanum (Milano), their capital, is taken by the Romans.

However, while Rome welcomes and celebrates its consul and believes that it has ended the Gallic threat, the capture of Sagonte (Spain) by the Carthaginians in 219 BC gives to Gauls a new opportunity. Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, soon understands the advantage to an alliance with the Gauls: so that he may cross their territories with his army in his coming march to Italy, through the Alps.

Sextus Apollonius Scipio