The
oppidum of the
Gallic Parisii was on the
Ile de la Cité, which at that time was smaller than it is today and was linked to the riverbanks by two bridges. It appears to have been occupied by the Parisii ca. 250-225 B.C.
[3]
Lutetia became the chief city of the Gallic civitas Parisioruin in Lugdunensis Quarta, becoming Parisius in the 5th c. A.D. Roman
Lutetia was founded above the flood-prone point where the
Bièvre, a tributary of the
Seine, flows into that river. It was centered on the slopes of the hill later dedicated to
Saint Genevieve, on the left bank of the Seine, (which became known as the
Latin Quarter in the Middle Ages when the
Sorbonne University was founded.) Outlying suburbs on an island across from the confluence, the
Île de la Cité, which became the
Merovingian and modern centre of
Paris.
In 52 BC, a year or so before the end of the
Gallic Wars, the Parisi destroyed the bridges to the
Ile de la Cité. However the garrison led by
Vercingetorix's lieutenant Camulogenus, whose army camped on the
Mons Lutetius (where the
Panthéon is now situated), fell to the Roman military forces led by
Titus Labienus, one of
Julius Caesar's lieutenants. The Romans crushed the Gauls at nearby
Melun and took control of Lutetia.