Listed 1 sub titles with search on: Information about the place for wider area of: "SAINT BERTRAND DE COMMINGES Town HAUTE GARONNE" .
SAINT BERTRAND DE COMMINGES (Town) HAUTE GARONNE
Lugdunum Convenarum (Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges) Haute-Garonne, France.
The oppidum of the Volcae Tectosages was conquered by Pompey in 72 B.C. It became
the capital of the civitas of the Convenae, which was successively part of the
Provincia, of Aquitania, and of Novempopulania. The town obtained first Latin,
then colonial status. It was ravaged by the Germanic invasions and was destroyed
in 585 by the Franks of Gontran.
Lugdunum commands the valley of the Garonne as it emerges from the
Pyrenees. The ancient oppidum was placed on the heights and under the Empire was
a double town; it was protected by a rampart in the Late Empire and now bears
the Cathedral of Saint-Bertrand. The lower town was built on the plain in a checkerboard
pattern, from the beginning of the Empire on.
The lower town has been excavated from 1920 on. It included a number
of public monuments: a vast forum built of limestone in the 1st c. A.D., of marble
in the 2d; two large bathing establishments, the Baths of the Forum and the Northern
Baths; a large basilica turned into a market in Flavian times; squares and porticos,
some of which date as late as the 4th c.; a hexastylic temple, no doubt consecrated
to Roma and Augustus; attached to this last, an Augustean trophy erected in 25
B.C to celebrate the emperor's victories on land and sea; an amphitheater; etc.
The pieces of the trophy, the inscriptions, the statues, and all the
artifacts collected during the course of the excavations are kept on the site
at the museum of Comminges.
M. Labrousse, 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.
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
