ABSTRACT
Groups of Celts migrated into modern-day France in the first millennium b.c.e. and integrated with the prehistoric peoples who lived there. They established villages and built trade routes with towns along the Mediterranean Sea, including the Greek colony of Massilia (Marseille), founded around 600 b.c.e. Although they shared similarities in language, art, and religion, the various tribes were often at war with one another. The capitals of these tribes evolved into the first Gallic towns; Paris, for instance, took its name from the Parisii people. Gallic art shows the influence of the classical world, and the Gauls began to circulate coinage in the third century b.c.e. Gaul was full of sites for Celtic worship, wherein Druids presided over sacred rituals.
