Listed 2 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "LEON Town CASTILLE-LEON" .
ASTORGA (Town) CASTILLE-LEON
Asturica Augusta (Astorga) Leon, Spain.
Roman city and mining and communications center 47 km SW of Leon (Antonine Itinerary
422-23, 425, 427, 429, 431, 439, 448, 453). It belonged to the tribe of the Astures
and was capital of the conventus; it was also inhabited in pre-Roman times. Pliny
(3.28) calls it a great city. It was a bishopric as early as the middle of the
3d c., and its bishops are quoted in the Spanish councils from the 4th c. on.
Its mediaeval walls are built over Roman ones of the Late Empire,
with towers and gates. The city was rebuilt by Augustus, using the soldiers of
the Legio X Gemina, stationed there in the 1st c. The ergastula and an extensive
network of sewers are preserved. Several Roman sculptures of the 1st c. have been
found, sarcophagi without reliefs, and one urban house of several rooms with Pompeian
paintings and many inscriptions, some in Greek, besides those mentioning mine
administration personnel. The inscriptions are dedicated to Roman deities such
as Jupiter, Juno, Regina, Minerva, Fortuna, Salus, Ceteri dei inmortales y Ceteri
dei deasque; oriental deities: Serapis, Isis, Tyche, Nemesis, and Kore; and occidental
deities: Apollo, Grannus, and Mars Sagatus, dating from the Antonine and Severan
periods. The inscriptions also refer to a grammarian (CIL II, 5079) and to flamines
of the conventus in the temple of Augustus in Tarraco in the provincial concilium
(CIL II, 2637, 4223, 5124).
J.M Blazquez, 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.
LEON (Town) CASTILLE-LEON
Legio (Leon) Leon, Spain.
City at the foot of the Cantabrian mountains in Tarraconensis. Its name refers
to its status as a camp of the Legio VII Gemina. According to recently discovered
inscriptions on tablets from Villalis, the legion was founded in A.D. 68, and
was permanently stationed there from 72 until the end of the Empire. It was the
main body of the Roman forces in the limes of N Spain and controlled the operation
of the mines of the region. The city had the rectangular plan with rounded corners
typical of Imperial Roman camps; it was 570 by 350 m, an area of 19 ha. It is
strategically located on a hillock well supplied with water between the Bernesga
and Torfo rivers.
Excavation is difficult because the modern city is built over the
ancient one: the roman strata lie ca. 3-4 m below the surface. The finds have
been scanty: the city was apparently only a simple camp, with its greatest development
during the reign of Trajan. The double walls, however, are largely preserved:
an exterior wall 5.25 m thick, and directly inside it another wall 1.8 m thick
with an inside face of well-cut blocks and carefully framed and raised joints.
This system was completely covered by the wall now visible. The 1.8 m wall must
have been constructed toward the end of the 3d or beginning of the 4th c., in
time of peace, carefully and without pressure. However, the outside wall was hastily
built of reused material, probably under threat of invasion, towards the end of
the 4th or beginning of the 5th c.
The baths are under the present cathedral but, since they were larger
than the latter, some parts have been excavated, including three hypocausts separated
by walls 1.2 m thick. The piles of the suspensura are square, of brick, and 80
cm high. These baths must have been part of the residence of the Legatus Augusti
of the Legio VII, and some stamped bricks seem to indicate that they date from
the period of Antoninus Pius.
The Early Christian building of Marialba, recently discovered outside
the city, was a church dedicated to the martyrs, the largest in the peninsula
and the most important Early Christian building in N Spain. The walls are preserved
to a height of 1-2 m, enclosing a space 23.44 by 13.6 m. At one end is a horseshoe-shaped
apse 9.55 m in diameter. The church was constructed in two phases, the middle
of the 4th c., and the end of the 4th or beginning of the 5th.
There are few other finds in the city: inscriptions, funeral stelai,
terra sigillata, and a large number of bricks stamped with various honors obtained
by Legio VII.
R. Teja, 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.
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