History of Provence

[16] The Ligures were more numerous than the Celtic peoples, and the Celto-Ligures eventually shared the territory of Provence, each tribe in its own alpine valley or settlement along a river, each with its own king and dynasty.

[19] The first permanent Greek settlement was Massalia, established at modern-day Marseille in about 600 BC by colonists coming from Phocaea (now Foça, in modern Turkey) on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor.

Traders from Massalia ventured into France on the Durance and Rhône rivers, established overland trade routes to Switzerland and Burgundy, and travelled as far north as the Baltic Sea.

They founded Citharista (La Ciotat), Tauroeis (Le Brusc [fr]), Olbia (near Hyères), Pergantion (Breganson), Caccabaria (Cavalaire), Athenopolis (Saint-Tropez), Antipolis (Antibes), Nikaia (Nice), and Monoicos (Monaco).

They had a strong cultural influence on the interior of Provence — the Salyen oppidum of Glanum had villas and an outdoor public meeting area built in the classical Greek style.

Between 330 and 320 BC he organized an expedition by ship into the Atlantic and as far north as England; he visited Iceland, Shetland, and Norway, where he was the first scientist to describe drift ice and the midnight sun.

The following year another Roman army, led by Gaius Sextius Calvinus, marched into Provence and captured the capital of the Salyes, the hilltop fortress of Oppidum d'Entremont, as well as the sanctuary of Roquepertuse and the oppida of Saint-Blaise and Baou Roux.

A new Roman consul, Dimitius Ahenobargus, met the Gauls with a new and terrifying weapon, elephants, and was able to defeat the much larger Gallic army at the battle of Vindalium on the Sorgue river.

They moved into the Rhône Valley and in 105 BC defeated the Roman legions of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus and Servilus Caepio at Arausio (the modern town of Orange).

The Massalians paid a heavy price for backing Pompey; the city lost its independence, had to surrender its warships and treasury, and was forced to give up all of its territories on the coast and interior, except for the Stoechades islands and Nice.

The oldest was the Via Domitia, built in 118 BC, which went all the way from the Col de Montgenèvre, the easiest crossing point of the Alps, through Sisteron, Apt and Cavaillon to Tarascon on the Rhône, and then along the coast to Narbonne and to Spain.

There were active churches and bishops in Arles in 254, in Marseille in 314, in Orange, in Vaison and Apt in 314, in Cavaillon, Digne, Embrun, Gap, and Fréjus at the end of the 4th century, Aix-en-Provence in 408, Carpentras, Avignon, Riez, Cimiez and Vence in 439, Antibes in 442, Toulon in 451, Senez in 406, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in 517; and Glandèves in 541.

Monks from Lerins Abbey became bishops in Arles, Cimiez, Vence, Riez, and other cities in Provence; they actively promoted the cult of saints, local martyrs, and of the Virgin Mary.

[36] In 412, the Visigoths of Alaric, after capturing Rome itself and the death of their leader, passed through Provence on their way to Aquitaine and Spain, and occupied the entire region between the Atlantic and the Rhône.

The second half of the 6th century was a terrible time for Provence; the region suffered continual conflicts between the two kings, attacks by Lombards and Saxon raiders, and epidemics of plague and other diseases.

One enduring legacy of the Merovingian rule is the current northern boundary of Provence; beginning at this time, the name "Provincia" was given to the Ostrogoth and Visigoth territories south of a line midway between the Isère and the Durance rivers.

[41] Beginning in the 8th century, Provence became the frontier and battleground between the Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty and the expanding new power in the Mediterranean world, the Arabs, called the Saracens by the French.

They raided from the Rhône as far east as the Italian Riviera, to Albenga and Sanremo, and north to the alpine valleys of Piedmont, where they pillaged the monasteries of San Dalmazzo near Cuneo and Novalaise near Suse.

[48] During this long period of wars and banditry in Provence, the population retreated to walled cities, maritime trade was rare, and little new art or architecture, other than fortification, was created.

[49] The German Emperor Conrad the Salic forced the childless King of Burgundy, Rudolph III, to name him as successor which in 1032 led to Provence becoming a fiefdom of the Holy Roman Empire, which it remained until 1246.

Marseille went farther than the others, establishing a confrerie or charitable and religious organization of the one hundred leaders of the professions, crafts and businesses in the city, which drew up a code of justice and municipal regulations.

The Pope accused Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse of supporting the Cathars, excommunicated him, and invited an army of French knights on a crusade to cleanse the south of France of the heresy.

Raymond VII was forced to abandon his quest, and Ramon Berenguer was able to appoint his own candidate as bishop of Avignon and to subdue the rest of eastern Provence.

She was murdered in 1382 by her cousin and heir, Charles of Durazzo, who started a new war, leading to the separation of Nice, Puget-Théniers and Barcelonnette from Provence in 1388, and their attachment to the territories of Savoy.

Provence benefitted from population growth and economic expansion, and René was a generous patron of the arts, sponsoring painters Nicolas Froment, Louis Bréa, and other masters.

[56] In 1545, the Parlement of Aix-en-Provence ordered the destruction of the villages of Lourmarin, Mérindol and Cabrières-d'Avignon in the Luberon, because their inhabitants were Vaudois of Italian Piedmontese origin, and were not considered sufficiently orthodox Catholics.

The base was greatly enlarged by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the minister of Louis XIV, who commissioned his chief military engineer, Vauban to strengthen the fortifications around the city.

Still, by the end of the century, many artisanal industries began to flourish; making perfumes in Grasse; olive oil in Aix and the Alpilles; textiles in Orange, Avignon and Tarascon; faience pottery in Marseille, Apt, Aubagne, and Moustiers-Sainte-Marie.

After the fall of Louis Napoleon following his defeat in the Franco-German War barricades went up in the streets of Marseille on March 23, 1871, and the Communards, led by Gaston Cremieux and following the lead of the Paris Commune, took control of the city.

The American forces moved north toward Manosque, Sisteron and Gap, while the French First Armored Division under General Jean Touzet du Vigier liberated Brignoles, Salon, Arles, and Avignon.