Listed 13 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "AQUITAINE Province FRANCE" .
Burdigala. The modern Bordeaux; the chief town of the Bituriges Vivisci, on the left bank of the Garumna (Garonne). Under the Empire it was a place of great commercial importance. Ausonius, who was born there, describes it in his little poem entitled Ordo Nobilium Urbium. The only remaining Roman monument in the town is the amphitheatre locally known as the Arenes, or Palais Gallien. It is in a greatly damaged state.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
BAYONNE (Town) PYRENEES ATLANTIQUES
The Diocese of Bayonne comprises the Department of Basses-Pyrenees. Reorganized in 1802, it included, besides certain parishes of the Diocese of Dax and Tarbes, the Diocese of Oloron and Lescar. It was suffragan to the Archiepiscopal See of Toulouse from 1802 to 1822, thereafter to that of Auch.
Diocese of Bayonne
Local tradition maintains that St. Leo, the martyr, with whose memory is associated a miraculous fountain, was the first Bishop of Bayonne. No bishop is historically known prior to the sixth century, although some think that Bayonne, designated as civitas in the Treaty of Andelot (587), must have had a bishop at that time, whilst others couple the foundation of the See of Bayonne with the establishment of the Kingdom of Aquitaine (778). Until 1655, the Diocese of Bayonne included much Spanish territory, i.e. the four Archpresbyteries of Bastan, Lerin, Cinco Villas in Navarre, and Fontarabia in Guipuzcoa, a remnant of Charlemagne's conquests beyond the Pyrenees. Christopher de Beaumont, afterwards Archbishop of Paris, occupied the See of Bayonne from 1741 to 1745 and Astros occupied it from 1820 to 1830.
Sees of Lescar and Oloron
A local legend recorded in the great "Breviaire de Lescar" of 1541, and patterned after the Limousin legend of St. Martial, holds that St. Julian, sent from Bordeaux by St. Leontius, was the first Bishop of Lescar; but according to history, St. Galactorius, martyred perhaps by the Visigoths after their defeat at Vouille, and St. Gratus, both mentioned in the council of Agde (506), were respectively the first incumbents of the See of Lescar and the See of Oloron known to history. Until 1789 the Bishops of Lescar presided by right over the Assembly of the States of Bearn. Amongst those who occupied the See of Oloron was Roussel, the Dominican (1536-50), protege of Margaret of Navarre and a convert to Calvinism.
Sponde (Spondanus, 1568-1643), Bishop of Pamiers, who carried on the
work of Baronius; Duvergier de Hauranne (1581-1643), Abbe de St. Cyran, the second
founder of Jensenism, and Cardinal Lavigerie were born in territory now included
in the Diocese of Bayonne. Betharram is celebrated as a place of pilgrimage as
also are Notre Dame de Pietat, at Paradies, and Notre Dame de Sarrance, visited
by King Louis XI. In 1899 the following institutions were to be found in the diocese:
1 infant asylum, 38 infant schools, 2 orphanages where farming is taught, 10 girls'
orphanages, 5 gratuitous industrial schools, 2 houses of refuge for young girls,
2 patronages, 1 temporary home for servants, 4 hospitals or hospices, 1 insane
asylum, 6 homes for the aged, and 1 private hospital, all conducted by Sisters,
and 2 orphanages where farming is taught, conducted by Brothers, and 4 patronages
for young people conducted either by priests or brothers. At the close of 1905
the Diocese of Bayonne contained 426,347 inhabitants, 43 pastorates, 449 succursales
or mission churches, and 91 curacies.
In 1900 the following religious orders were represented in the diocese:
the Jesuits and Franciscans at Pau, and the Capuchins at Bayonne. Among the local
congregations are: the Auxiliary Priests of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, devoted
to teaching and missionary work, founded at Betharram in 1841. They have missions
at Bethlehem, Buenos Ayres, and Montevideo. The Servants of Mary, who teach and
serve in hospitals; their mother-house is at Anglet. The Bernardines, with mother-house
also at Anglet, were founded in 1846; they keep perpetual silence and divide their
time between prayer and work of sewing and embroidery.
Georges Goyau, ed.
Transcribed by: Susan Birkenseer
This text is cited Feb 2006 from The Catholic Encyclopedia, New Advent online edition URL below.
AGEN (Town) LOT ET GARONNE
Aginnum (Agen) Lot-et-Garonne, France.
Agen was first the capital of the Nitiobrigi, a Celtic people established on the
borders of Aquitaine on both sides of the Garonne. Originally settled on the oppidum
of the Plateau de l'Ermitage and doubtless possessing an important market place
at the foot of the slope, the Nitiobrigi established themselves definitively in
the plain, in the Roman period, in the triangle formed by the Garonne and the
Masse. Augustus' establishment in A.D. 27 of the Civitas Aginnensis in Aquitaine
put an end to their kingdom. According to the Notitia provinciarum, by the 4th
c. the prosperous Aginnum, served by several major routes, had become the second
city of Aquitainia II.
For a long time the site of the imperial town was thought to be in
the S area of the present town and its suburbs, for in the 18th c. there were
still visible in this large open space the vestiges of large monuments (a Temple
to Diana, an amphitheater), luxurious habitations, and artisans' quarters. But
more recent discoveries of equally important monuments (a temple to Jupiter, another
to the Iunones Augustales, perhaps a forum) and evidence of occupation (altars,
inscriptions, statues, mosaics, and furniture now in the museum of Agen), have
proved that the city of that period extended as far N as the modern one. Contrary
to earlier conjecture that, from 276 on, it was merely a tongue of land on the
promontory lying farther N, it now appears that the whole site was permanently
occupied from the 1st c. until the invasions at the beginning of the 5th.
M. Klefstand-Sillonville, 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.
BAYONNE (Town) PYRENEES ATLANTIQUES
Lapurdum or Laburdum (Bayonne) Pyrenees Atlantiques, France.
The origins of Lapurdum are still unknown. At the end of the 4th (?) or the beginning
of the 5th c. A.D. (?) the Notitia Dignitatum (occ. 42.18f) refers to Lapurdum
as the residence of the Tribunus cohortis Novempopulaniae. Sidonius Apollinaris
(Epist. 8.12.7) mentions it in the 5th c., and in 587 the site is designated as
a civitas in Gregory of Tours text of the Treaty of Andelot between Gontran and
Childebert II (Hist.Franc. 9.20).
The ancient site stood on a hill overlooking the confluence of the
Nive and the Adour and was ringed by a rampart probably erected during the 4th
c. (?). Originally the rampart, a few towers and some wall sections of which are
still standing, formed a more or less quadrangular polygon ca. 1120 m in perimeter.
It is a masonry wall ca. 3 m thick, with facings of cubes of stone intersected
by bands of stones cut to the size of bricks. This use of stone in place of the
brick is fairly rare in this type of construction. The other peculiarity of this
rampart is that apparently no earlier architectural fragments went into the building
of it, as is the case in most of the Gallic ramparts built in the Late Empire.
The wall is flanked at the corners and at irregular intervals on its perimeter
by half-projecting round towers; it seems to have had three main gates.
No remains of ancient houses have been revealed in recent excavations
inside the walls, and only a few potsherds have been found to indicate that the
site was first occupied no earlier than the 4th c. A.D. Although ancient coins
found here and there in the substratum may argue in favor of an earlier original
settlement, there is every reason to believe that this settlement was extremely
small. The absence of any reused fragments in the building of the wall is to some
extent evidence that Lapurdum, founded at a late period, was in the Late Empire
a fortress rather than a true city with a municipal and urban life.
J.L. Tobie, 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.
BORDEAUX (Town) GIRONDE
Burdigala (Bordeaux) Dept. Gironde, France.
A port on the estuary of the Garonne, 90 km from the Atlantic, this was the chief
city of the Celtic tribe of the Bituriges Vivisci. It was founded in the 3d c.
B.C. for the purpose of controlling the Gallic isthmus which was on the route
of the tin trade. The city was almost certainly a municipium under Vespasian,
then became the capital of the province of Aquitania. Still later, in the period
of the Tetrarchy, it was the capital of the second Aquitania province, the vicarius
of the diocese of Gaul having his residence there. The Vandals seized it in 409
and the Visigoths in 414.
Very little is known of the town plan of Burdigala or its first monuments;
the original forum (on Mont Judaique?) has not been located, and the plan of the
streets is conjectural. From Ausonius' writings and from chance finds and excavations
we know more about the city rampart: in the Tetrarchy it confined what had been
an open city in the Early Empire (125 ha) within an area of only 31 ha. This small
castrum formed an almost regular oblong. The river was connected to the inland
port by the Navigere gate; the city got its water supply from a tributary of the
Garonne, the Deveze, which was canalized. And according to Ausonius, a certain
fountain of Divona captured the waters of a sacred spring and spewed forth abundant,
swift torrents of water from its 12 bronze mouths. Both the quays and the rampart
of the port had strong foundations resting on wooden piles and girders. The foundations
were made from the debris of all sorts of monuments, piled up skillfully, as a
precaution, into a mass 6 m high and S m thick. The wall proper was 3 m high and
built of mortared rubble-work faced on either side with small blocks, every 10
or 12 rows being banded with three rows of brick. The rampart was strengthened
by semicircular towers that were set every 50 m; the four corners were fortified
by larger towers, the wall having only three gates (Porta lovia to the W and two
gates dominating the principal cardo).
Outside the rampart is the amphitheater known now as the Palais Galien,
the only monument that has left any lasting trace of the monumental splendor of
the Severan age; still visible in the cellars of some Bordeaux buildings today,
it was ruined in the Germanic invasions of A.D. 276. Seven rings of arcaded walls
of ellipsoidal plan supported the wooden tiers. These walls have a core of rubble
faced with small blocks, with a triple band of brick every seven courses. The
15,000 spectators, divided among three caveae, reached their seats by a skillful
arrangement of sloping corridors, wooden stairs, and passageways. On the long
axis (132.30 m; small, 110.60 m) are some monumental entries over 22 m high, the
design of whose inner walls recalls the frontes scenae. They led to some carceres
under the podium steps. For draining the arena, which measured 69.80 x 46.70 m,
there was a carefully built stone sewer which ran to the foot of the podium.
Another Severan monument, the so-called Piliers de Tutelle, disappeared
in the 17th c. These piers have no connection with any temple of Tutela but look
as if they belonged to the portico that ran around the Severan forum.
A Christian quarter grew up outside the Porta lovia around the Saint-Etienne
church and the necropolis, which flourished in the 4th c. Architectural and sculptural
finds are housed in the Musee d'Aquitaine.
R. Etienne, 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.
EYSSES (Town) LOT ET GARONNE
Excisum (Eysses) Commune of Villeneuve-sur-Lot, Dept. Lot-et-Garonne, France.
An important way-station situated N of Agen (Aginnum) at the ancient crossroads
of ways linking Bordeaux to Lyon and Bourges to Auch, Eysses produced various
finds in the course of the 19th c., in the neighborhood of a monument known as
the Tour d'Eysses, which is still partially preserved. It consists today of a
circular structure (diameter, 11 m; average height, 10 m), its walls an average
of 1.1 m thick. The two dressed faces of these walls were covered with rows of
small masonry, among which remain the iron clamps which served to hold in place
a marble revetment. The same characteristics may be seen on the tower of V&esone
in Perigueux. The monument at Eysses belongs, like the latter, to a series of
indigenous temples made up of a cella surrounded by an ambulatory gallery, erected
in the center of a large esplanade surrounded by a peribolos.
Soundings made since 1970 have revealed remains of buildings in the
neighborhood of this sanctuary, which date, according to amphorae and coins, to
the first half of the 1st c. A.D. These recent discoveries have narrowed the proposed
date for the temple's construction to the 1st to 2nd c. The furnishings from earlier
excavations (including a Celtic bronze horse's head) and recent finds, are divided
between the museums of Agen and Vileneuve-sur-Lot.
M. Gauthier, 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.
PLASSAC (Town) GIRONDE
Blassiacum or Blacciacum (Plassac) Gironde, Aquitaine, France.
The site is on the right bank of the Gironde, 9 km downstream from Le Bec d'Ambes
and 3 km from Blaye (Blavia), the boundary of the civitas of the Bituriges Vivisci.
Under Roman rule it was part of the pagus Blaviensis on the road from Burdigala
to Talmont in the territory of the Santoni (Antonine Itinerary). It was a rural
estate from the Late Empire to Merovingian times, at the foot of hillsides sloping
to the river, with forests and vineyards nearby.
The last known proprietor in antiquity was the Merovingian deacon
Waldo, who became Bertchramnus (Bertrand), bishop of Le Mans, 550-624 (cf. Gregory
of Tours, Hist. Franc., passim). The poet Fortunatus dedicated a poem to him in
his Book IX. His will, dictated on 27 March 616, cites the existence of this family
estate, inherited from his mother, a Gallo-Roman from Bordeaux. The will was copied
in the 9th c. in the abbey of Couture at Le Mans (Bibl. Mun. Mans, ms. 224, published
in the Collection des Archives Hist. du Mans, pp. 98 to 141).
The site was often mentioned in the 19th c. and the mosaic which extends
under the modern church was seen on several occasions up to 1939. Excavations
were undertaken in 1962 and still are in progress; they now extend over ca. 0.5
ha. Test pits have led to the partial rediscovery of the mosaic previously mentioned:
it has entwined roses and polychrome, geometric central motifs. In addition, the
excavations have led to the discovery, in the N part, of 10 rooms, the NW wing
of the villa urbana, over three recognized levels. They indicate the existence
of an earlier villa of the Late Empire, destroyed in the 3d c.
The floors of five rooms are mosaic, all polychrome and geometric,
covering ca. 100 sq m. Three rooms are over hypocausts with radiating channels.
They are the end rooms of the master's house, which must have extended under the
modern church and beyond in a rectangular plan. To the E and W along the wings
there extended two covered galleries 80 m long, enclosing a garden court and going
down to the river. On these galleries opened the rooms of the villa agraria. It
had a bath with hypocausts with radiating channels and small square piers. Eighteen
rooms served as working buildings. The galleries are bordered by small aqueducts
emptied by two spouts, still in place, 7 m above the river. The whole abuts on
the S side on massive 3d c. foundations (walls 1.1 m thick, of fine ashlar construction,
plastered over and marked with scribed pointing). These foundations form a rectangle
12 x 8 m, and 3.2 m deep at the rear. They are flanked on each side by two parallel
walls supporting galleries coming down from the N. At a lower level, facing the
river, a concave wall of large radius and earlier date lies in the massive foundations.
This last group is not a private house. After systematic filling, it was used
in the 5th c. villa to support two tall buildings above the river, possibly a
tower and portico.
Findings--pottery, coins (bronzes from Trajan to Gratian), artifacts
for adornment of bone, bronze, etc.--are on exhibit on the site.
G. Emard, 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.
SAINT-JEAN LE VIEUX (Town) PYRENEES ATLANTIQUES
Imus Pyrenaeus (Saint-Jean le Vieux) Pyrenees Atlantiques, France.
Only the Antonine Itinerary mentions the mansio of Imus Pyrenaeus, situated at
the foot of the Bentarte and Ibaneta passes leading to Pamplona (Pompaelo). The
itinerary places it on the road from Bordeaux to Astorga (Asturica Augusta).
The original site, which goes back to the last third of the 1st c.
B.C., was a rectangular castrum (200 x 115 m) ringed by a strong vallum, well
preserved on two sides. Inside this rampart a fairly regular city plan can be
made out; its axis is the N-S cardo leading to the only gate opening S. The finds
from the earliest stratum indicate that the city enjoyed sudden prosperity at
the end of the 1st c., probably connected with Valerius Messala's campaigns against
the Pyrenean tribes, which ended in 27-26 B.C.
In the 1st c. A.D. the settlement was rebuilt, but retained the same
plan and the same defensive circuit wall. A little forum was built, consisting
of a small, square, windowless building and some shops grouped around a little
temple, whose oblong cella (7.2 x 4.8 m) suggests that it may have been divided
into three sections. The construction technique remained very primitive--an inferior
mortar was used in all but a few cases. Real prosperity did not come until the
last quarter of the century when there was an influx of goods from Spain, and
Gallo-Roman imports were stopped almost completely. At this time the city expanded
and developed. At the beginning of the 2d c. A.D. the original rampart was split
and a new vicus built, using only part of the earlier buildings around the forum.
No appreciable change was made from that time until the second half of the 3d
c. A.D. when there is evidence of massive destruction, related to the first waves
of Germanic invaders moving toward Spain. After a brief period of abandonment
at the end of the 3d c. the ruins were leveled and the ancient defenses of the
castrum probably restored. Restricted in plan, Imus Pyrenaeus vegetated and the
site was finally abandoned, probably before the barbarian invasions of the early
5th c. A.D.
J.L. Tobie, 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.
PERIGUEUX (Town) DORDOGNE
Vesunna Petrucoriorum (Perigueux) Dordogne, France.
Oppidum of the Petrucorii, a federation of tribes organized into a sovereign state,
which answered Vercingetorix' call to arms. After the Roman conquest the city,
following the customary pattern of Romanization, was moved down from the hill
and set up in the valley of the Isle, protected by a bend in the river. Becoming
part of Augustan Aquitania in 27, it flourished until the invasion of 276 when
it became a reduced castrum of 6 ha, girded with ramparts made of the stones of
destroyed monuments.
C laudius had linked this free city to the tribus Quirina; it was the
administrative and religious capital of the region, its public and private monuments
displaying the wealth characteristic of the magnificent imperial cities.
The settlement grew up around the indigenous sanctuary of Tutela Vesunna,
the central cella of which, shaped like a round tower (21 m in diameter, 27 m
high), has been preserved. The cella stood on a paved podium with a colonnade
encircling it, save for a stairway 9.6 m wide that led down to an inner courtyard
(141 x 122 m) with religious buildings on every side (excavated since 1964). South
of the temple was the forum (195 x 100 m), excavated 1908-13 and yielding many
architectural fragments. The amphitheater, built by A. Pompeius Dumnomotus, praefectus
fabrum, was N of the temple; a few stumps can be seen in a public park.
Residential architecture is represented by the Great Villa with its
polyfoil impluvium, and the villa of the Rue des Bouquets (3000 sq. m excavated
since 1959), which contains some important frescos, with geometric, animal, and
flower motifs.
Long sections of the castrum rampart can still be seen: the Mars Gate
(Porte de Mars), Norman Gate (Porte Normande), and part of the Chateau Barriere.
The principal architectural and epigraphic finds are housed in the municipal museum.
A. Blondy, 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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