![]() ![]() The local Celtic tribes adopted the Greek alphabet and they were influenced by statues and reliefs of Greek origin. Marseille had an influence also on the cultural and artistic development of the region. Julius Caesar - The Gallic Wars - Translation by W. In almost all matters, in their public and private transactions, they use Greek characters. (above) Lapidary Museum of Nîmes: Celtic inscription in Greek alphabet (below-left) Gallo-Roman Museum of Lyon-Fourvière: Trifrons (Three heads), a IInd century AD work which reflects Celtic models (below-right) Lapidary Museum of Nîmes: Pre-Roman relief It had an enormous influence on the development of the region by persuading the local tribes to turn to agriculture and to adopt advanced techniques, especially in the production of olive oil. Marseille was founded in ca 600 BC by Greek colonists from Phocaea. Nor do I pass you over, O Marseille, (.) a city, the strict discipline and wisdom of which I do not know whether I might not say was superior, not only to that of Greece, but to that of any nation whatever a city which, though so far separated from the districts of all the Greeks, and from their fashions and language, and though placed in the extremity of the world and surrounded by tribes of Gauls, and washed with the waves of barbarism, is so regulated and governed by the counsels of its chief men, that there is no nation which does not find it easier to praise its institutions than to imitate them.Ĭicero - Oration in defence of Lucius Flaccus - Translation by Charles Duke Yonge Museum of the History of Marseille: Greek votive stelae (VIth century BC) The bulk of trade with Rome was carried out by sea and a shipping company of Narbonne had a permanent statio (agency) at Ostia. Eventually the province became known as Gallia Narbonensis and another road ( Via Aurelia) linked it with Italy along the coast. In 118 BC they founded Narbo Martius, a Roman colony along Via Domitia, a military road from Italy to Spain which crossed the Alps. In a series of military expeditions in the 120s, they subjugated some of the local tribes and, with the acceptance of other tribes and the support of Marseille, a Greek town and a longtime ally of Rome, they were able to gain control of the coastal region of Southern France which was called Gallia Transalpina or Ulterior to distinguish it from Gallia Cisalpina or Citerior, i.e. Narbonne: a section of Via Domitia in the centre of the townĪt the end of the Third Punic War in 149 BC the Romans ruled most of the Iberian peninsula, but they had not conquered the territories along the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Spain. Thomas Graham Jackson - Byzantine and Romanesque Architecture - 1913 The amphitheatres at Nimes and Arles, the great theatreĪt Orange, and the stupendous aqueduct of the Pont du Of Roman architecture, and Italy itself cannot showĪnything superior to the temples at Nimes and Vienne, Provence is still full of splendid remains (.) The native language had given place to that of Italy,Īnd the Latin of Bordeaux was said to have been the ![]() Roman vigorous growth than in Gaul, especially in the south. In no province of the Roman Empire was LatinĬulture more firmly rooted, and in none did it show more Museum of Fine Arts of Berlin: Hubert Robert: The Ruins of Nîmes, Orange and Glanum - 1789 Pliny was the governor of Gallia Narbonensis in 70 AD. Pliny the Elder - Historia Naturalis - Translation by John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley. In the cultivation of the soil, the manners and civilization of the inhabitants, and the extent of its wealth, it is surpassed by none of the provinces, and, in short, might be more truthfully described as a part of Italy than as a province. From the remainder of Gaul, on the north, it is separated by the mountains Cebenna and Jura. (.) It is divided from Italy by the river Varus, and by the range of the Alps, the great safeguards of the Roman Empire. That part of the Gallias which is washed by the inland (Mediterranean ) sea is called the province of Gallia Narbonensis. Map of "Gallia Narbonensis", a Roman province, from "The Atlas of Ancient and Classical Geography by Samuel Butler - 1907": the blue dots indicate the main locations covered in this section: Lugdunum (Lyon), Vienna (Vienne), Vasio (Vaison-la-Romaine), Arausio (Orange), Avenio (Avignon), Nemausus (Nîmes), Arelate (Arles), Massilia (Marseille), Narbo (Narbonne), Tolosa (Toulouse) and Lugdunum Convenarum (Saint-Bertrand-des-Comminges) the red dots indicate towns which are covered in another section during the Middle Ages the territory of "Gallia Narbonensis" became known as "Languedoc", the region west of the River Rhone, and "Provence", that to the east of the river (relief at Glanum and quotation from Pliny: "It is More Similar to Italy than to a Province") ![]()
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