Listed 3 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AIX-EN-PROVENCE Town BOUCHES DU RHONE" .
AIX-EN-PROVENCE (Town) BOUCHES DU RHONE
Aquae Sextiae Salluviorum (Aix-en-Provence) Bouches-du-Rhone, France.
The town derives its names from its hot springs and its founder. Caius Sextius
Calvinus created it in 122 B.C. on the territory of the indigenous confederation
of the Salluvii, whose capital of Entremont nearby he had just destroyed (Livy
Epit. 61; Vell. Pat. 1.15; Strab. 4.15). Originally Aix was a castellum occupied
by a garrison which was supposed to watch over the routes leading from Marseille
to the Durance and from the Rhone to the Italian frontier. It is the oldest Roman
foundation in Gaul. The presence of a Roman garrison must quickly have attracted
merchants and businessmen, and it was probably Caesar who made it the capital
of a civitas after 49 and divided the territory of Marseille between it and Arles.
A Latin colony under Caesar, it later became a Roman one, perhaps under Augustus.
Around 375 it became the capital of provincia Narbonensis secunda.
Rather few archaeological remains have been found in situ. The area
occupied by the castellum and the colonia respectively is a subject for discussion.
The most generally accepted opinion identifies the Roman castellum with the Bourg
Saint-Sauveur, which was the capitulary residence in the Middle Ages. Its location
somewhat higher than the rest of the site and its dimensions (ca. 400 m N-S and
300 E-W) would correspond fairly well with characteristics of a fortified post.
Unfortunately, archaeological proof is lacking and reconstruction of the fortifications
remains hypothetical. Only some stretches of road have been noted. Similarly,
the course and extent of the wall of the colony are the subject of various hypotheses.
Ancient documents allow one to place the S gate. Its arrangement as a half-moon
shape protected by two round towers, analogous to gates at Freus and Arles, may
indicate that it dates to the Augustan period. The Via Julia Augusta entered the
town by this gate, and in the past tombs and a mausoleum have been noted in the
vicinity. Two pieces of wall found long ago, burials, and funerary inscriptions
permit the approximate reconstruction of an enclosure with a perimeter of some
3 km. It was elongated along an E-W axis and very much off center with respect
to the original castellum. However, the details of the topography still remain
to be specified. Sections of the cardo have been known for a long time and recent
excavations have reconstructed the axis of the decumanus. There are remains, some
of them sizable, of five aqueducts.
According to different indications there probably were an amphitheater
and an arch of triumph or trophy. Three villae urbanae have been partly excavated
in the Grassi gardens. One of them, probably Augustan, included two peristyles.
Of Early Christian Aix there remains the baptistery of Saint-Sauveur
cathedral. It can be dated to the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th c. Eight
unmatching columns in it were borrowed from pagan buildings. The seat of the archbishopric
has not yet been found.
There is a Gallo-Roman collection at the Musee Granet.
C. Goudineau, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
ROGNAC (Town) PROVENCE
Rognac, Bouches-du-Rhone, France.
Situated 18 km W of Aix-en-Provence and 20 km S-SE of Salon-de-Provence. One kilometer
SE of the city is an extremely narrow finger of rock (240 x 30 x 70 m) belonging
to the Arbois plateau on which is the site of La Castellas, 159 m high. It is
a spur with steep sides; which on the N is cut off by a fortified wall. Along
the cliff are 18 huts arranged in two rows; they have walls of dry stones set
firmly on the rock, which has been meticulously flattened and prepared (hearths,
silos [?], furnace). Only a few objects have been found (a stone mill, some amphorae
for storing food). In contrast the pottery is apparently abundant: Massaliot and
Graeco-Italian amphorae, Campanian A, indigenous vases; pottery is also found
in the neighboring sites of Las Fauconnieres (2 km N-NE) and Les Coussous (2 km
W). Coinage is represented chiefly by obols and drachmas of Massalia. A coin from
Carthage, another from Nemausus, and a little gold ingot may be evidence of more
far-flung trade. Occupied in the 3d c. B.C. and abandoned at the time of the Roman
conquest of the territory of the Salyes (ca. 121 B.C.), the site belongs to the
Celto-Ligurian civilization of Iron Age II and III. In the Gallo-Roman period
the town was established farther down from the plateau, nearer the Etang de Berre
(sites of Les Canourgues, Le Vacon, etc.). Le Castellas was not occupied again
until the Middle Ages when it was fortified, hence its name. The remains of the
statue of a cross-legged figure (cf. Velaux) come from the area around Rognac.
H. Morestin, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Jan 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
