Abstract
Urbanization has been widely treated as a central component of the changes encompassed in the term Romanization. Southern Gaul was organised as Gallia Transalpina in 121 BC and its background of Greek colonization as well as its longstanding alliance with Rome made it a desirable and productive resort for Italian immigrants.
The rest of Gaul fell to Julius Caesar between 58 and 51 BC. Augustus reorganised it into three new provinces: Aquitania, Lugdunensis and Belgica and all of them became important contributors to the Roman and Imperial economy.
At many locations (Saint Rémy, Bibracte, Autun, Vaison-la-Romaine, Saint-Romain-en-Gal, Mané-Véchen, Richebourg, Montmaurin, Chiragan, Séviac, Orange...) we may track multiply construction phases and document the landscape architecture during the subsequent periods as well. At the end of the 1st and at the beginning of the 2nd centuries AD Roman villas has passed several changes in their architectural layout.
They differed from those of the early Principate by the fact that such emphasis was not placed on the exact axis atrium - tablinum - peristyle. However, the first construction of a Pompeian house with atrium is attributed at the most sites to the period of Julius Caesar, respectively to the generation after a Roman conquest of Gaul in the context of Romanization of Gaul.
At the end of the 1st century AD the additional rooms were joined to many Roman villas, for example private spa as an element of luxury or understood as an element of advancement.