A pupil of the École spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr then a career soldier, Émile Espérandieu participated in the 1880–1881 campaign in Tunisia where he lived thereafter.

Director, co-editor of journals and curator of Roman monuments and archaeological museums in Nimes where he retired in 1918, Émile Espérandieu was elected a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1919.

In 1929, he published the catalog of the Inscriptions latines de Gaule narbonnaise [fr] (ILGN), which was an update of Volume XII of Corpus inscriptionum latinarum and a summary of his epigraphic research work.

[1] From 1908 to 1938, he continued the inventory and publication of his masterpiece, the Recueil général des bas-reliefs, statues et bustes de la Gaule romaine in eleven volumes, or 7818 notices.

[2] In 1931, he added the Recueil général des bas-reliefs statues et bustes de la Germanie romane to the volumes devoted to Gaul.