History Main articles: History of Paris and Timeline of Paris

Etymology

See Wiktionary for the name of Paris in various languages other than English and French.

In the 1860s Paris streets and monuments were illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps, giving it the name

"The City of Light."

The name "Paris" is derived from its early inhabitants, the Celtic Parisii tribe.[10]

Paris is often referred to as "The City of Light" (La Ville Lumière),[11]

both because of its leading

role during the Age of Enlightenment, and more literally because Paris was one of the first

European cities to adopt gas street lighting. In the 1860s, the boulevards and streets of Paris were

illuminated by 56,000 gas lamps.[12]

Since the late 19th century, Paris is also known as Panam(e)

(pronounced: [panam]) in French slang.[13]

Inhabitants are known in English as "Parisians" and in French as Parisiens ([paʁizjɛ]̃ ( listen)),

pejoratively also called Parigots ([paʁiɡo] ( listen)).[note 1][14]

Origins

The Parisii, a sub-tribe of the Celtic Senones, inhabited the Paris area from around the middle of

the 3rd century BC.[15][16]

One of the area's major north-south trade routes crossed the Seine on

the île de la Cité; this meeting place of land and water trade routes gradually became a town and

an important trading centre.[17]

The Parisii traded with many river towns as far away as the

Iberian Peninsula, and minted their own coins for that purpose.[18]

Gold coins minted by the Parisii (1st century BC)

The Romans conquered the Paris basin in 52 BC and,[19]

after making the island a garrison camp,

began extending their settlement in a more permanent way to Paris's Left Bank. The Gallo-

Roman town was originally called Lutetia (more fully, Lutetia Parisiorum, "Lutetia of the

Parisii"). It became a prosperous city with a forum, baths, temples, theatres, and an

amphitheatre.[20]

By the end of the Western Roman Empire, the town was known simply as Parisius in Latin and

Paris in French.[21]

Christianity was introduced in the middle of the 3rd century AD. According

to tradition, it was brought by Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris. When he refused to renounce

his faith, he was beheaded on the hill which became known as the "Mountain of Martyrs" (Mons

Martyrum), eventually "Montmartre". His burial place became an important religious shrine; the

Basilica of Saint-Denis was built there and became the burial place of the French Kings.[22]

Clovis the Frank, the first king of the Merovingian dynasty, made the city his capital from 508. A

gradual immigration by the Franks also occurred in Paris in the beginning of the Frankish

domination of Gaul which created the Parisian Francien dialects. Fortification of the Île-de-

France failed to prevent sacking by Vikings in 845 but Paris's strategic importance—with its

bridges preventing ships from passing—was established by successful defence in the Siege of

Paris (885–86). In 987 Hugh Capet, Count of Paris (comte de Paris), Duke of the Franks (duc

des Francs) was elected King of the Franks (roi des Franks). Under the rule of the Capetian

kings, Paris gradually became the largest and most prosperous city in France.[22]