L’organisation des communautés en Gaule méridionale (Transalpine, puis Narbonnaise) sous la domination de Rome

Abstract

Camille Jullian saw Gaul as a global body, contrasting microstructures (“tribe” and pagus) with macrostructures (“people” or “nation” ; civitates/populi/nationes/gentes), alone capable of politically transcending themselves into a “federal State”. In Southern Gaul, a “prolonged” Celtica, the hold on space by the peoples would have been imperfect. But the passage from the protohistoric period to the Gallo-Roman is an important phase, with Roman sway making itself felt. The consideration of microstructures is obvious with Pliny the Elder. The case of the Cavars provides an instance of dismembering through the creation of colonies (Valence, Orange). The regions between the Pyrenees and the river Rhône present specific features. There, Rome’s imprint was early and the destructuring of the indigenous world deep around Narbonne and Béziers. A split territory prevailed with the Volcae Arecomici, and the epoch of Caesar was a revealing moment of a former horizon, followed by an Augustan recomposition. On the left bank of the Rhône similar situations are to be found : strong interventions in the areas of the colonies (Arles, Fréjus), decomposition and restructuration elsewhere in the form of stable, medium-sized communities. But the reduced communities were gradually absorbed into major entities. Emphasis will be laid on the importance of the provincia’s first century, until Augustus’ work and on the necessity to orientate enquiries towards regional diversity.

Keywords

• Transalpine
• Narbonensis
• oppida latina
• cities
• peoples
• colonies