The Architecture of Provence and the Riviera

by David MacGibbon

In 118 B.C. Q. Fabius Maximus and C. Domitius Ahenobarbus defeated the Avernes and Allobroges, and became masters of the Southern Celts. A Roman colony was then established at Narbo Martius (Narbonne), to secure the country and protect the road into Spain.

During the civil war Massilia espoused the cause of Pompey, a course which led to the town being besieged and taken by Caesar. Massilia was then Romanized and lost her colonies, but she still retained her letters and arts, and her schools continued to flourish under the Empire.

By the year 50 B.C. the whole of Gaul had been subdued by Julius Caesar. Colonies were established by him and his successors at Arles, Orange, Vienne, and all the important Gallic towns, and the country was thus brought under Roman rule and influence. Traces of the gradual passage from Greek to Roman culture are to be found in the monuments of the earlier centuries of the Christian era. This is observable in the change from the Greek to the Latin language, the Greek names assuming a Latin form and being inscribed in Roman characters.

Under Rome the towns of Gaul were adorned with the profusion of splendid public buildings universal throughout the Empire, every town being provided with its Forum and Temples, its Theatre, Amphitheatre, Baths, Aqueducts and Triumphal Arches. The style of architecture adopted was naturally that of the Romans, but in many buildings and sculptures of the early centuries, a strong Greek feeling may be detected. This is also the case at Pompeii, in Southern Italy, which was likewise originally a Greek colony.

During the second and third centuries, South Gaul gradually became entirely Romanized, and was the favourite province of the Empire, with the seat of the prefect at Trèves. In the first brilliant period of the Empire, her extensive conquests added to her strength, both in supplying men for her armies, and wealth for the embellishment of her cities. Hence the magnificent display of public buildings then erected everywhere throughout the Roman world. But it also tended to her enervation through luxury and superfluity. This gradually encouraged the growing corruption of the Empire, and caused continually fresh demands on the provinces to feed the central craving and consumption—while with luxury the strength of Rome relaxed, and she became unable in return to extend to the provinces the support they required.

This weakness went on, gradually increasing, till in the fifth century the country fell an easy prey to the hordes of Barbarians who then poured in upon it. In the fourth century the Visigoths had burst over Southern Gaul, and settled in the fertile plains between the Pyrenees and the Garonne. That part of the country being well peopled and civilised, and the conquerors comparatively small in number, they were in course of time, to a great extent, absorbed into the general population. The civilisation and polity of the Romans thus continued to preserve a comparatively uninterrupted course in the south-west of Gaul.

It is a peculiarity of all the Greek and Roman colonies, as compared with those of modern times, that they were established in cities. In the cities were centred all the life and movement of the ancient world. The land of course had to be cultivated, but that was done by bands of slaves led out from the towns. The open country was uninhabited, and except within a short distance from the towns, lay waste and uncultivated. The form of government exercised in the various states, was founded on that of the towns. The supreme power of Rome herself, with all her wide-spread command, was but an extended municipal authority, and every town was in this respect a repetition of the capital on a small scale. As the conquests of Rome extended, this form of government was found inadequate to the control of the numerous nations finally comprised under Roman sway.

The Empire, with its stronger grasp and centralised control, with its multitude of functionaries, all appointed by and in constant relation with a central will, alone enabled the existence of Rome to be continued for some centuries.

But when the Empire also finally decayed and fell, the old municipal principle again came to the front. As the colonies had been founded in cities, so when the Imperial system gave way, the city again asserted itself; and in Southern Gaul, where the barbarians had been civilised, municipal authority prevailed, and each town became an independent little State—the natural tendency of these municipalities being to detach themselves, and to watch jealously the proceedings of their neighbours.

This municipal principle is a leading characteristic of the Middle Ages in Italy and Southern Gaul, and distinguishes these countries from the Northern provinces. Traces of it are still very apparent in Italy and Provence, and contribute greatly to the picturesque character of these provinces. There even yet the soil is to a great extent cultivated by peasants, who dwell together in crumbling old cities perched on the tops of hills, and surrounded with ancient walls. Daily the men, women, and mules descend to their labour in the fields, till the evening, when they may be met toiling up the steep and rocky paths to a well-earned rest in their ancestral town.