Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "BAVAY Town PAS DE CALAIS" .
Bagacum (Bavai or Bavay) Nord, France.
City in the Belgica province of Gaul. Although its typically Celtic
name was taken from a Gallic settlement the location of which is unknown, the
city of Bagacum was a Roman creation. Searching the territory of the civitas of
the Nervii for a suitable site for a capital city, the Romans chose a position
overlooking strategic routes (from Tongres and Treves on the one hand, from Cambrai
and Tournai on the other); they also selected a convenient, healthy spot--the
summit of a hill sloping down to the Bavai stream.
The first piece of chronological evidence is a dedication to Tiberius
(A.D. 4). The city flourished from the 1st c. on, as evidenced by finds made to
the S (Arretine ware) and traces of a monumental development in the city center.
The construction of this huge complex, which may have been accompanied by a general
reorganization of the city plan, can be dated from the 2d c., the period of the
city's greatest vitality. That Bagacum was a victim of the invasions of the mid-3d
c. is indicated by the very recent discovery of a large quantity of bronzes buried
in haste (statuettes, handles of chests, etc.). Only a narrow urban area (4 ha)
was rebuilt and walled: from that time on, Bavai was merely a fortress of minor
importance; not mentioned in the later texts, it disappeared at the beginning
of the 5th c.
The Roman remains make it clear that under the Empire the city covered
the same area as the mediaeval city and at some points spread beyond it. Some
remains of Roman structures appear outside the mediaeval embankment, to the W
along the modern road to Valenciennes and E on the road to Maubeuge. To the SW,
still outside the mediaeval limits, a whole series of sand-pits were worked, and
this apparently gave rise to a kind of industrial suburb with a number of potter's
furnaces and some fairly rich houses. These various remains, the evidence of the
roads (curving as they near the settlement), and the position of certain tombs
(tomb of Julia Feticula to the S, next to a vault with niches decorated with painted
stuccos) indicate the approximate boundaries of the inhabited area. Bagacum extended
ca. 700 m E-W and 600-650 m N-S, a total area of ca. 40-45 ha; it remained a small
city and did not experience the economic expansion of Amiens. Judging from the
arrangement of some of the streets that have been traced (especially the Rue des
Gommeries), from that of the sewers which run parallel below ground, and from
the alignment of many remains of houses, the city appears to have been designed
on an orthogonal plan. Several groups of houses have been found (Rue de Valenciennes,
Rue des Gommeries), some of which are fairly rich (rooms with hypocausts, mosaic
floors, wall paintings, and stuccos), and an industrial quarter with poor homes
S of the great complex. There is evidence of public monuments at several points:
a temple was discovered in 1722 at Le Bisoir, an area unknown today but probably
situated to the S; several dedications show that the wealthiest citizens of Bavai
contributed their denarii to the building of useful works (for example, public
scales); remains of hypocausts and mosaics have located the public baths close
to the church. The water supply came from the Floursies springs by a system of
aqueducts.
But most important was the large complex in the city center, which
has been systematically excavated since 1942. it consists of a double forum, designed
for political and commercial purposes, 95 m N-S and ca. 230 m E-W. East of it
stands a building with a central nave (16 x 66 m) and two side naves (6 x 78 m),
against which on three sides (N, E, and S) were built wide, deep shops. This huge
monument was a basilica, originally dating from the 1st c. A.D. West of the basilica
is a square, paved with blue stone and lined to N and S with a double row of shops
opening on the square and street. Probably separated from this square by a N-S
road is another square, extending farther W; it is edged on the other three sides
(N, S, and W, each 60 m long) with a great portico the pillars of which supported
a wooden frame. The N and S galleries that form the two ends of this horseshoe-shaped
structure terminate to the W in an apse; the W gallery leads, through a vestibule
flanked by two rectangular rooms, to a large hall (23 x 25 m); in the middle of
the W wall is a flattened apse. The purpose of this last complex is hard to determine:
is it a curia or perhaps some development connected with the cult of emperors.
Below the portico is a cryptoporticus, identical in plan: it has three
galleries similar in arrangement and dimensions to those on the ground level,
but differing in that the N and S galleries are interrupted at regular intervals
by four barrel-vaulted enlargements. Covering the whole of the cryptoporticus
is a groined vault supported by strong piers. To the W is a large rectangular
room laid out like the one at ground level; originally it had a ceiling supported
by beams, but after a fire it was split up into three vaulted naves. The function
of this substructure remains uncertain; the paintings with which all the stonework
was decorated seem to rule out mere cellars, which has sometimes been suggested.
More likely the complex is a better protected continuation of the forum, a cryptoforum,
perhaps with quarters for the collegia of artisans. Finally, in the middle of
the square, with the portico galleries around it, is a foundation block 2 m high,
20 m wide, and 32 m long. A foundation of this kind and in this spot could only
be that of a temple, and a large one at that; the frieze fragments and capitals
discovered in the excavations probably come from it.
The city was ravaged by the 3d c. invasions, and both public and private
buildings provided the materials for a double surrounding wall: the first, built
hurriedly at the end of the 3d c., was followed by one more solid in the period
of Diocletian and Constantine. This rampart, which enclosed the monumental complex
of the Empire, took the somewhat unusual form of a very long rectangle (100 m
N-S, 400 m E-W); it was divided by a N-S wall into twin castella, that to the
W being the larger and stronger. The area of the city inside the wall was very
small, ca. 4 ha. Thus Bagacum in the Late Empire was not only a walled city but
a veritable fortress.
The large quantity of pottery and bronzes proves beyond doubt that
this was a local production center (especially so-called Bavai vases). A museum
is being established which will house all local finds.
C. Pietri, 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.
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