Roman Republican governors of Gaul

The early history of Romano-Celtic relations begins during a period of Gallic expansionism on the Italian Peninsula, with the capture of Rome by Gauls in 390 BC (or more likely 387) and the suspiciously fortuitous[7] rescue of the city by Camillus after the Romans had already surrendered.

The dictatorship most likely originated as a military office;[15] both Cicero and Livy thought that its purpose was to ensure strategic oversight and unified command in wartime — the dictator is he who gives the word (dictum).

The Roman custom that a commander had to lay down arms outside the city limits (pomerium) before entering also suggests how the powers of the dictator originally might have been restricted within the civil realm;[16] he could not, for instance, override the people's tribunes.

In 360, a dictator had been named to quell the Celtic crisis (Gallicus tumultus); one of the consuls that year had the specific task (provincia) of dealing with the Gallic alliance based in Tibur (modern-day Tivoli).

The dictatores continued most often to have a military role into the Middle Republic, but when Sulla revived the office in the late 80s, it had fallen into disuse for more than a century, in part because a system had developed for assigning provincial commands with administrative oversight as a result of permanent annexations of territories.

The defeat of the Senones and Boii in the late 280s had brought the occupation of the Ager Gallicus along the Adriatic and the establishment of the first Roman colony in previously Gallic territory.

[46] Ostensibly, this land had been ager publicus, that is, owned by the public; in practice, it was exploited for the benefit of the senatorial elite, who objected vehemently to the redistribution program.

In the absence of an ideal leader who was both a bold and experienced general and a masterful diplomat and meticulous administrator, provincial governorships were liable to exploitive practices of self-enrichment that damaged the legitimacy of Roman rule.

Many Transpadanes, or residents of Cisalpina north of the Po,[53] were Romans or held Latin rights, but the issue of blanket citizenship was not fully resolved until 49, with the passage of a law by Caesar.

The following table lists consuls, praetors and promagistrates—no dictatores are recorded against the Gauls—assigned to Gallia until 125 BC, when the administration of Cisalpina should be considered in light of actions in Transalpine Gaul.

The establishment of the Transalpine province is usually dated to the military victories of Domitius Ahenobarbus and Quintus Fabius Maximus over the Arverni and Allobroges in the 120s, and the refounding of Narbo as a Roman colony in 118 BC.

[199] One factor in the Roman drive to control southern Gaul had been the desire for a secure land route to the Iberian peninsula (Hispania), where the Celtiberians (Celtiberi) also spoke a form of Celtic or a language closely related to it, with at least some cultural similarities to the other Celts.

Following the civil wars of the 40s, Narbonensis seems to refer specifically to the established province in southern Gaul, while Transalpina may include new territories claimed through Caesar's military campaigns in formerly independent Celtica and formally organized later by Augustus.

In the tumultuous period following Caesar's death, during the ascendancy of the Second Triumvirate, Gaul was acted upon by various commanders, until M. Vipsanius Agrippa arrived as proconsul in 39 to quell unrest.

Scholars have paid relatively scant attention to the question of why Gaul failed to take advantage of Rome's disarray during the civil wars of the 40s and 30s to revolt in toto; it is sometimes assumed that the population was too decimated to take a stand, but the numbers in so far as they are known make this unlikely.

[252] In 44 BC, Antony was the proconsul assigned to both Cisalpina and Transalpina; his ability to come to an understanding with the Gauls, as demonstrated by his arrangements with Commius, is further indicated by the willingness of a Sequanian leader to execute Decimus Brutus at his behest.