ted merchant princes,
lawyers, soldiers, local potentates at home, and favorites of powerful
political personages in Rome and even in the colonies outside Gaul.
Natives of Gaul, too, reached the highest offices in the land, becoming
even members of the Senate; and later on a native Gaul became one of the
most noted of the Roman emperors. The political policy of Rome made the
imposition of the Latin language upon the cities of Gaul a comparatively
easy matter, requiring only time to assure its accomplishment.
Everywhere throughout the populous cities of Gaul there sprang up
schools that rivaled, in their efficacy and reputation, the most famous
institutions of Rome. Rich Romans sent their sons to these schools
because of their excellence and the added advantage that they could
acquire there a first-hand knowledge of the life and customs of the
natives, whom they might be called upon in the future to govern or to
have political or other relations with. Thus all urban Gaul traveled
Rome-ward--"all roads led to Rome."

The influence of Roman culture extended itself much more slowly over the
rural districts, the inhabitants of which, in addition to being much
more conservative and passionately attached to their native institutions
and language, lacked the incentive of ambition and of commercial and
trade necessity. A powerful Druidical priesthood held the rural Celts
together and set their faces against Roman culture and religion. But
even in the rural districts Latin made its way slowly and in a mangled
form, yet none the less surely. This was accomplished almost entirely
through the natural pressure from without exercised by the growing power
of the Latin tongue, which had greatly increased during the reign of the
Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.). Claudius, who was born in Lyon and
educated in Gaul, opened to the Gauls all the employments and dignities
of the empire. On the construction of the many extensive public works he
employed many inhabitants of Gaul in positions requiring faithfulness,
honesty, and skill. These, in their turn, frequently drew laborers from
the rural districts of Gaul. These latter, during their residence in
Rome or other Italian cities, or in the populous centers of Gaul,
acquired some knowledge of Latin. Thus, in time, through these and other
agencies, a sort of _lingua franca_ sprang up throughout the rural
districts of Gaul and served as a medium of communication between the
Celtic-speaking populat