Travel Reference
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predecessors, stacking arches to build arenas and theaters, stringing them side by side for
aqueducts, stretching out their legs to create barrel-vaulted ceilings, and building freest-
anding “triumphal” arches to celebrate conquering generals.
When it came to construction, the Romans' magic building ingredient was concrete.
A mixture of volcanic ash, lime, water, and small rocks, concrete—easier to work than
stone, longer-lasting than wood—served as flooring, roofing, filler, glue, and support.
Builders would start with a foundation of brick, then fill it in with poured concrete. They
would then cover important structures, such as basilicas, in sheets of expensive marble
(held on with nails), or decorate floors and walls with mosaics—proving just how talented
the Romans were at turning the functional into art.
By helping Julius Caesar defeat his archrival Gnaeus Pompey at Marseille, Arles (pro-
nounced“arl”) earnedtheimperial nodandwasmadeanimportant portcity.Withthefirst
bridge over the Rhône River, Arles was a key stop on the Roman road from Italy to Spain,
the Via Domitia. After reigning as the seat of an important archbishop and a trading center
