Aquae Sextiae

About

Aquaeus Sextiæ is the Latin name of Aix-en-Provence. The first Roman city in the territory of present-day France, this city was founded in 122 B.C. by the Roman consul Caius Sextius Calvinus following an expedition against the Oppidum of Entremont, the Salyan capital.

Enjoying in the early decades an architecture very similar to that of Entremont, it is necessary to wait until the first century to see Aquæ Sextiæ acquire a typical Roman conception, consisting of a cardo and a decumanus that give it an orthogonal plan. A forum stands in its centre, while a basilica dominates the northern part of the City. The remains of this city are very few.

While several buildings in the ancient Aix continued to exist until the Ancien Régime, most of them were destroyed in the years before the French Revolution in order to free public spaces or to serve as building materials for several buildings. In 2004, a theatre was discovered in the district of Notre-Dame-de-la-Seds. It dates back to Roman times and is now the most important ancient monument of Aix-en-Provence.