Situated between Italy and Spain, the geographical position of the city of Arles on the Mediterranean Sea gave her a strategic role in the Roman Empire .

In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar founded a colony governed by Roman law on the land controlled by the city, which had supported him during the siege of the city of Marseilles.

From that point on, the city flourished.  Splendid Roman monuments were built : the Forum, temples, the theatre, the amphitheatre, the circus, baths . . .  Under the reign of the Emperor Constantine, the city was so prosperous that it was known as « Little Rome in Gaul ».

The Roman heritage monuments of this period are presented at the Departmental Museum antique Arles, the Arles archeological museum : the architecture and the workings of the Roman baths, scale models of the Roman and Gallo-Roman monuments.