Aix (Aquae Sextiae; later known as Aix-en-Provence) is founded in 123 BCE on the principal routes to Italy and the Alps by the Roman consul Sextius Calvinus, who gives his name to its nearby mineral springs, following the destruction of the nearby Gallic oppidum at Entremon, which had been the capital of the Celtic-Ligurian confederation.

Plutarch gives the numbers advancing on Italy as three hundred thousand armed fighting men, and much larger hordes of women and children.

The barbarians divide themselves into two bands, and it falls to the Cimbri to proceed through Noricum in the interior of the country against Catulus, and of a passage there, while the Teutones and Ambrones are to march through Liguria along the seacoast against the consul Gaius Marius, who has set up camp on the Rhône.

Marius, choosing his ground carefully, builds a well-fortified camp on the top of a hill near Aquae Sextiae, where he lures the Teutons and their allies the Ambrones into attacking him.

During their attack they are ambushed from the rear by a select force of five cohorts which Marius had hidden in a nearby wood The Roman accounts claim that in the ensuing massacre ninety thousand Teutons were slain and twenty thousand, including their King Teutobod, were captured.

The only surviving reports are Roman, but certainly the complete annihilation of the Teutons and Ambrones speaks to the crushing nature of their defeat.

The captured women commit mass suicide, which passes into Roman legends of Germanic heroism (Jerome, letter cxxiii.8, CE409): By the conditions of the surrender three hundred of their married women were to be handed over to the Romans.

When the Teuton matrons heard of this stipulation they first begged the consul that they might be set apart to minister in the temples of Ceres and Venus; and then when they failed to obtain their request and were removed by the lictors, they slew their little children and next morning were all found dead in each other's arms having strangled themselves in the night.

Plutarch mentions (Marius 10, 5-6) that during the battle, the Ambrones began to shout "Ambrones!"

as their battle-cry; the Ligurian troops fighting for the Romans, on hearing this cry, found that it was identical to an ancient name in their country which the Ligurians often used when speaking of their descent, so they returned the shout, "Ambrones!".

Marius takes one hundred thousand prisoners.

Plutarch tells us that Ambrones alone numbered more than 30,000 and were the most warlike division of the enemy, who had earlier defeated the Romans under Manlius and Caepio.

The Ambrones have been destroyed.

Although Caesar mentions that the remnants of the Cimbri and Teutons formed a new tribe in Belgic Gaul, the Aduatuci, he does not mention any remnants of the Ambrones.

Aquae Sextiae has only evened the score, however: while the Teutons have been eliminated, the Cimbri remain a formidable threat.

Joanna next goes to Aix en Provence, where her reception is very different: the Provençal barons clearly demonstrating their hostility to her.

She has to take an oath to do nothing against Provence and to appoint only locals in the county posts.

Louis II, born in Toulouse, is the son of Louis I of Anjou, King of Naples, and Marie of Blois.

He had come into his Angevin inheritance, which includes Provence, in 1384, with his rival Charles of Durazzo (father of Ladislaus), of the senior Angevin line, in possession of Naples.

Most towns in Provence revolted after the death of his father.

His mother then raised an army and they traveled from town to town, to gain support.

Louis II is formally recognized as Count in Aix-en-Provence.

Marie now appeals to Charles VI of France to support her son in obtaining Naples.

The University of Aix-en-Provence, founded on December 9, 1409 as a studium generale by Count of Provence Louis II of Anjou, is recognized by Papal Bull in 1413.

The decision to establish the university was, in part, a response to the already-thriving University of Paris.

Thus, the letters patent for the university had ben granted, and the government of the university had been created.

The Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence is appointed as the first chancellor of the university for the rest of his life.

Nicolas Froment, a member of the Avignonese school, gains renown for a major altarpieces, “The Raising of Lazarus.”

His Triptych of the Burning Bush, today installed in Aix Cathedral, had originally been painted for a Carmelite convent, destroyed during the French Revolution.

The central panel represents the Virgin and Child seen on the burning bush.

In the foreground, Moses, guarding his flock, is amazed by the vision.

The two other parts of the triptych show the patrons of the work, René of Anjou, ruler of Provence and titular king of Naples, and his consort Queen Jeanne, in devotional attitudes.

Nicholas Froment paints a second celebrated altarpiece in 1476, “The Burning Bush,” for the Cathedral of Saint Sauveur in Aix-en-Provence.

This work, like his earlier “The Raising of Saint Lazarus,” reveals an awareness of the innovations of both the Italian Renaissance and the new Flemish realism.

His concept of space, initially northern European in his detailed landscapes, seems now to become more Tuscan, employing an Italian style of perspective.

René d’Anjou, dying at seventy-one at Aix-en-Provence on July 10, 1480, leaves two romances in prose and verse.

The extinction of the princely house of Anjou will bring the French crown substantial territory and eliminate another dangerous rival to Louis XI, who himself dies on August 30, 1483.

France acquires Aix aome six years after the death of René, when the crown finally annexes the county of Anjou.

Charles de Lannoy launches an invasion of Provence, commanded by Don Fernando d'Avalos and Charles de Bourbon, crossing the Alps in early July with nearly eleven thousand men.

The Spanish-Imperial forces capture and sack most of the smaller towns of Provence, and finally Charles de Bourbon enters the provincial capital of Aix-en-Provence on August 9, taking the title of Count of Provence.

The increasing interaction of the Waldenses with the Protestant churches has brought the them to the attention of the authorities.

The Parlement of Provence issues the Arrêt de Mérindol on November 18, 1541, ordering the destruction of the villages of Lourmarin, Mérindol, and Cabriéres in the Luberon, because their inhabitants are Vaudois, of Italian Piedmontese origin, and are not considered sufficiently orthodox Catholics.