I am Provence

So called because the Romans made the region into the first Roman province beyond the Alps, their Provincia Romana, the origin of its present name – the Roman Provence.

In the 2nd century BC the people of Massalia (present day Marseille) appealed to Rome for help against the Ligures.  Roman legions entered Provence three times; first in 181 BC the Romans suppressed Ligurian uprisings near Genoa; in 154 BC the Roman Consul Optimus defeated the Oxybii and the Deciates, who were attacking Antibes; and in 125 BC, the Romans put down an uprising of a confederation of Celtic tribes.  After this battle, the Romans decided to establish permanent settlements in Provence.  In 122 BC, next to the Celtic town of Entremont, the Romans built a new town, Aquae Sextiae, later called Aix-en-Provence.  In 118 BC they founded Narbonne.

The Roman general Gaius Marius crushed the last serious resistance in 102 BC by defeating the Cimbri and the Teutons.  He then began building roads to facilitate troop movements and commerce between Rome, Spain and Northern Europe; one from the coast inland to Apt and Tarascon, and the other along the coast from Italy to Spain, passing through Fréjus and Aix-en-Provence.

In 49 BC, Massalia had the misfortune to choose the wrong side in the power struggle between Pompey and Julius Caesar.  Pompey was defeated, and Massalia lost its territories and political influence.  Roman veterans, in the meantime, populated two new towns, Arles and Fréjus, at the sites of older Greek settlements.

In 8 BC the Emperor Augustus built a triumphal monument at La Turbie to commemorate the pacification of the region, and he began to Romanize Provence politically and culturally.  Roman engineers and architects built monuments, theaters, baths, villas, fora, arenas and aqueducts, many of which still exist.  Roman towns were built at Cavaillon; Orange; Arles; Fréjus; Glanum (outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence); Carpentras; Vaison-la-Romaine; Nîmes; Vernègues; Saint-Chamas and Cimiez (above Nice). The Roman province, which was called Gallia Narbonensis, for its capital, Narbo (modern Narbonne), extended from Italy to Spain, from the Alps to the Pyrenees.

The Pax Romana in Provence lasted until the middle of the 3rd century when Germanic tribes invaded Provence in 257 and 275.  At the beginning the 4th century, the court of Roman Emperor Constantine (280–337) was forced to take refuge in Arles.  By the end of the 5th century, Roman power in Provence had vanished, and an age of invasions, wars, and chaos began.