VIA DOMITIA, THE FIRST ROMAN ROAD BUILT IN GAUL

Today, the day is cloudy and the temperature ranges between 11 and 12 degrees. Joseph de Ca'th Lon, Claire Fontaine and The Grandma are travelling to Narbona, the next city they will visit on their way back to Barcelona, and they are doing so by crossing Occitania on the A9, the highway that runs along what in Roman times was the road that connected Tarraco with Rome through Gallia Narbonensis, the Via Domitia.

The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Roma and Tarraco through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now Southern France. The route that the Romans regularized and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, and traces the mythic route travelled by Heracles.

The construction of the road was commissioned by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose name it bore, following the defeat of the Allobroges and Averni by himself and Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus in 122 BCE.

Domitius also established a fortified garrison at Narbo (modern Narbonne) on the coast, near Hispania, to guard construction of the road. It soon developed into a full Roman colony Colonia Narbo Martius. The lands on the western part of the route, beyond the River Rhône had been under the control of the Averni who, according to Strabo, had stretched their control to Narbo and the Pyrenees.

Crossing the Alps by the easiest passage, the Col de Montgenèvre (1850 m), the Via Domitia followed the valley of the Durance, crossed the Rhône at Beaucaire passed through Nîmes (Nemausus) then followed the coastal plain along the Gulf of Lion. At Narbona, it met the Via Aquitania (which led toward the Atlantic Ocean through Tolosa and Bordeaux). Thus Narbona was a crucial strategic crossroads of the Via Domitia and the Via Aquitania, and it was an accessible, but easily defensible port at that time.

This cusp point in the Roman westwards expansion and ensuing supply, communication and fortification was a very important asset, and was treated as such. In between the cities that it linked, the Via Domitia was provided with a series of mansiones at distances of a day's journey for a loaded cart, at which shelter, provender and fresh horses could be obtained for travellers on official business.

The route as it was in Late Antiquity is represented in schematic fashion on the Tabula Peutingeriana.

More information: Roamin' The Empire

"A road," said the Roman engineer, "is a promise."

"A promise," answered the philosopher, "is a road."