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FREJUS (Town) VAR
Forum Julii (Frejus) Var, France.
Placed near the sea, the town is located at the mouth of the Argens valley. It
is on the highroad from Italy to Spain and at the start of the N road to Reia
Apollinaris (Riez). Although the Argens valley and neighboring hilltops have revealed
traces of settlement from the Palaeolithic to the Celto-Ligurian period, the site
of Frejus was not occupied on a regular basis until the time of Caesar. The first
mention of Forum Julii occurs in Cicero's correspondence (Fain. 10.15.3 and 10.17.1)
in 43 B.C. Therefore, one can attribute to Caesar (perhaps at the time of the
siege of Massilia in 49 B.C.) the creation or expansion of this stopping-place,
which was both a market and a provisioning center. The port apparently was laid
out during the Triumvirate, since Tacitus (Ann. 4, 5) says that Octavius sent
Antony's fleet there after capturing it at Actium (31 B.C.). No doubt the port
had already been used in the campaigns against Sextus Pompeius.
During the reign of Augustus, it was one of the major naval bases
of the Empire, on the same footing as Misenum and Ravenna; later its role declined.
Also in the Augustan period, probably shortly after Actium, a detachment of veterans
of the 8th legion turned Forum Julii into Colonia Octavanorum. According to Pliny
the Elder (HN 2.35) the town was also called Pacensis and Classica. In spite of
the loss of its military role, the town remained a fairly important and prosperous
administrative and economic center until the end of antiquity; it became the seat
of a bishop at the end of the 4th c.
Linked to the sea by a canal which must have been ca. 1 km long and
50-80 m wide, the port is now completely filled up. Wharfs can be recognized to
the W and S over a length of more than 500 m, and the area of the basin can be
estimated at some 20 ha. The entry was defended by two towers linked to a wall
which met the town ramparts. A small hexagonal monument was built on the ruins
of one of these towers after ancient times. It was 10 m high, probably served
as a signal platform, and is still visible. At the inner end of the port at the
level of the S wharf are the remains of what was long thought to be a lighthouse
with three stories, of the same type as those at Ostia and Ravenna, but it was
probably nothing more than a tower.
Important vestiges of the ramparts of the colony have remained in
place. The walls, Augustan in date, formed an irregular polygon more than 3.5
km long, giving the town an area of ca. 40 ha. More than 2.50 m thick on the average,
the walls are faced with ashlar masonry with rubble fill. Here and there opus
reticulatum was used. Several towers survive in part to the E and, above all,
to the N, where one of them has two stories. The first floor is pierced with loopholes;
the second is furnished with windows under a semicircular arch and is connected
to the chemin de ronde of the fortifications. Two gates are still visible: the
E Rome Gate and the W Gate of the Gauls. Both are set back from the ramparts,
at the center of a semicircular wall and flanked by two round towers (the same
type is known at Aquae Sextiae and Arelate). These two gates are at the ends of
the decumanus maximus. The location of the gates of the cardo is known to the
N, but has not been found to the S.
The S sector of the ramparts includes two natural hillocks which dominated
the port: the Saint-Antoine hill to the SW and the Platform to the SE. The former
was defended by three towers. On the W side the rampart was reinforced on the
inside by semicircular buttresses, intended to contain the pressure of the earth.
A group of buildings arranged around a central court has been brought to light
on the terreplein. They are set up on artificial fill designed to level the hillock.
Ceramic material permits the fill to be dated to the last third of the 1st c.
B.C. Under this fill have appeared the remains of a private dwelling of an earlier
period. These are all that is left of Caesar's Forum Julii. The second level,
the Platform, was also leveled off by a fill and by the construction farther down
the slope of seven large, vaulted chambers, which acted as a base and support.
A vast courtyard, into which there opens a cistern with three intercommunicating,
vaulted chambers, is at the center of a series of living rooms with a peristyle
and baths. The S side remained bare of all construction, to leave unobstructed
the view of the port and the sea. The function of these buildings found on the
two hills has been variously interpreted: a citadel and a praetorium? It is hard
to settle this discussion with any certainty, but their construction in the Augustan
period (that is to say, at the time when the naval port expanded) leads one to
believe that they played an important role in the organization of the naval base.
Apart from some sections of streets and water mains and of some mosaics
and various pieces collected in the museum, the only important structure excavated
inside the fortifications is a theater. It had its back against a gently sloping
hill in the NE part of the town and faced S. Its design was simple and it was
little decorated. Apparently it too was Augustan.
The amphitheater was situated outside the NW corner of the walls and
almost in contact with them (during the Middle Ages it served on more than one
occasion as a fortress for attackers besieging Frejus). It dates to a later period,
to Flavian or even Antonine times. Its axes measure 113.85 m and 82.60 m respectively.
It had only one story and its 16 tiers of seats accommodated ca. 10,000 spectators,
or ca. half the capacity of the Arles and Nimes amphitheaters. The following are
also to be noted outside the ramparts: to the SW the remains of public baths;
a necropolis, of which there remains a mausoleum called La Tourrache; the bridge
of the Esclapes, with its three arches; and, to the S, near the old port and close
by the ramparts, the Golden Gate, the remains of a large vaulted chamber with
three openings, whose nature has not been determined (a basilica? a large room
in public baths?), but whose date is certainly later than the 2d c. A.D. The aqueduct
which fed Forum Julii is in an exceptionally good state of preservation. It can
be followed over almost 40 km beginning at the foot of Mons hill, where it is
a surface ditch. It then continues by underground canal, 3 m wide and vaulted.
Arcades and tunnels take it to the Roman Gate. From there it follows the ramparts
to the N, cuts across their NE corner, and meets the water tower to the W.
On the town hall square, the group of episcopal buildings comprises
the cathedral, which originated in the renewal and transformation of an Early
Christian church; the baptistery, whose first state goes back to the 5th c.; and
the episcopal palace, which shelters the municipal museum (Gallo-Roman collections).
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 83 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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