Thesaurus

City lying on the plain one mile from the right bank of the Arc River; it is on the crossroads of main routes to Italy and the Alps. It was founded as military colony by Roman proconsul Sextius Calvinus ca. 123 BCE. It was the site of defeat of Teutones by Marius in 102 BCE at the Battle of Aix. It was the main city of eastern Narbonensis in the 4th century CE. Aix-en-Provence was taken by Visigoths in 477, by Saracens in 731; it was also plundered by the Franks, Lombards, and finally Muslim invaders from Spain. Aix-en-Provence flourished in the Middle Ages as a center of learning and of the arts; its university, now the Universities of Aix-Marseille, was founded in 1409. It has been a part of France since 1487. It is an agricultural center and is espeically noted for its Provençal olives and almonds. Paul Cézanne's atelier is preserved as one of several city museums. The city serves mainly as a residential suburb of Marseille.