Most Recent Visit: May 2022
Today located at the site of the modern city of Autun in eastern France, the Roman city of Augustodunum was founded sometime in the late 1st century BCE, during the reign of Augustus. Named after the emperor (with the added Celtic suffix denoting a hillfort, dunum), the city was a new foundation as a civitas for the Adeiu, a Gallic group that had been mostly friendly to the Romans during the conquest of Gaul on the banks of the Arroux River. The city was meant to replace their previous political and administrative center of Bibracte, which was once thought to have been at the same location as Augustodunum and Autun, but is now believed to be a site about 20 kilometers to the west of the city. This new foundation allowed the city to be laid out as a grid and placed it in an important location on the road between Lugdunum and the cities of northern Gaul.
Augustodonum does not seem to have reached any sort of prominence by the time of Strabo’s Geographica, as the work mentions Bibracte rather than Augustodunum. By time Tacitus writes on the revolt of Julius Sacrovir in 21 CE, however, it is described as a wealthy community. Former soldiers in the Roman army, Sacrovir, of the Adeiu, and Julius Florus, of the Treverii, formulated a plan to incite rebellion among the Gallic peoples over what they viewed were unfair taxation and suppression of Druidic religion. Sacrovir initially seized Augustodunum by force in hopes of compelling a general uprising against the Romans in the area. He managed to muster a force of 40,000 troops, only about a fifth of whom were armed as soldiers, the rest using ad hoc hunting weaponry. The proconsul of Germania Superior, Gaius SIlius, led a legionary army to quell the rebellion and defeated Sacrovir at a battle twelve miles from Augustodunum. Sacrovir retreated back to Augustodunum where he took shelter in a house. It was surrounded and set on fire, and Sacrovir committed suicide. Interestingly, Silius would later be accused of harboring sympathies toward Sacrovir and committed suicide himself just a few years later.
The city was notable by the end of the 1st century CE for the presence of the Scholae Maenianae, schools of rhetoric and had risen to become one of the most important cities in Gaul. Augustodunum was part of the breakaway Gallic Empire in the late 3rd century CE. When Claudius Gothicus challenged the authority of the then emperor of the Gallic Empire, Victorinus, Augustodunum supported Gothicus. This resulted in a 7 month siege of the city by Victorinus, resulting in the sack of Augustodunum in 269 CE. Born locally to a father that was likely an instructor in the schools of rhetoric, the panegyrist Eumenius rose to become magister memoriae of Constantius I, and in the last years of the 3rd century CE was an advocate to the emperor for the restoration of the city and the schools, still in a state of disrepair from the sack of 269 CE.It was noted in orations given in Augusta Treverorum around that time by teachers from the schools, that agricultural production had remained poor since the sack and that the aqueducts of the city still lay in ruins nearly 30 years later. Imperial patronage in rebuilding the city continued through the reign of Constantine, who visited the city around 310-11 CE. The patronage of the two emperors helped restore the city to prosperity, though it was said to have shrunk considerably from its height, centered around a much smaller fortified area in the center of the city and seems to have been renamed Flavia Aeduorum. Augustodunum was incorporated into the administrative unit of Lugdunensis Prima when Gallia Lugdunensis was split in the late 3rd century CE. In the 4th century CE, the city is noted as being a production center for armor.
On January 18, 350 CE, the usurper Magnus Magnentius declared his claim to the throne in Augustodunum and had the emperor Constans killed while he was away on a hunt, leading to a civil war between Magnentius and Constantius II. A few years later in 356 CE, Augustodunum was besieged by the Alemanni but the fortifications were in such a poor state that it provided little defense against the siege. This was exacerbated by the garrison leaving their posts and the defense of the city falling to a group of veterans living in the town. Before the Alemanni were able to force the surrender of the city, though, Augustodunum was relieved on June 24 of that year by an army led by Julian, who at the time was Caesar of the west and had been staying in Vienna (Vienne). The Alemanni retreated without giving battle. The city remained inhabited through late antiquity and beyond, despite the reduction in population and prosperity.
Getting There: Autun is a relatively modest sized, but it does have a train station, though it was apparently recently taken off direct routes from some larger cities. There are train/bus combos from Dijon (ancient Castrum Divionense) a few times a day that connect through Étang-sur-Arroux. There are also direct buses from Dijon. Both options take about an hour and a half and cost about 22 Euros. Arriving by private vehicle, there is free parking near the Roman theater and a few paid options in the center. Once in Autun, most sites are in relative walking distance. Things are a bit spread out, and there are a few sites spread outside of the city, but are theoretically within walking distance (about a half an hour out from the center).
The logical place to start in seeing the sites of Augustodunum is on the northern outskirts of town at the so-called Temple de Janus. Despite the name, there is no evidence to suggest the remains of the Gallo-Roman fanum style temple is dedicated to Janus. Rather, the name seems to be a corruption of Genetoye, a toponym referring to the growth of the genêts plant in the area. In actuality, it is unknown to whom the temple was dedicated. The temple, which is part of a larger extramural sanctuary, was constructed in the 1st century CE, though there is evidence of a possible earlier sanctuary on the site. Habitation dating back to the Neolithic period has been found in the immediate area. It has been suggested that the presence of an important Gallic sanctuary here may have been the reasoning behind choosing this particular site for the establishment of Augustodunum. A number of other Roman era structures have been identified adjacent to the temple, including a theater to the northwest, an artisan quarter to the west, and a bathing complex to the south. Unfortunately, none of these are currently visible.
The temple itself is in an open access park, there is no admission or restriction in access. The western and southern walls (as well as a small portion of the northern wall attached to the western wall) are preserved to a height of around 20 meters. The footprint of the temple as a whole is reflected in the presence of a foundation that extends to the no longer extant walls. An upper gallery of light wells (the interior side has the distinctive slanting) with brick arches are visible along with both interior and exterior niches along the lower part of the temple. On the exterior, below the gallery, the joist holes for the beams of the roof structure that would have created a covered ambulatory around the entirety of the temple exterior are visible. There’s an area to the southwest of the temple that has a single sign explaining some of the recent exaction works in French.
Heading east down the road that runs north of the Temple de Janus (Chemin Jeanne Barret) about 500 meters until it intersects with the Rue du Faubourg d’Arroux (D980 highway) and then another 170 meters south over the Arroux, one arrives at the Porte d’Arroux. The name is modern, referring to the proximity to the river. In antiquity, this northern gate of Augustodunum would have been the northern terminus of the cardo maximus of the city and the start of a road toward Agedincum (modern Sens). The gate was constructed around the time of the establishment of the city circa 15 BCE. Neither of the towers that would have flanked the gate are preserved, but the façade of the central part is preserved/reconstructed with an upper gallery and four passageways; two larger central passageways for cart traffic (through which road traffic still passes) and two pedestrian portals on either side. The preservation of the gate owes somewhat to the construction of the Notre-Dame d’Arroux church that made use of the structure in the middle ages. The central pier of the exterior façade of the gate still bears cuts for the roof and statue niche of the church. There is a small informational sign in English and French here.
Continuing through the gate and another 600 meters walking to the south along the Rue du Faubourg d’Arroux, which turns into Rue de Paris until the intersection with Rue Saint-Nicolas. Less than 50 meters up the road (east) is the Musée Lapidaire Saint-Nicolas at 10 Rue Saint-Nicolas. The museum is open every day except Tuesday and Sunday between 14:00 and 18:00. There is no admission fee.
As the name would suggest, this is a small lapidary museum hosted in the former Hospital of Saint-Nicolas and Saint-Eloi. There are various architectural elements of both antique and medieval (or later) origin scattered around the courtyard as well as a significant number of Gallo-Roman funerary stele in various states of preservation on display in the covered area around. Unfortunately, there is no information on any of the objects in the courtyard. In the chapel is a small collection of representative architectural elements, reliefs, inscriptions, and even a mosaic fragments. Most of these are ancient, though a few are not. Many of them are also described on some laminated information sheets made available in the chapel. It’s a relatively small museum, I spent about 20 minutes here. It’s disappointing that many of the objects have no information, but, on the other hand, at least they are made available to see, rather than locked away in some storage room somewhere. So it’s hard to complain too much about it.
Continuing from the Musée Lapidaire Saint-Nicolas up Rue Saint-Nicolas, the road leads into a rather complicated intersection with six roads converging. The road that leads to the east is Rue de la Croix Blanche, which after about 450 meters intersects with the Porte Saint-André. Like the northern gate of the city, this too bears a modern name, coming from the usage of the gate in the structure of a church dedicated to Saint-André. It was the eastern terminus of the decumanus maximus and the starting point of a road toward Vesontio (modern Besançon). The structure is similar to the Porte d’Arroux, with an upper gallery above two central cart portals and two flanking pedestrian entrances. The towers here do not survive as well. The Porte Saint-André is much more complete, though, with the entire upper gallery intact, rather than just part of the exterior façade. It is also similarly dated to the establishment of Augustodunum in 15 BCE. Some remnants of the Augustan era fortifications are visible for about 45 meters to the south.
About 250 meters north up the Route D’Arnay le Duc Bis, the road that runs on the east side of the gate, a small section of the fortifications are present across a greenspace about 50 meters back from the road to the west just before the intersection with Av. de la République. Unfortunately, when I visited, this was completely overgrown with vines and nothing of the wall was visible.
Continued In Augustodunum, Gallia Lugdunensis Part II
Sources:
Bromwich, James. The Roman Remains of Northern and Eastern France: A Guidebook. New York: Routlege, 2003.
Digeser, Elizabeth DePalma. “Crisis and Opportunity: Urban Renewal and Christianisation in Constantine’s Gaul.” Religion in the Roman Empire, Vol. 5, No. 1 (2019) pp 103-124
Grant, Michael. A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1997.
Smith, William. Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography. Walton & Murray, 1870.
Stillwell, Richard, William L. MacDonald, and Marian Holland. McAllister. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites. Princeton, NJ: Princeton U Press, 1976.
Tacitus. Annals, 3.40-45.