The Temple of Diana (Temple de Diane) is a Roman site in Nimes whose ultimate purpose remains a mystery, as does the origin of its name.

Believed by some to have been originally built sometime during the reign of Augustus – others say in the 2nd century – it has been suggested that the Temple of Diana may have been a library.

Whatever its original function, this stunning site boasts well-preserved vaulted ceilings, grand archways and enticing passageways. Apparently, the reason for its excellent state is that the Temple of Diana was used as a medieval church, only to be damaged in the French Wars of Religion.

The Nîmes aqueduct was built to channel water from the springs of the Fontaine d’Eure near Uzès to the Castellum Divisorum (repartition basin) in Nemausus. From there, it was distributed to fountains, baths and private homes around the city.

The Maison Carrée is an ancient building in Nîmes, southern France; it is one of the best preserved Roman temple façades to be found in the territory of the former Roman Empire.

In about 4-7 AD, the Maison carrée was dedicated or rededicated to Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar, grandsons and adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young. The inscription dedicating the temple to Gaius and Lucius was removed in medieval times. However, a local scholar, Jean-François Séguier, was able to reconstruct the inscription in 1758 from the order and number of the holes on the front frieze and architrave, to which the bronze letters had been affixed by projecting tines. According to Séguier’s reconstruction, the text of the dedication read (in translation): “To Gaius Caesar, son of Augustus, Consul; to Lucius Caesar, son of Augustus, Consul designate; to the princes of youth.”. During the 19th century the temple slowly began to recover its original splendour, due to the efforts of Victor Grangent.

The Maison Carrée is an example of Vitruvian architecture. Raised on a 2.85 m high podium, the temple dominated the forum of the Roman city, forming a rectangle almost twice as long as it is wide, measuring 26.42 m by 13.54 m. The façade is dominated by a deep portico or pronaos almost a third of the building’s length. It is a hexastyle design with six Corinthian columns under the pediment at either end, and pseudoperipteral in that twenty engaged columns are embedded along the walls of the cella. Above the columns, the architrave is divided by two recessed rows of petrified water drips into three levels with ratios of 1:2:3. Egg-and-dart decoration divides the architrave from the frieze. On three sides the frieze is decorated with fine ornamental relief carvings of rosettes and acanthus leaves beneath a row of very fine dentils.

A large door (6.87 m high by 3.27 m wide) leads to the surprisingly small and windowless interior, where the shrine was originally housed. This is now used to house a tourist oriented film on the Roman history of Nîmes. No ancient decoration remains inside the cella.

Vasio was the capital of the Gallic tribe of the Vocontii. Its name is very interesting, as it is neither Latin nor Celtic, and therefore very ancient. The town was originally perked on a rock on the left bank of the Ouvèze. The bridge across the river was originally erected in 149 BCE, and is the oldest surviving Roman bridge. It may even be the oldest still extant stone bridge in the world.

After the Roman conquest, the town was rebuilt on the west bank of the river in 20-19 BCE by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the friend and son-in-law of the emperor Augustus.

In the first century CE, Vasio became a rich town. It had a surface of about 75 hectares, which is pretty large. At least five bathhouses, an aqueduct, a basilica, a sanctuary, a bridge, a theater, and a portico have been identified. The streets, flanked by shops, were paved pavement with limestone slabs from a nearby quarry. The western side of one of the excavated streets was covered by the overhang of the first floors of the buildings; shielded from bad weather, pedestrians could walk around.

The luxury and scale of urban housing of Vasio exceeds towns like Arles, Orange, and Nîmes, and makes it one of the most remarkable towns in the ancient Provence – although (or because?) it was not very large. An explanation for Vasio’s wealth has not been found yet. One of the more interesting mansions is the Villa du paon (“House of the peacock”). It has a splendid mosaic with a surface that measures no less than 33 m².

The theater of Vasio is nestled in the Puymin hill. It dates back to the first century CE and was restored in the third century. It was not very large: it offered accommodation to 6,000 people. Several emperors received a statue in this building: Claudius, Domitian and Hadrian have been identified.

The remains of Vasio were discovered in 1907, when Joseph Sautel started the excavations. In 1924, Vaison added the element “la Romain” to its name. The Vichy government recognized its importance in 1942/1943 and made it a historic monument. A substantial part of the original Gallo-Roman town, including the forum, lies under today’s town and cannot be excavated.

In the city Saint-Romain-en-Gal at the other site of the river is the Vienne Musee et sites archeologiques. Filled with mosaics and other objects found in Vienne and the archeologic site at the museum.

The oppidum of the Allobroges became a Roman colony about 47 BCE under Julius Caesar, but the Allobroges managed to expel them; the exiles then founded the colony of Lugdunum (today’s Lyon).Herod Archelaus was exiled here in 6 CE. During the early Empire, Vienna (as the Romans called it—not to be confused with today’s Vienna) regained all its former privileges as a Roman colony. Later it became a provincial capital of the Dioecesis Viennensis. In 257 Postumus was proclaimed emperor here of a short-lived Gallo-Roman empire. The town served as his short-lived provincial empire for a few years.

On the bank of the Gère are traces of the ramparts of the old Roman city, and on Mont Pipet (east of the town) are the remains of a Roman theatre, while the ruined thirteenth-century castle there was built on Roman footings. Several ancient aqueducts and traces of Roman roads can still be seen.

There are several  important Roman monuments still standing at Vienne.
One is the Early Imperial temple of Augustus and Livia, a rectangular peripteral building of the Corinthian order, erected by the emperor Claudius, which owes its survival, like the Maison Carrée at Nîmes, to being converted to a church soon after the Theodosian decrees and later rededicated as “Notre Dame de Vie.” (During the Revolutionary Reign of Terror it was used for the local Festival of Reason.)
The Roman monument is the Plan de l’Aiguille, a truncated pyramid resting on a portico with four arches, from the Roman circus.
Archaeological Gardens of Cybele, an open garden home to Gallo-Roman remains in a timeless setting: a portico which may have once been a part of the thermal baths or the wall enclosing the theatre.

La Pyramide

Roman Theatre

Temple of Augustus and Livia

Archaeological Gardens of Cybele

Orange Theatre and Temple

The Roman Theatre of Orange (French: Théâtre antique d’Orange) is a Roman theatre in Orange, Vaucluse, France. It was built early in the 1st century AD. The structure is owned by the municipality of Orange and is the home of the summer opera festival, the Chorégies d’Orange. It is one of the best preserved of all Roman theatres, and served the Roman colony of Arausio (or, more specifically, Colonia Julia Firma Secundanorum Arausio: “the Julian colony of Arausio established by the soldiers of the second legion”) which was founded in 40 BC. Playing a major role in the life of the citizens, who spent a large part of their free time there, the theatre was seen by the Roman authorities not only as a means of spreading Roman culture to the colonies, but also as a way of distracting them from all political activities. Mime, pantomime, poetry readings and the “attelana” (a kind of farce rather like the commedia dell’arte) was the dominant form of entertainment, much of which lasted all day. For the common people, who were fond of spectacular effects, magnificent stage sets became very important, as was the use of stage machinery. The entertainment offered was open to all and free of charge. As the Western Roman Empire declined during the 4th century, by which time Christianity had become the official religion, the theatre was closed by official edict in AD 391, since the Church opposed what it regarded as uncivilized spectacles. After that, the theatre was abandoned completely. It was probably pillaged by the Visigoths in 412, and like most Roman buildings was certainly stripped of its better stone over the centuries for reuse. It was used as a defensive post in the Middle Ages. During the 16th-century religious wars, it became a refuge for the townspeople. The Orange theatre was created under the rule of Augustus, and is believed to be one of the first of its kind in this area of modern-day France. One of the most iconic parts of this structure is the grand exterior facade, which measures to be 103 meters long and 37 meters high. Originally, there was a wooden roof across the theatre to protect the audience from unfavorable weather conditions. There is evidence on the walls that shows that, at some point, the roof was destroyed in a fire. Although it is relatively sparse in decoration and embellishment, the three story wall gives an overwhelmingly powerful appearance to the entire building. The main three doors on the first level of the facade open directly onto the stage inside the theatre, which can seat from 5,800 up to 7,300 (today, much of the seating has been reconstructed to ensure the safety of tourists and audience members). The stage, which is 61 meters long and raised about one meter from the ground, is backed by a 37 meter high wall whose height has been preserved completely. This wall is vital to the theatre, as it helped to project sound to the large audience. The wall, also known as the scaenae frons, is the only architecturaly decorated surface throughout the entire theatre. It originally was embellished with marble mosaics of many different colors, multiple columns and friezes, and statues placed in niches. The central niche contains a 3.5 meter high statue of the emperor Augustus, although this was m

ost likely a restoration of an original statue of Apollo, the god of music and the arts. The central door, below the niche containing this statue, is called the Royal Door, or valva regia. This door was used only by the most important, principle actors to enter and exit the stage. Above the door was a frieze decorated with centaurs, which is no longer there but is instead on display across the street in the Orange Museum (unfortunately only remains are left). The stage was covered with a modern platform when the theatre began to be used again for operas and other performances The ruins of the 2nd century CE Roman temple, probably dedicated to the emperor, which is located next to the 1st century CE theatre of Arausio (Orange, France).

Triumphal Arch of Orange

The Triumphal Arch of Orange (French: Arc de triomphe d’Orange) is a triumphal arch located in the town of Orange, southeast France. There is debate about when the arch was built, but current research that accepts the inscription as evidence favours a date during the reign of Augustus (27 BC – AD 14). It was built on the former via Agrippa to honor the veterans of the Gallic Wars and Legio II Augusta. It was later reconstructed by emperor Tiberius to celebrate the victories of Germanicus over the German tribes in Rhineland. The arch contains an inscription dedicated to emperor Tiberius in AD 27. On the northern (outward-facing) facade, the architrave and cornice have been cut back and a bronze inscription inserted, now lost; attempts at reconstructing its text from the placement of cramp holes for the projecting tines of its letters have not been successful. The arch is decorated with various reliefs of military themes, including naval battles, spoils of war and Romans battling Germanics and Gauls. A Roman foot soldier carrying the shield of Legio II Augusta is seen on the north front battle relief. The arch was built into the town’s walling during the Middle Ages to guard the northern entry points of the town. Architect Augustin Caristie studied the arch and carried out restoration work in the 1850s. The arch was originally constructed using large unmortared limestone blocks. It has three arches, the center one being larger than the flanking ones. The entire structure measures 19.57 meters long by 8.40 meters wide, standing to a height of 19.21 meters. Each façade has four semi-engaged Corinthian columns. The arch is the oldest surviving example of a design that was used later in Rome itself, for the Arch of Septimius Severus and the Arch of Constantine.

Le Musée d’Art et d’Histoire d’Orange

The Art and History Museum of Orange is located in a private mansion built in the 17th century for Georges Van Cuyl. This Dutchman was responsible for the munitions at the castle of the princes of Orange, which stood at the summit of Saint-Eutrope hill above the theatre. From its original construction, the mansion has kept its staircase, its windows, its beamed ceilings and a plasterwork fireplace. Today it is home to a rich collection of furniture and objets d’art, and recounts the history of Orange from Classical Antiquity to the 19th century.

Glanum was an oppidum, or fortified town in present day Provence, founded by a Celto-Ligurian people called the Salyes in the 6th century BCE. It became officially a Roman city in 27 BCE and was abandoned in 260 AD. It is located on the flanks of the Alpilles, a range of mountains in the Bouches-du-Rhône départementIt is particularly known for two well-preserved Roman monuments of the 1st century B.C., known as les Antiques, a mausoleum and a triumphal arch (the oldest in France).

The Roman town

A Roman road paved with blocks of stone ran from north to south through the center of Glanum. Under the street was a water conduit which carried away rainwater and sewage.
In 49 BC Julius Caesar captured Marseille, and after a period of destructive civil wars, the Romanization of Provence and Glanum began.

In 27 BC the Emperor Augustus created the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, and in this province Glanum was given the title of Oppidum Latinum, which gave residents the civil and political status of citizens of Rome. A triumphal arch was built outside the town between 10 and 25 BC, near the end of the reign of Augustus, (the first such arch to be built in Gaul), as well as an impressive mausoleum of the Julii family, both still standing.

In the 1st century BC, under the Romans, the city built a new forum, temples, and a curved stone arch dam, Glanum Dam, the oldest known dam of its kind, and an aqueduct, which supplied water for the towns fountains and public baths.

Glanum was not as prosperous as the Roman colonies of Arles, Avignon and Cavaillon, but by the 2nd century AD it was wealthy enough to build impressive shrines to the Emperors, to enlarge the forum, and to have extensive baths and other public buildings clad in marble.

Mausoleum of the Julii (about 40 BCE)
The Mausoleum of the Julii, located across the Via Domitia, to the north of, and just outside the city entrance, dates to about 40 BCE, and is one of the best preserved mausoleums of the Roman era.

A dedication is carved on the architrave of the building facing the old Roman road, which reads:

SEX · M · L · IVLIEI · C · F · PARENTIBVS · SVEIS
Sextius, Marcus and Lucius Julius, sons of Gaius, to their forebears

It is believed that the mausoleum was the tomb of the mother and father of the three Julii brothers, and that the father, for military or civil service, received Roman citizenship and the privilege of bearing the name of the Julii, one of the most distinguished families in Rome.

The mausoleum is built in three stages. The upper stage, or tholos, is a circular chapel with Corinthian columns. It contains two statues wearing togas, presumably the father and grandfather of the Julii. (The heads of the statues were lost at an earlier date, and replaced in the 18th century). The conical roof is decorated with carved fish scales, traditional for Roman mausoleums. The frieze beneath the conical roof is decorated with a rinceau featuring carvings of acanthus leaves, used in Roman mortuary architecture to represent eternal rebirth.

The middle stage, or quadrifons, is an arch with four bays. The archivoltes, or curved bands of decoration on the tops of the arches, also have acanthus leaves. At the top of each arch is the carved head of a gorgon, the traditional protector of Roman tombs.

The frieze at the top of the quadrifons is decorated with carvings of tritons, carrying the disk of the sun, and with sea monsters.

The lowest part of the mausoleum is decorated with carved garlands of vegetation, theater masks and cupids or putti, and with mythical or legendary scenes.

North face – a battle of horsemen, and a winged victory carries a trophy.
East face – an infantryman unhorses an Amazon warrior, a warrior takes trophies from a dead enemy, and the figure of Fame recites the story of the battle to a man and woman. The scene may be inspired by the Amazonomachy, the mythical war between the Greeks and the Amazons.
West face – a scene from the Iliad and Trojan War, the Greeks and Trojans fighting for the body of Patroclus.
South face – Cavaliers hunt for wild boar in a forest. One cavalier is wounded and dying in the arms of a companion. This may represent the legend of the hunt for the Calydonian Boar, conducted by Meleager, with Castor and Pollux shown on horseback.
The triumphal arch of Glanum (10-25 BC)
The triumphal arch stood just outside the northern gate of the city, next to the mausoleum and was the visible symbol of Roman power and authority. It was built near the end of the reign of Augustus Caesar (who died in 14 AD). The upper portion of the arch, including the inscription, are missing.

The sculptures decorating the arch illustrated both the civilization of Rome and the dire fate of her enemies.

The panel to the right of the entrance shows a female figure seated on a pile of weapons, and a Gaullish prisoner with his hands tied behind him.
The panel to the left shows another prisoner in a Gaullish cloak, with a smaller man, wearing his cloak in the Roman style, placing his hand on the shoulder of the prisoner.
On the reverse side of the arch are sculptures of two more pairs of Gaullish prisoners.

Glanum’s monumental center

The Bouleuterion, or open-air meeting place for notables (2nd-1st centuries BC), which later became the Roman Curia.
Glanum was laid out on a north-south axis through the valley of Notre-Dame-du-Vallon. At the northern end was the residential quarter, with the public baths, and at the southern end was the sacred quarter, with the spring and grotto. In the center was the monumental quarter, the site of the forum and public buildings.

The earliest monuments discovered in Glanum were built by the Salyens in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries BC and were strongly influenced by the Hellenic style of the nearby Greek colony of Marseille. They included a large building around a trapezoidal peristyle, or courtyard surrounded by columns; and a sacred well, or dromos, next to a small temple in the Tuscan style.

The sacred well, or dromos (late 2nd century BC). The well is three meters in diameter and has a stairway with thirty-seven steps which descended to the water. There is no dedication on the temple, but it probably was connected with the sacred nature of the well. The original buildings were destroyed and the well covered over during the construction of the first Roman forum on the same site during the 1st Century BC. At the end of Antiquity the well was filled with statuary and debris from the late Roman Empire. The well has been uncovered and fragments of the walls of the temple can be seen.
The Bouleuterion (2nd -1st centuries BC) was a meeting place for notables, built in the Hellenic style, with an open space with an altar in the center surrounded by stepped rows of seats on three sides. There was a portico with three columns at one end. The northern part of the Bouleuterion was obliterated during Roman times by the construction of the Twin Temples, but the space was preserved and used as a Curia.
The Hellenic Fountain. A small circular stone basin from the period of Greek influence, (2nd-1st centuries BC), probably a fountain, stands next to the road. This is one of the oldest fountains discovered in France.

The First Roman Forum
Restored columns of twin Corinthian temple in first Roman Forum of Glanum (20 B.C.)
The first Roman forum in Glanum was built around 20 B.C., at about the time that Glanum was given the title of oppidum latinum.

The Twin Temples. The main features of the first forum were two Corinthian temples, identical in style but one larger than the other, enclosed on three sides by a peribole, or arcade of columns. Three columns, and a part of the facade, in the style of the early years of the reign of the Emperor Augustus, have been restored/reproduced to give an idea of the building’s impressive form.
The Basilica. The first forum had on its northern side a modest basilica with two naves, used as a public hall for transacting business and legal affairs. Only the north corner of the east portico of this building still exists.

Vestige of the Roman fountain near the forum, (about 20 BC).
The Monumental Fountain. A monumental fountain, dating to about 20 BC, was located on the southern end of the forum. It consisted of a rectangular basin and a semi-circular apse with Corinthian columns, which probably sheltered a statue. The fountain was supplied with water by an aqueduct from the nearby dam.
The Second Roman ForumThe second Roman forum, built between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, was the central market, business place, place of justice and site of official religious rituals. A large open space was enclosed on two sides by porticos of columns. On the southern side was a semi-circular excedre, while on the north was the basilica, the large hall that was the palace of justice and seat of government. The basilica was 47 by 24 meters in size, supported by 24 large columns. The facade has disappeared, but the back wall and side walls still exist. Behind the basilica was the curia, where a statue of the Emperor was placed in a niche in the wall. In the center was a square room which served as a tribunal and as the chapel of the cult of the Emperor.

The residential quarter and the public baths
Mask which spouted water into the swimming pool of the public baths (1st century BC).
The northern part of Glanum, at the bottom of the sloping site, was the residential quarter: the site of villas and of the extensive public baths. The baths were the center of social life, and helped serve to Romanize the local population.

The Roman Baths were built in about 75 BC. Later, during the reign of Lucius Verus (161-169 AD) they were rebuilt and the building clad with marble. Modest in size, they consisted of a pelastre, an open-air exercise area surrounded by an arcade of columns; a hall with cold baths; and two halls heated by a hypocaust, by which hot air was circulated under the rooms through brick channels. One was a hot air sweating room or laconicum, the other a caldarium, or hot bath, including a masonry bathing pool. On the south, next to the pelastre, was a large swimming pool. Water was fed into the pool through the mouth of a stone theatrical mask. The original is now in the nearby museum in St. Remy but a reproduction sits in its original position.

Hellenistic residences. The quarter contains the ruins of several villas and residences in the Greek style, pre-dating the Roman city. Between the baths and the forum was a house with a Doric peristyle, and another, called the House of Capricorn, with two surviving sections of mosaic floors, one section featuring a capricorn surrounded by four dolphins.

The House of the Antae, a Hellenistic-style residence with a peristyle of Tuscan columns and a basin to capture rainwater.
The Market and the Temple of Cybele. Near the residences was a pre-Roman marketplace, surrounded by Doric columns, with four small shops on the west side. In Roman times half of the marketplace was transformed into a small temple to the Bona Dea, a goddess of the oracle, and later to Cybele. In springtime the priestesses of Cybele brought a sacred pine into the sanctuary, symbolizing the god Atys. In the temple there was also an altar dedicated to the priestess Loreia, with a stone carving of the ears of the goddess, that she might hear prayers.
The House of the Antae was built in the style of Greek houses around the Mediterranean. A two storey house with three wings and a portico of Tuscan columns, built around a small basin of water, fed by rainwater from the roof, which channelled the water into a cistern, then into the drains which ran under the pavement of the street. It is named after two fluted antae that flank its doorway.

The House of Atys (2nd century BC) was named for the castrated lover of Cybele, because of a marble relief of Atys found in the ruins. It had an atrium with a shallow basin, or impluvium, in the center and a well with a curbstone lip, stone benches, and was richly built. It was probably a schola, a reception hall for the college of Dendrophores, associated with the neighboring temple.

The Valley of the Sacred Spring

The Temple of Valetudo, about 39 BC

The sacred spring of Glanum is located at the southern and highest part of the town. The valley was closed by a stone wall, built in the late 2nd or early 1st centuries BC. This wall had a gate large enough for chariots, a square tower, and a smaller gate for pedestrians. To the left and right of the gate are vestiges of the older walls, dating from between the 6th and 3rd centuries BC, making a rampart 16 meters high.

The Doric portico. Just inside the gate was a building with a portico of doric columns. Vestiges remain of the original structure from the 2nd to 1st century BC. It was rebuilt in about 40 BC, and parts of the columns and portico from this period have been restored. Inside the building were small basins fed by water conduits in the back wall, suggesting that this building was a place where pilgrims to the spring would ritually wash and purify themselves.
The Temple of Valetudo. This small temple was dedicated to Valetudo, the Roman goddess of health. The inscription indicates that it was built by Agrippa, the future son-in-law of the Emperor Augustus. The Corinthian columns are in the style of the late Roman Republic; it probably dates to Agrippa’s first voyage to Gaul in 39 BC.

The sacred spring of Glanum

The Sacred Spring. The spring and its healing powers were the basis of the reputation and wealth of the town. Originally it was simply a basin carved into the rock. In the 2nd century BC it was covered by a stone building with a decorative facade of stones in a fishscale pattern. A stone stairway led from the spring up to the top of the nearby hill. In the 1st century AD the Roman legionnaire M. Licinius Verecundus built an altar to the right of the stairway, dedicated to the god Glanis, the Glannicae, and to Fortuna Redux, the goddess responsible for the safe return of those far from home. The inscription reads: “To the god Glanis, and the Glanicae, and to Fortuna Redux: Marcus Licinius Verecundus, of the tribe Claudia (an electoral district in Rome), veteran of the XXI Legion Rapaces (Rapaces, or predators, was the nickname of the XXI Legion, which was serving at the time in Germany) – has accomplished his vow with gratitude and good faith.”

Votive stones devoted to Hercules, guardian of the spring, and the chapel of Hercules.

The Chapel of Hercules. The remains of a small chapel devoted to Hercules, the guardian of springs, is located near the spring. Against the walls, the archeologist Henri Roland discovered six altars to Hercules, and the torso of a large statue of Hercules, 1.3 meters high, holding a vase of water, evidently the water of the Glanum spring. The inscription on the base of the statue indicates that it was placed in gratitude for the safe return of the tribune C. Licinius Macer, and the centurions and soldiers from Glanum from a campaign during the 2nd century AD.

The Barbegal Roman Mill was a flour mill complex powered by 16 waterwheels, fed by two aqueducts bring water to Arles. The mill was located on a hillside near the village of Fontvieille, and was considered “the greatest known concentration of mechanical power in the ancient world”.