GALLIA COMATA

( (Latin: Long-haired Gaul), ) also called Tres Galliae (Three Gauls), in Roman antiquity, the land of Gaul that included the three provinces of (1) Aquitania, bordered by the Bay of Biscay on the west and the Pyrenees on the south; (2) Celtica (or Gallia Lugdunensis), with Lugdunum (Lyon) as its capital, on the eastern border of Gaul and extending northwest to include Brittany; and (3) Belgica (or Gallia Belgica), in the north, where Trier and Reims were the chief towns and many of the people were Germanic in origin. The only garrison was a single cohort at Lugdunum to guard the imperial mint, but the Rhine army could and did move rapidly into the Gallia Comata if trouble occurred. A fourth Roman province, Narbonensis, lay between them and the Mediterranean. It was governed by a proconsul appointed by the Senate, whereas each of the Tres Galliae was ruled by an imperial legate of praetorian standing.