Gallia Narbonensis

Gallia Narbonensis (Latin for "Gaul of Narbonne", from its chief settlement)[n 1] was a Roman province located in what is now Occitania and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra ("Our Province"), because it was the first Roman province north of the Alps, and as Gallia Transalpina ("Transalpine Gaul"), distinguishing it from Cisalpine Gaul in Northern Italy. It became a Roman province in the late 2nd century BC. Gallia Narbonensis was bordered by the Pyrenees Mountains on the west, the Cévennes to the north, the Alps on the east, and the Gulf of Lion on the south; the province included the majority of the Rhone catchment. The western region of Gallia Narbonensis was known as Septimania. The province was a valuable part of the Roman Empire, owing to the Greek colony of Massalia, its location between the Spanish provinces and Rome, and its financial output.[2]

Province of Gallia Narbonensis
Provincia Gallia Narbonensis
Province of the Roman Empire
121 BC[1]–5th century

The province of Gallia Narbonensis within the Roman Empire in 125 AD
CapitalNarbo Martius
History
Historical eraAntiquity
• Established
121 BC[1]
• Visigothic conquest
5th century
Succeeded by
Visigothic Kingdom
Today part ofFrance
Italy
Monaco
The Roman Provinces in Gaul around 58 BC; note that the coastline shown here is the modern one, different from the ancient coastline in some parts of the English Channel.
Gallia Narbonensis can be seen in the south of modern-day France as a Roman province.

Names

The province of Gallia Transalpina ("Transalpine Gaul") was later renamed Gallia Narbonensis,[2] after its newly established capital of Colonia Narbo Martius (colloquially known as Narbo, at the location of the modern Narbonne), a Roman colony founded on the coast in 118 BC. The name Gallia Narbonensis most likely originates in the Augustan era. Its first recorded use was in a census conducted by Gnaeus Pullius Pollio.[3] The Romans had called it Provincia Nostra ("our province") or simply Provincia ("the province").[4] The term has survived in the modern name of Provence for the eastern part of the area (French Provence, Occitan Provença), now a region of France.

Founding

By the mid-2nd century BC, Rome was trading heavily with the Greek colony of Massalia (modern Marseille) on the southern coast of Gaul. Massalia, founded by colonists from Phocaea, was by this point centuries old and quite prosperous. Rome entered into an alliance with Massalia, by which it agreed to protect the town from local Gauls, nearby Aquitani, sea-borne Carthaginians and other rivals, in exchange for a small strip of land that it wanted in order to build a road to Hispania, to assist in troop transport. The Massalians, for their part, cared more for their economic prosperity than they did for territorial integrity.

During this period, the Mediterranean settlements on the coast were threatened by the powerful Gallic tribes to the north, especially the tribes known as the Arverni and the Allobroges. In the First Transalpine War (125–121 BCE),[5] the Roman general Quintus Fabius Maximus (later additionally named Allobrogicus) campaigned in the area and defeated the Allobroges and the Arverni under king Bituitus in the Battle of the Isère River. This defeat substantially weakened the Arverni and ensured the further security of Gallia Narbonensis. The area became a Roman province in 121 BCE.[1]

The province had come into Roman control originally under the name Gallia Transalpina (Transalpine Gaul), which distinguished it from Cisalpine Gaul on the near side of the Alps to Rome. In this strip of land, the Romans founded the town of Narbonne in 118 BC. At the same time, they built the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in Gaul, connecting Gaul to Hispania, and the Via Aquitania, which led toward the Atlantic through Tolosa (Toulouse) and Burdigala (Bordeaux). Thus, the Romans built a crossroads that made Narbonne an optimal trading center, and Narbonne became a major trading competitor to Massalia. From Narbonne, the Romans established the province of Transalpine Gaul, later called Gallia Narbonensis.

During the Sertorian War (80–72 BCE) against the breakaway state of former Roman senator and general Sertorius, Gallia Narbonensis was an important base for military activities. This was an important event in the Romanization of Narbonese Gaul, as it resulted in the Romans organizing the province.

Later history

Control of the province, which bordered directly on Italia, gave the Roman state several advantages: control of the land route between Italy and the Iberian peninsula; a territorial buffer against Gallic attacks on Italy; and control of the lucrative trade routes of the Rhône valley between Gaul and the markets of Massalia. It was from the capital of Narbonne that Julius Caesar began his Gallic Wars. Caesar rebuilt Narbo and built the cities of Forum Julium and Arles. Julius Caesar also granted many communities in Gallia Narbonensis citizenship.[4] In 49 BC, the city of Massalia sided with the Pompeians during the civil war. After the war ended, the city of Massalia lost all of its independence and was fully subject to Roman rule.[6]

In 40 BC, during the Second Triumvirate, Lepidus was given responsibility for Narbonese Gaul (along with Hispania and Africa), while Mark Antony was given the balance of Gaul.[7] After becoming Emperor, Augustus made Gallia Narbonensis a senatorial province governed by a proconsul.[2]

Emperor Diocletian's administrative reorganization of the Empire in c. AD 314 merged the provinces Gallia Narbonensis and Gallia Aquitania into a new administrative unit called Dioecesis Viennensis (Diocese of Vienne) with the capital more to the north in Vienne. The new diocese's name was later changed to Dioecesis Septem Provinciarum (Diocese of the Seven Provinces), indicating that Diocletian had demoted the word "province" to mean a smaller subdivision than in traditional usage.

Galla Narbonensis and surrounding areas were incorporated into the Visigothic Kingdom between AD 462 and 477, permanently ending Roman political control. After the Gothic takeover, the Visigothic dominions were to be generally known as Septimania, while to the east of the lower Rhone the term Provence came into use.

List of Proconsular governors of Gallia Narbonensis

(This list is based on A.L.F. Rivet, Gallia Narbonensis (London: Batsford, 1988), pp. 79, 86f.)

Notes
  1. The name is also variously expressed as Narbonese or Narbonnese Gaul, Narbonian Gaul, and Narbonensian Gaul.

References
  1. Maddison, Angus (2007), Contours of the World Economy 1–2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 41, ISBN 9780191647581.
  2. Bunson, Matthew (2014-05-14). Encyclopedia of the Roman Empire. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1027-1.
  3. Bowman, Alan K.; Champlin, Edward; Lintott, Andrew (1996-02-08). The Cambridge Ancient History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-26430-3.
  4. Riggsby, Andrew M. (2006-07-01). Caesar in Gaul and Rome: War in Words. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0-292-71303-1.
  5. Webster, Jane (1996). "Ethnographic barbarity: colonial discourse and 'Celtic warrior societies'.". In Cooper, Nick (ed.). Roman Imperialism: Post-Colonial Perspectives (PDF). School of Archaeological Studies, University of Leicester. pp. 117–118. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  6. Ebel, Charles (1976). Transalpine Gaul: The Emergence of a Roman Province. Brill Archive. ISBN 978-90-04-04384-8.
  7. Boatwright et al., The Romans, From Village to Empire, p.272 ISBN 978-0-19-511876-6
  8. CIL XIV, 2831

Further reading

44.0000°N 4.0000°E / 44.0000; 4.0000

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