Arles Amphitheatre, a Roman arena.

The Church of Saint-Trophime d ' Arles | Saint Trophime in Arles ( 12th century )

Image: Paul Gauguin 072. jpg | Night Café at Arles, ( Mme Ginoux ), ( 1888 )

Image: Media STT 20091022 133649 med. jpg | A carved early Gothic column capital at the Church of St. Trophime in Arles, 14th century, depicting the Tarasque ; it is one of several carvings here that show legends of local folklore as well as biblical figures.

A traditional Provençal Santon ( figurine ) | santon, or Christmas creche figure, from Arles, facing the mistral

Image: Van Gogh Twelve Sunflowers. jpg | Vincent Van Gogh, Vase with twelve Sunflowers, Arles, January 1889

File: Van Gogh-Selbstbildnis34. jpeg | Self-portrait, Arles, November / December 1888Private collection ( F501 )

Image :- Kathedrale St. Trophime1078-1152Bunte Bleiglasfenster benannt nach dem ersten Bischof ( 3. Jh. n. Chr ) vonArles-Innenraum. JPG | Genesius of Arles ( right ) portrayed in a stained glass window.

File: Van Gogh Entrance to the Public Park in Arles. jpg | Vincent van Gogh, Entrance to the Public Park in Arles, 1888

Image: Lane at Alchamps, Arles 1888 Paul Gauguin. jpg | Paul Gauguin, Allée des Alyscamps1888Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo

File: Vincent Van Gogh 0014. jpg | Van Gogh, Langlois Bridge at Arles, 1888

Image: Lane at Alchamps, Arles 1888 Paul Gauguin. jpg | Paul Gauguin, Allée des Alyscamps1888Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, Tokyo

Image: Arles St. Trophime Church Cloister Capital with Face. jpg | Cloister column capital with face

Roman arena at Arles, inside view.

Both places were then part of the Kingdom of Arles in the Holy Roman Empire, but now the first is in southeastern France and the second in northwestern Italy.

Sometime between 395 and 418 the Roman administration moved the staff of Pretorian Prefecture from the city to Arles.

* 407: Constantine III leads many of the Roman military units from Britain to Gaul, occupying Arles ( Arelate ).

* The Roman usurper Constantine III established his headquarters at Arles ( Southern Gaul ) and elevates his eldest son, Constans, to the rank of Caesar.

* Flavius Aetius, Roman general ( magister militum ), arrives in southern Gaul with an army ( 40, 000 men ) and defeats the Visigoths under king Theodoric I who besiege the strategic city of Arles.

* July 9 – Avitus is proclaimed Roman emperor at Toulouse, and later recognised by the Gallic chiefs in Viernum ( near Arles ).

* 1263 – The doctrines of theologian Joachim of Fiore are condemned as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church at a synod in Arles.

Arles was at that time still independent, formally a part of the Holy Roman Empire.

* The doctrines of theologian Joachim of Fiore are condemned as heresy by the Roman Catholic Church at a synod in Arles.

( Piecemeal over the next centuries most of the former Kingdom of Arles was incorporated into France – but King of Arles remained one of the Holy Roman Emperor's subsidiary titles until the dissolution of the Empire in 1806.

The Roman arena at Arles ( 2nd century AD )

Roman veterans, in the meantime, populated two new towns, Arles and Fréjus, at the sites of older Greek settlements.

) Roman towns were built at Cavaillon ; Orange ; Arles ; Fréjus ; Glanum ( outside Saint-Rémy-de-Provence ); Carpentras ; Vaison-la-Romaine ; Nîmes ; Vernègues ; Saint-Chamas and Cimiez ( above Nice ).

At the beginning the 4th century, the court of Roman Emperor Constantine ( 280 – 337 ) was forced to take refuge in Arles.

It is documented that there were organized churches and bishops in the Roman towns of Provence as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries ; in Arles in 254 ; Marseille in 314 ; Orange, Vaison and Apt in 314 ; Cavaillon, Digne, Embrun, Gap, and Fréjus at the end of the 4th century ; Aix-en-Provence in 408 ; Carpentras, Avignon, Riez, Cimiez ( today part of Nice ) and Vence in 439 ; Antibes in 442 ; Toulon in 451 ; Senez in 406, Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux in 517 ; and Glandèves in 541.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the city was part of the first Burgundian kingdom in the 5th century and the second Burgundian Kingdom of Arles until 1032, when it was integrated into the Holy Roman Empire.

Fabian sent seven bishops from Rome to Gaul to preach the Gospel: Gatianus of Tours to Tours, Trophimus of Arles to Arles, Paul of Narbonne to Narbonne, Saturnin to Toulouse, Denis to Paris, Austromoine to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Clermont, and Saint Martial to Limoges.

The Roman and Romanesque Monuments of Arles were listed as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1981.

** The arena in Arles

The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456 ; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great.

In 409, Gerontius, Constantine III's general in Hispania, rebelled against him, proclaimed Maximus Emperor, and besieged Constantine at Arles.

The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the Council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln.

The French tradition of Saint Lazare of Bethany is that Mary, her brother Lazarus, and Maximinus, one of the Seventy Disciples and some companions, expelled by persecutions from the Holy Land, traversed the Mediterranean in a frail boat with neither rudder nor mast and landed at the place called Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer near Arles.

He accepted an appeal from Contumeliosus, Bishop of Riez, whom a council at Marseilles had condemned for immorality, and he ordered Caesarius of Arles to grant the accused a new trial before papal delegates.

** Jeanne Calment, the oldest person ever, dies at age 122 years 164 days in Arles, France.

* Battle of Arelate: Majorian defeats the Visigoths under king Theodoric II at Arles ( Southern Gaul ) near the Rhone River.

* King Theodoric the Great raises the Frankish siege at Arles, the city is heroically defended by its inhabitants assisted by the Ostrogothic general Theudis.

Boso having been proclaimed Burgundian King of Provence, or of Arelat ( after its capital Arles ), by the Synod of Mantaille, at the death of Louis the Stammerer ( 879 ), Avignon ceased to belong to the Frankish kings.

In 1365 Charles visited Pope Urban V at Avignon and undertook to escort him to Rome ; and on the same occasion was crowned King of Burgundy at Arles.

He was then also formally crowned King of Burgundy at Arles on 30 June 1178.

In a move to consolidate his reign after the disastrous expedition into Italy, he was formally crowned King of Burgundy at Arles on 30 June 1178.

Therefore he marched at once against the invaders, defeating one army outside Arles, which he took by storm and razed, and defeated the primary invasion force at the Battle of the River Berre, outside Narbonne.

In the last major attempt at forcible invasion of Gaul through Iberia, a sizable invasion force was assembled at Saragossa and entered what is now French territory in 735, crossed the River Rhone and captured and looted Arles.

Reluctant to tie down his army for a siege that could last years, and believing he could not afford the losses of an all-out frontal assault such as he had used at Arles, Charles was content to isolate the few remaining invaders in Narbonne and Septimania.

* Maximian, retired co-emperor, rebelled against Constantine the Great while campaigning against the Franks, he attempts to make himself emperor at Arles.