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Roman Gaul: from Alesia to the first bishops
Lionel Royer · domaine public · Wikimedia Commons

Roman Gaul: from Alesia to the first bishops

14 min read

Rome comes to the aid of Marseille (125-121 BC); Narbonne and the Via Domitia (118); Gallic Wars (58-51), Gergovia, Bibracte and Alesia (52); Lugdunum (43); Augustus, the Three Gauls and Agrippa's roads; the altar of the confluence (12 BC); Maison carrée, theatre of Orange, Pont du Gard, amphitheatres (1st century); martyrs of Lyon (177); Gallic Empire and city walls (260-274); Constantine and the Council of Arles (314); Martin bishop of Tours (371)

Rome enters Gaul through Marseille and Narbonne, then Caesar takes it in eight years, from Gergovia to Alesia, and writes the story himself. Augustus divides it up, Agrippa crosses it with roads, Lyon becomes its capital with the altar of the Three Gauls, and the Gallic notables, now citizens, cover their cities with temples, theatres and arenas that are still standing. Then come the martyrs of 177, the walls of the 3rd century, Constantine and the Council of Arles in 314: Gaul changes gods without losing its stones. The route runs from Marseille to Saintes by way of the Rhône, Lyon, the Burgundy of the Aedui and the Auvergne, and the historians' chapter says what Caesar's figures are worth and where the quarrel over Alesia now stands.

The Provincia, before Caesar

Rome did not enter Gaul through Alesia, but through Marseille. The Greek colony, founded around 600 BC, was Rome's ally; threatened by the Salyes, it called for help, and the legions crossed the Alps in 125. The consul Sextius Calvinus destroyed the oppidum of Entremont and in 122 founded a garrison near hot springs, Aquae Sextiae, the future Aix; in 121, Domitius Ahenobarbus and Fabius Maximus crushed the Allobroges and the Arverni of King Bituitus. In 118, Rome founded at Narbonne, Narbo Martius, the first colony of Roman citizens outside Italy, and Domitius had the road that bears his name laid out, from Montgenèvre to the Pyrenees by way of Gap, Apt, Nîmes and Narbonne: the road to Spain. The country had no name; people said the Province, Provincia: Provence has kept the word. Marius defeated the Teutones there in 102, near Aix; Pliny the Elder would say of Narbonensis that it was “Italy rather than a province”. When Caesar received its governorship, in 58, the Provincia was sixty years old; “long-haired” Gaul began north of Vienne.

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