The south of France was
colonized by the
Romans
by around 120 BC in
order to expand their
trading operations, and
they set up substantial
settlements at
Marseille, Narbonne,
Orange, Arles, Fréjus,
Glanum near St-Rémy,
and Nice, with a network
of roads linking them.
The Romans were fine
town-planners, linking
complexes of buildings
with straight roads
punctuated by decorative
fountains, arches and
colonnades. They built
essentially in the Greek
style, and their large,
functional buildings
were concerned more with
strength and solidity
than aesthetic. A number
of substantial Roman
building works survive:
in Nîmes you can
see the Maison Carrée,
the best-preserved Roman
temple still standing,
and the Temple of Diana,
one of just four vaulted
Roman temples in Europe.
Gateways remain at Autun,
Orange, Saintes and Reims
, and largely intact
amphitheatres can be
seen at Nîmes and Arles
. The Pont du Gard
aqueduct outside Nîmes
is still a magnificent
and ageless monument of
civil engineering, built
to carry the town's
fresh water over the
gorge, and Orange has
its massive theatre,
with Europe's only
intact Roman façade.
There are excavated
archeological sites at Glanum
near St-Rémy, Vienne,
Vaison-la-Romaine
and Lyon.
