Today we were doing 'Roman things'.
After breakfast we set off for Nimes which once was more 'Roman than Rome'.
Nimes derives its name from that of a spring in the Roman village. Veterans of the Roman legions who had served Julius Caesar in his Nile campaigns, at the end of fifteen years of soldiering, were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
The city was located on the Via Domitia, a Roman road constructed in 118 BC which connected Italy with Spain.
Nîmes became a Roman colony sometime before 28 BC, though it was Augustus who made the city the capital of Narbonne province, and gave it all its glory.
After the Roman period, in the days of invasion and decadence, the Christian Church, already established in Gaul since the 1st century AD, appeared be the last refuge of classical civilization – it was remarkably organized and directed by a series of Gallo-Roman aristocrats. However, when the Visigoths were accepted in the Roman Empire, Nîmes was included in their territory (472), even after the Frankish victory at the Battle of Vouillé (507). The urban landscape went through transformation with the Goths, but much of the heritage of the Roman era remained largely intact.
The traffic in Nimes was a nightmare and finding somewhere to park not easy. Once we did we set off to see the sights. We first came across Porte Auguste which is one of two remaining gateways into what once was a walled city. The six kilometer ramparts that surrounded the city were built by Augustus some two thousand years ago
Mike and Dott Then were off with great determination towards an unknown destination. We rounded the final corner and there it was in all its glory... The most complete Roman Temple anywhere.
It was built c. 16 BC by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, who was also the original patron of the Pantheon in Rome, and was dedicated c. 2-4/5 AD to his two sons, Gaius Caesar and Lucius Caesar, adopted heirs of Augustus who both died young.
The amphitheatre was designed so that everyone had an unrestricted view of the whole arena. Several galleries were located beneath the arena, and were accessed by trap doors and a hoist-lift system. As a result, the decorative effects, animals and gladiators could access the arena during the games.
The amphitheatre was fortified by the Visigoths and was surrounded by a wall. During the turbulent years that followed the collapse of Visigoth power in Hispania and Septimania, not to mention the Muslim invasion and subsequent conquest by the French kings in the mid eighth century, the viscounts of Nîmes constructed a fortified palace within the amphitheater. In 737, after failing to seize Narbonne, Charles Martel destroyed a number of Septimanian cities on his way north, including Nîmes and its amphitheatre, as asserted in the Continuations of Fredegar. Later a small neighbourhood developed within its confines, complete with one hundred denizens and two chapels. Seven hundred people lived within the amphitheatre during the apex of its service as an enclosed community. The buildings remained in the amphitheatre until the eighteenth century, when the decision was made to convert the amphitheatre into its present form.
Over the centuries it has been used as a fortress, military headquarters, a slum as well as for chariot races, gladiatorial combat and more recently for bull fights.
But as good as these things were the highlight of the day was the Pont De Garde.
The Pont du Gard (literally: Gard Bridge) is an ancient Roman aqueductbridge that crosses the Gardon River, from which it takes its name. The bridge is part of the Nîmes aqueduct, a 50 km-long structure built by the Romans to carry water from a spring at Uzèsto the Roman colony of Nemausus (Nîmes). Because the terrain between the two points is hilly, the aqueduct – built mostly underground – took a long, winding route that crossed the gorge of the Gardon, requiring the construction of an aqueduct bridge. Built in the 1st century AD, the Pont du Gard is the highest of all Roman aqueduct bridges and is, with the Aqueduct of Segovia, one of the best preserved. It was added to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites in 1985 because of its historical importance.
The aqueduct formerly carried an estimated 200,000 m3 of water a day to the fountains, baths and homes of the citizens of Nîmes. It continued to be used possibly until the 6th century, with some parts used for significantly longer, but lack of maintenance after the 4th century meant that it became increasingly clogged by mineral deposits and debris that eventually choked off the flow of water.
It was impossible not to take lots of photos from different angles. The stone was the most beautiful honey colour.
The museum gave a succinct history of the building of the whole aqueduct and it helped to put into context what we had seen.
We returned late so we had tea out at a lovely little French cafe.
Brilliant day!
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