This book studies the processes conventionally termed "Romanization" through an analysis of the experience of Roman rule over the Gallic province of the empire in the period 200 BC-AD 300. It examines how and why Gallo-Roman civilization emerged from the confrontation between the iron-age cultures of Gaul and the civilization we call classical. It develops an original synthesis and argument that will form a bridge between the disciplines of classics and archaeology and will be of interest to all students of cultural change.

"[Woolf] has, however, produced a study that any serious student of the ancient world must read, and that is without question the best book on the western provinces written this decade."

"...the scholarship is well documented. It will be of valuable to numismatists in the sense that it provides a cultural setting in which the Roman coinage of the region...can be understood. We recommend it for the serious student of roman Gaul and provincial life in general."

"It is a essential read for those scholars interested in the cultural change undergone by the provincials of first-century Gaul."