cities: Europe political, legal, and economic power to sustain the settlement once it was established Caesar refers to the “tribes” of Gaul as civitates, a word best translated as “states,” and he talks about ways in which the states held meetings to govern their affairs (for example, the senatus of the Aedui or the popular gatherings of the Treveri), the election of magistrates (such as the elected chief magistrate of the Aedui), and the collection of taxes (for instance, the auctioning of the right to gather tolls from the traders among the Aedui) The reasons for this abrupt change in settlement pattern, from open to defensive positions, is not clear, especially in central Europe, where we have no information on events from the written sources for the early second century when the oppida were founded The dates for southern Germany, Switzerland, and France of around 120 b.c.e., however, correspond closely to the Roman invasion of southern Gaul in 125–123 b.c.e and the defeat of the Arverni With the collapse of the major coalition, there may have been a power vacuum that led to conflict by new competing powers By the time Caesar arrived 60 years later, although the Arverni were still a major force, they had been eclipsed by the Aedui based in Burgundy and the Sequani to the east in the Franche Comté Not all of the oppida succeeded; some sites were founded and their defenses constructed, but we have little evidence for much occupation of them In some areas, especially in western France, oppida were not established at all, even in places where we have evidence for major open settlements So the pattern is not uniform Within the oppida there was considerable difference in the types of houses, indicating that the population covered the whole range of the society At the top of the hierarchy were fenced enclosures containing a number of buildings, some of which seem to have been for agricultural purposes (stables, barns, and granaries) and others for industrial activities such as iron- and bronzeworking, coin production, as though some aspects of production were under close elite control At Mont Beuvray one or two of these enclosures evolved, first into large timber houses and then, after the Roman conquest, into luxurious stone houses with courtyards, mosaic pavements, heating systems, and elaborate painted walls, comparable to the best Mediterranean houses These were clearly the residences of the aristocrats who formed the leading groups within the oligarchic states that Caesar describes There are also industrial areas with small buildings such as those along the main street at Manching The best preserved are those excavated at Mont Beuvray, initially built in timber but again, after the conquest, reconstructed in stone, indicative of an independent and increasingly wealthy artisan class At Mont Beuvray the houses seem to have been of two stories, with double rooms on the ground floor, one of which was devoted to industry (the casting of brooches, forging of iron tools and weapons, production of glass ornaments, objects with enamel inlay, and so on) It is less easy to identify public areas such as market squares Some of the sites had temples, but temples are more a char- 221 acteristic of the countryside in Gaul, where sanctuaries that were to continue into the Roman period started appearing from the fourth century onward Although many of these sites evolved into permanent settlements, in some areas they were inhabited for only a generation or two This is most clear in the Aisne Valley in northern France and in the Auvergne, where we can identify series of sites, one succeeding the other; in the Auvergne parts of the earlier sites did continue to be occupied The large open settlement at Aulnat was completely abandoned at the end of the second century b.c.e in favor of a hilltop site at Corent, centered on a religious enclosure Although the temple remained in use, the majority of the population moved to a more low-lying site at Gondole overlooking the river Allier, and this, too, had a ritual area just outside the defenses, where pits containing skeletons of men and horses have been uncovered By the time Caesar arrived, the center of population was on a nearby hilltop, the site of Gergovia, which he besieged unsuccessfully This site, too, was abandoned a couple of generations after the conquest in favor of the nearby town of Augustonemetum, though the temple site continued in use Clearly the shifting of the town required considerable expense and resources, and the reasons for these shifts are unclear It was more common for the sites, once founded, to continue in use, and many Roman towns in Gaul, both provincial capitals and smaller centers, are now known to have pre-Roman origins OTHER AREAS The coastal areas of southern France and eastern and southern Spain had been subject to colonization first by the Phoenicians (for example, at Cadiz, though some settlements were little more than small intermediary trading centers with few urban characteristics) and then from 600 b.c.e by the Greeks, most notably at Massalia (Marseilles) and Emporion and Rhode (Ampurias and Rosas, in northwestern Spain) which in their turn established their own colonies The model for all these sites was the “city-state” controlling only a small amount of territory and mainly reliant on the sea for its external contacts These sites were certainly one factor that led to urbanization among the native peoples labeled as Ligurians and Iberians; a plethora of defended sites developed in the hinterlands of foreign colonies as well as along the river Guadalquivir in central southern Spain, though they certainly were not set up in the image of the Greek sites They were mainly defended sites on hilltops surrounded by impressive drystone walls with projecting towers to allow cross fire, as at Entremont in Provence However, certainly in southern France, the internal structure was very different from the colonial sites—lacking, for instance, the massive public buildings and temples that dominated Greek cities The road system, often rectilinear, was designed to give access to blocks of houses that were generally very uniform in plan, with rarely more than a couple of rooms on the ground