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CHALON (Town) SAONE ET LOIRE
Cabillonum or Cabilonnum (Chalon) Saone-et-Loire, France.
On the left bank of the Saone, 140 km N of Lugdunum (Lyon) and the Rhone-Saone
confluence. The chief port of the civitas of the Aedui before the Roman Conquest,
it had economic importance: 24,000 amphorae found on the site of the Roman port,
a large number of bronze and silver bowls, lead ingots from Britain. In the 6th
c. A.D. it was one of the principal cities of the Burgundian kingdom and minted
its own coins.
The mediaeval and modern city retains the plan of the Roman one, which
has never been excavated to any significant degree. The existence of an amphitheater,
attested in the 18th c., is still hypothetical. Some oak posts with iron tips,
from the foundations of the Roman bridge, were discovered in the Saone in 1950.
Only a few traces remain of the castrum, which was built at the beginning of the
4th c. A.D. The city wall, backed by the Saone, is semicircular in shape and 1300
m long, enclosing an area of ca. 15 ha. It was defended by 18 towers and had three
gates. Interspersed in the courses of masonry, which are 3.5 m thick and made
of large blocks, are many remains, for example, the dedication offered to the
goddess Sauconna (the Saone) by the inhabitants of the city.
L. Bonnamour, 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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