First named Lutetia, then Paris in reference to the Gallic people "Parisii", the town became gradually a real city developping around the river: la Seine.
The "island of the city" then became the heart of the city, for both trade and military reasons. The construction of bridges allows easy access to both banks. The city became a dedicated place to trading goods and merchandises coming from the South.
Conquered by Rome in 52 BC, the Parisians converted to Christianisme and the city became a trade axis for the Roman Empire.
Many remains of the Roman city can still be seen in Paris : the thermal bath of Cluny and the Lutetia arena, exposed in the 19th century are must see monuments from that era.
Then after people from the East invaded the city, weakening the Roman Empire leading to its fall in 476 and therefore forcing the city to organize its own defensive system under the authority of its Evêque.
King Clovis made Paris the capital of the Franc Kingdom but the city was abandonned by the last of the Merovingians kings and declined under the Carolingian dynasty, Charlemagne having settled its Capital in Aix la Chapelle.
The normand invasions devastated then city and after about a century of Viking domination, Paris was taken over by the Capetian dynasty in 861.
Under King Hugues Capet, crowned as the king of France in 987 and then under the Capetian dynasty, Paris that first was the capital of a small kingdom became a first rank city to enter the Middle Age.
Paris in the Middle Age , Paris and the renaissance, Paris in the 19th century
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