Editing Nîmes (section)

===600–121 BCE===

The hill of Mt. Cavalier was the site of the early [[oppidum]] which gave birth to the city. During the third and 2nd centuries BCE a surrounding wall was built with a dry-stone tower at the summit which was later incorporated into the [[Tour Magne]]. 

[[Strabo]], the Greek geographer, mentioned that this town functioned as the regional capital for the [[Volcae Arecomici]], a [[Celts|Celtic]] people. The city adopted the name of a local water deity, [[Nemausus]]. The town had a healing spring.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Gates |first=Charles |title=Ancient cities: the archaeology of urban life in the ancient Near East and Egypt, Greece and Rome |date=2011 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-203-83057-4 |edition=2nd |location=London |pages=408}}</ref>

The Warrior of Grezan is considered to be the most ancient indigenous sculpture in southern Gaul.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Armit |first=Ian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yibDmGZOeR4C&dq=The+Warrior+of+Grezan&pg=PA79 |title=Headhunting and the Body in Iron Age Europe |date=2012-03-19 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-87756-5 |language=en |access-date=28 July 2022 |archive-date=16 September 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230916120525/https://books.google.com/books?id=yibDmGZOeR4C&dq=The+Warrior+of+Grezan&pg=PA79 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 123 BCE the Roman general [[Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus|Quintus Fabius Maximus]] campaigned against Gallic tribes in the area and defeated the [[Allobroges]] and the [[Arverni]], while the Volcae offered no resistance. The Roman province [[Gallia Transalpina]] was established in 121 BCE<ref>Maddison, Angus (2007), Contours of the World Economy 1–2030 AD: Essays in Macro-Economic History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 41, {{ISBN|9780191647581}}</ref> and from 118 BCE the [[Via Domitia]] was built through the later site of the city.