Roman period
The city arose on the important Via Domitia which connected Italy with Hispania.
Nîmes became a Roman colony as Colonia Nemausus sometime before 28 BCE, as witnessed by the earliest coins, which bear the abbreviation NEM. COL. Veterans of Julius Caesar's legions in his Nile campaigns were given plots of land to cultivate on the plain of Nîmes.
Augustus launched a major construction program in the city, as elsewhere throughout the Roman empire. Additionally, he ordered the construction of a 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) long ring of ramparts in the city, reinforced by 14 towers; two gates remain today: the Porte d'Auguste, and the Porte de France. Internally, the city was organized around the cardo and decumanus, intersecting at the forum. The Maison Carrée ("Square House"), an exceptionally well-preserved temple dating from the late 1st century BCE, stands as one of the finest surviving examples of Roman temple architecture. Dedicated to Roma and Augustus, it bears a striking resemblance to Rome's Temple of Portunus, blending Etruscan and Greek design influences.
The Nîmes Aqueduct, many of whose remains can be seen today outside of the city, was built to bring water from the hills to the north. Where it crossed the river Gard between Uzès and Remoulins, the Pont du Gard was built. This is 20 km (12 mi) northeast of the city.
The museum accommodates numerous fine objects discovered during excavations in the city and its surrounding area, including mosaic floors, frescoes and sculpture from wealthy houses and other buildings. Furthermore, it is known that the town had a civil basilica, a curia, a gymnasium, and perhaps a circus. The amphitheatre is very well preserved, dates from the end of the 2nd century, and was one of the largest amphitheatres in the Empire. The so-called Temple of Diana, dating from Augustus and rebuilt in the 2nd century, was actually not a temple but was centred on a nymphaeum located within the Fontaine Sanctuary dedicated to Augustus and may have actually served as a library.
The city was the birthplace of the family of Emperor Antoninus Pius (138-161).
Emperor Constantine (306-337) endowed the city with baths.
It became the seat of the Diocesan Vicar, the chief administrative officer of southern Gaul.
The town was prosperous until the end of the 3rd century, when successive barbarian invasions slowed its development. During the 4th and 5th centuries, the nearby town of Arles enjoyed more prosperity. In the early 5th century, the Praetorian Prefecture was moved from Trier in northeast Gaul to Arles.
The Visigoths captured the city in 472.
When the Visigoths were accepted into the Roman Empire, Nîmes was included in their territory in 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.
By 725, the Muslim Umayyads had conquered the whole Visigothic territory of Septimania including Nîmes. In 736–737, Charles Martel and his brother led an expedition to Septimania and Provence, and largely destroyed the city (in the hands of Umayyads allied with the local Gallo-Roman and Gothic nobility), including the amphitheatre, thereafter heading back north. The Muslim government came to an end in 752, when Pepin the Short captured the city. In 754, an uprising took place against the Carolingian king, but was put down, and count Radulf, a Frank, appointed as master of the city. After the events connected with the war, Nîmes was now only a shadow of the opulent Roman city it had once been. The local authorities installed themselves in the remains of the amphitheatre.
Excavations in Nîmes have revealed three medieval graves that represent the earliest archaeological evidence of a Muslim presence in France. Multidisciplinary analyses, including anthropological and palaeogenomic studies of the remains, indicate that the burials followed Islamic rites and date to between 720 and 752 AD.
In the 7th century, the Jewish community in Nîmes grew significantly after Count Hildéric welcomed Jewish families fleeing persecution during the Visigothic period in Spain. This established a long-standing Jewish presence in the city, which later led to the establishment of the first documented synagogue in 1089, located in the heart of the medieval Jewish quarter.
Carolingian rule brought relative peace, but feudal times in the 12th century brought local troubles, which lasted until the days of St. Louis. During that period Nîmes was jointly administered by a bishop, as well as by a civil authority headquartered in the old amphitheater, where lived the Viguier ("Magistrate"), as well as the Viguier's retainers, the Knights of the Arena. Meanwhile the city was represented by four Consuls, whose offices were located in the old Maison Carrée.
Despite incessant squabbling between competing feudal lords, Nîmes saw some progress both in commerce and industry as well as in stock-breeding and associated activities. After the last effort by Raymond VII of Toulouse, St. Louis managed to establish royal power in the region which became Languedoc. Nîmes thus finally came into the hands of the King of France.
