The Roman occupation of Provence lasted six centuries, beginning more than one hundred years before the birth of Christ, and surviving until well after most of Europe had become Christian. Today the region remains richer in Roman monuments than anywhere in the world. They are everywhere you look, from vast amphitheatres and triumphal arches to paved road and aqueducts which bestride the countryside. Two thousand years later, the Roman genius for engineering still astonishes. Provence owes its name to Julius Caesar who described the region as the 'Province of Rome'. It was then a much larger area, stretching westwards to include Languedoc and Roussillon as far as the Pyrenees, eastward to the Riviera and the Maritimes Alps, and northwards up the Rhone Valley as far as Lyon. This book covers much of that larger area while concentrating on the area of present-day Provence and neighbouring Languedoc, the heartlands of the former Roman colony.
