The Gallic rooster () is a national symbol of France as a nation, as opposed to Marianne representing France as a state and its values: the Republic. The rooster is also the symbol of the Wallonia region and the French Community of Belgium. France During the times of Ancient Rome, Suetonius, in The Twelve Caesars, noticed that, in Latin, rooster (gallus) and Galli (Gallus) were homonyms. However, the association of the Gallic rooster as a national symbol is apocryphal, as the rooster was neither regarded as a national personification nor as a sacred animal by the Gauls in their mythology and because there was no "Gallic nation" at the time, but a loose confederation of Gallic nations instead. But a closer review within that religious scheme indicates that "Mercury" was often portrayed with the cockerel, a sacred animal among the Continental Celts. Julius Caesar in De Bello Gallico identified some gods worshipped in Gaul by using the names of their nearest Roman god rather than their Gaulish name, with Caesar saying "Mercury" was the god most revered in Gaul. The Irish god Lug identified as samildánach led to the widespread identification of Caesar's Mercury as Lugus and thus also to the sacred cockerel, the Gallic rooster, as an emblem of France. Its association with France dates back from the Middle Ages and is due to the play on words in Latin between Gallus, meaning an inhabitant of Gaul, and gallus, meaning rooster, or cockerel. Its use, by the enemies of France, dates to this period, originally a pun to make fun of the French, the association between the rooster and the Gauls/French was developed by the kings of France for the strong Christian symbol that the rooster represents: prior to being arrested, Jesus predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the rooster crowed on the following morning. At the rooster's crowing, Peter remembered Jesus's words. Its crowing at the dawning of each new morning made it a symbol of the daily victory of light over darkness and the triumph of good over evil. It is also an emblem of the Christian's attitude of watchfulness and readiness for the sudden return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and the final judgment of humankind. That is why, during the Renaissance, the rooster became a symbol of France as a Catholic state and became a popular Christian image on weather