Augustobona

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Roman remains under the Porte de Chaillouet

Augustobona , also Augustobona Tricassium or Augustomana Tricassiorum , was a Roman city in the province of Gallia Lugdunensis . It is today's Troyes .

The city was already of some importance in pre-Roman times. Celtic objects came to light all over the city. In Roman times, the city was expanded according to plan, and Augustobona became the capital of the Celtic tricass . The chessboard-like city map is the main testimony to this main town function in Roman times . The city probably also had numerous public buildings, which, however, have not yet been identified with certainty. Because of the development of Troyes that began at that time and was continued and preserved throughout the Middle Ages , excavations have so far only been carried out to a very limited extent, so that little concrete is known about the ancient city. The city was conveniently located. It was on the one hand on the Seine , on the other hand on the Via Agrippa , which connected the city on the one hand with Lugdunum ( Lyon ) on the other hand with the sea.

Augustobona is mentioned by various ancient authors. The city appears twice in the Itinerarium Antonini (as Augustobona ), once in the Tabula Peutingeriana , in Claudius Ptolemy's (2, 8, 10) and in Ammianus Marcellinus (16, 2, 6-8; as Tricas (s) ae ). The latter reports that in 356 the future emperor Julian , fleeing from the Alemanni, sought refuge in the city's fortress. Remnants of a late antique fortress have indeed come to light in several places within the modern city.

The ancient city was about 80 acres; 2 kilometers in an east-west direction and 400 meters in a north-south direction. As already indicated, little is known of the public buildings. Remains of monumental buildings were found in various places in the city, but they can hardly be assigned to specific building types with certainty. After all, walls came to light that could perhaps be assigned to a bathroom. Remnants of buildings, mosaics , wall paintings and a marble cornice were found below the cathedral during restoration work in the 19th century . In 1864 other building remains were found, such as hypocausts . Perhaps these remains belong to a sanctuary and an early church before the first cathedral was built here in the fifth century. Furthermore, the remains of an aqueduct have been found that secured the city's water supply.

Residential houses have been excavated in various parts of the city. Under the Porte de Chaillouet (a modern building complex in place of the municipal slaughterhouse that was demolished in 1986, which gave the opportunity for extensive excavations), larger parts of two insulae have been partially preserved. At least one large house had a peristyle . Several houses had rooms with hypocausts and several mosaics decorated with geometric motifs were found. The house was built in the first century. There were also relatively well-preserved, high-quality wall paintings. A treasure with 186,000 coins was also discovered here. Parts of the ruins have been preserved and can be visited today.

From the fourth century the city was the seat of a diocese . In late antiquity , the city was reduced to around 16 hectares with the aforementioned fortress as the city wall. The city continued to be inhabited in the Middle Ages, but hardly any architectural remains from this time are known. The place was then called Tricas (s) ae or urbs Tricassium / Tricassae , from which Troyes developed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Denajar: L'Aube , 544-548.
  2. ↑ Denajar: L'Aube , 552-554.
  3. ↑ Denajar: L'Aube , 552.
  4. ↑ Denajar: L'Aube , 552.
  5. ↑ Denajar: L'Aube , 551.
  6. ↑ The Chaillouet site ( Memento of the original from June 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / de.tourisme-troyes.com

literature

Coordinates: 48 ° 18 '  N , 4 ° 5'  E