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SOISSONS (Town) FRANCE
Augusta Suessionum (Soissons) Aisne, France.
Situated at the juncture of the Crise and the Aisne, the Roman city is recorded
in the Peutinger Table and the Antonine Itinerary.
Despite the discovery of Gallic artifacts in the town, the actual
Gallic capital was to the NE at Pommiers, where a large oppidum, still well preserved,
stood at the edge of the plateau between the Aisne and the Juvigny. This Iron
Age III fortress, one of the largest of the territory of the Suessiones, corresponds
to the Noviodunum of the Gallic wars where Caesar received the submission of the
Suessiones. Thousands of Gallic fragments have been found on the site, and Gallic
necropoleis and settlements from the same period have been identified at Pernant,
Marcin et Vaux, Crouy, Ciry, and Chassemy.
The foundation of the Roman city cannot be precisely dated, and the
network of roads indicates that the Gallic site of Pommiers was still occupied
in the Roman period. Thus Pommiers-Soissons is an example of a new town created
by Rome to replace an old Gallic town, just as Vermand was replaced by Saint-Quentin,
Bibracte by Autun, Gergovia by Clermont.
The Roman city must have developed around the road from Rheims to
Amiens, but we know nothing of the dimensions of the insulae or the nature of
the dwellings. Excavations in the 19th c. uncovered remains of a theater 300 m
W of the Late Empire wall, and extensive ruins to the N, but no ancient edifice
has been preserved. Frequent discoveries of carved blocks prove, however, that
the capital of the civitas of the Suessiones must have been as well supplied with
monuments as the other cities of Belgic Gaul. Recently some 20 carved blocks were
discovered, reused in the wall of the Late Empire; some of them obviously came
from a monumental ensemble (cornices, pilasters, modillions). Among remains of
carvings Apollo with his lyre is represented. The style and proportions of the
figures bear some resemblance to the decorations on large funerary monuments of
the Treves area. The plan of the rampart is not completely known. It was probably
built at the end of the 3d c., and protected a 12 ha sector slightly set back
from the Aisne. Only the S side is partially visible, at the rue des Minimes near
the episcopal palace, and only one tower has been found, at the SW right angle
of the wall.
In the 4th c., according to the Notitia Dignitatum, Soissons became
a center of arms manufacture. And the discovery of a necropolis on the Aisne with
Tombs containing weapons seems to indicate the presence of allies, perhaps Laeti.
The last representative of Roman authority resided here before his defeat by Clovis.
P. Leman, 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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