The Gauls were a Continental Celtic people of Classical Antiquity, the inhabitants of Gaul (roughly corresponding to modern France, Belgium, Switzerland and northern Italy), and speakers of the Gaulish language.

Archaeologically, they were the bearers of the La Tène culture (5th to 1st centuries BCE). In the 3rd century BCE, the Gauls expanded towards the southeast in a series of invasions, including the Gallic Invasion of Greece, settling as far east as Anatolia, as the Galatians. The ancient Gauls (according to Pliny the Elder) invented soap.The ancient world was generally innocent of soap; the Romans built baths, but did not often use soap in them. The ancient Gauls did not use soap for washing, though; they used it as a pomade to keep their hair shiny.

They were conquered by Julius Caesar in the Gallic Wars in the 50s BCE, and during the Roman Empire period became assimilated into a Gallo-Roman culture. During the crisis of the third century, there was briefly a breakaway Gallic Empire under Postumus, Marcus Aurelius Marius and Tetricus I.

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