Roman Gaul

Sidonius C. Sollius Apollinaris Sidonius, Die Briefe. Eingeleitet, übersetzt und erläutert von Helga Köhler, Stuttgart: Hiersemann 2014, XXXVII + 355 pp., ISBN 978-3-7772-1414-6, € 224 (hb). Die Briefe des Apollinaris Sidonius sind seit eh und je eine erstrangige Quelle für das Gallien des fünften Jahrhunderts und haben bis in den Humanismus hinein die europäische Literatur entscheidend beeinflusst. Als prototypi-sche Mischgestalt aus Aristokrat und Seelenhirt, römischem Präfekt und Bischof von Clermont, Hofpoet und liturgischem Autor ist Sidonius wesent-lich für unser Verständnis des spätantiken Christentums. Helga Köhler (K.) stellt ihn nun erstmals in einer mustergültigen Übersetzung seiner ganzen Korrespondenz dem deutschsprachigen Publikum vor. Dank ihrem wegwei-senden Kommentarband zum ersten Buch der Korrespondenz (Heidelberg 1995) ist K. eine der Urheberinnen der heutigen Sidonius-Renaissance. Das Buch enthält, neben der Übersetzung, eine Einleitung, eine Auswahl-Bibliographie und ein Namen-und Sachregister. Die Einleitung ist eine gekonnte, äußerst zugängliche Zusammenfassung unserer Kenntnis auf dem heutigen Stand der Wissenschaft. Binnen dreißig Seiten wird der Leser infor-miert über den Autor, seine Briefkunst und sein Nachleben. Zudem legt K. Rechenschaft ab über die Entscheidungen, die sie bei der Übersetzung getroffen hat. Einige, für die Übersetzung wichtige Aspekte möchte ich hier hervorheben. Die Sammlung von 147 Briefen in neun Büchern würdigt K. zu Recht als mehr als ein historisches Dokument, nämlich als ein sorgfältig angeleg-tes Gesamtkunstwerk aus Prosa und poetischen Einlagen, das Politik und Privatleben, Weltliches und Geistiges verbindet zu einem Kaleidoskop wech-selnder Stimmungen. Form und Sprache der Briefe stehen dabei stets gleich-rangig neben ihrem Informationsgehalt. Dem Stil des Sidonius gerecht zu werden war Hauptaufgabe dieser Über-setzung. Die sehr langen Perioden, die alle denkbaren Stil-und Gedankenfi-guren häufen, überforderten schon nachweisbar manche Zeitgenossen. K. hat sich für die weitestmögliche Nachbildung des Originals entschlossen, da die deutsche Syntax ja die Möglichkeit zu Schachtelsätzen bietet. Das Ergebnis ist eine vornehme, zuweilen leicht altertümliche, aber immer kristallklare Über-setzung. Die erfindungsreiche Wortwahl und der präzise Aufbau steuern den langen Atem, den der Leser braucht. Die Übersetzung wäre besonders dazu geeignet, vorgetragen zu werden. Bemerkenswert sind die poetischen Einla-gen, die K. virtuos gemäß der ursprünglichen Metren übersetzt.

The wrecks of merchant ships transporting amphorae with wine and oil represent
an important source of information for the reconstructions of antique economy
in the western part of the Mediterranean. Following the analysis of submerged finds,
it was possible to validate the findings obtained at land sites, create a classification of
Roman amphorae and verify their chronology, which proved particularly important
in the case of Greek-Italian amphorae, i.e. Dressel 1, Pascual 1 and Dressel 2-4 (for
wine) and Dressel 20 (for oil), as well as reconstruct trade routes and the distribution
of wine and oil production centres in particular areas of the Roman Empire during
the Republican and Imperial periods.

Introduction:
This paper seeks to address the following questions: Can we establish that meaningful relationships existed between some Gallo-Roman sanctuaries and the Iron Age lieux de mémoire (‘places of memory’) over which they were founded if the sites experienced periods of abandonment? If so, could we then view their histories as continuous? Previously, scholars have allowed continuity of place in these cases, but generally denied that any substantive relationship existed between the two epochs. Further, the modern definition of continuity does not allow sites with significant interruptions of occupation or activity to be described as having a ‘continuous’ history. However, in this paper, I will propose that we consider continuity differently. I believe that continuity may also be demonstrated by the enduring significance that places of memory possessed for local communities, a significance that attracted the foundation of new central places, and could be appropriated at sites’ reoccupation. Through the appropriation of places of memory, newly founded central places were linked to past epochs of sites’ histories, and granted legitimacy to define contemporary identities by their antiquity.
In order to present this alternative notion of continuity, I will outline a theoretical framework that uses the concepts of central places and lieux de mémoire to model the progression of sites from their initial states, through their periods of abandonment, and into their later histories. I believe that by reconsidering continuity within the framework of these concepts, we will gain a better understanding of how these sites were perceived and experienced in antiquity, and may wish to revise how we define continuity to better suit ancient perspectives.
The initial section of this paper will be devoted to the theoretical aspects of the topic. It will define places of memory and central places, and present the theoretical framework. The second section will illustrate the theoretical considerations using the case study of Ribemont-sur-Ancre, the well-known Gallo-Roman sanctuary founded upon a place of memory from the La Tène B2/C1 period (late third century B.C.). The case study will address: the creation of the place of memory at Ribemont, and the activity of its initial epoch; what it came to mean to the local community over its period of abandonment; and how the site’s significance was appropriated at the foundation of the Gallo-Roman sanctuary in the early Roman period. Discussion of Ribemont will conclude with an illustration of how the site’s history may be modelled using the study’s theoretical framework, and brief summary of the sanctuary’s subsequent development. The final section of the paper before the conclusion will briefly address three comparative examples – Gournay-sur-Aronde, Nitry, and Mirebeau-sur-Bèze – to illustrate how the theoretical framework may be applied to other sanctuaries for future studies.
While addressing only one case study in detail in this paper, I believe that the framework presented here may be applied to many other Gallo-Roman sanctuaries founded upon places of memory in Gaul and Britain. Hopefully, the parallels and interactions between the concepts of lieux de mémoire and central places discussed here will encourage further integration of the concepts in future considerations.

The article opposes the view that the Vergilius Romanus (Rome, BAV Vat.lat.3867) was made in Rome in the late the 5th c. (D. Wright) as a fruit of a pagan revival, which is an historical misunderstanding. The author comes back to an earlier and more authoritative view (A. Goldschmidt and others) that the codex was made during the 6th c. in Gaul. Toulouse or Narborensis Gallia are proposed as place of origin. The author advances also new suggestions on the Vatican Vergil (BAV cod.lat.3225).

Sarkophag, um 300 n. Chr. Inschrift AE 1996,1095=AE1999,1086; EDCS-03000646: Callosiae Clamosae co(n)i/ugi carissimae quae vexit / annis XXVIIII et m(ensibus) V d(iebus) n(umero) XVIIII / cui Fl(avius) A[---] v(ir) p(erfectissimus) p(rae)p(ositus) v/inorum coniux eius faci/undum curavit.

Romans Never Surrender, or do they? The Crisis facing Cotta and Sabinus at BC 5.26-37
  This paper will be read at CAMWS-SS on 28 Oct. 2016.  I welcome suggestions, since it is incomplete at the moment. 
  Not surprisingly the Romans made heroes of those who thought or fought their way to freedom when surrounded by the enemy by keeping their swords and wits about them, such as Horatius Cocles at the bridge.  Supposedly, the Romans never surrender to tyranny and/or lose their freedom; instead the good Roman should prefer to die.  Roman historians repeat many positive proofs of the above where virtue was rewarded and almost never provide negative examples of cowards who make the wrong choice to hang onto life in disgrace.  Livy and some other authors deny the ransom to Brennus of Rome in 387 (Camillus rescued Rome in the nick of time), and Livy (or his sources) alters the surrender at Caudine Forks in 321.  Yet the Divine Julius, writing about the disgraceful loss of 15 cohorts under Titurius Sabinus in Gaul in 54 BC provides a rare example of a "bad Roman" who tries to treat with a treacherous enemy and trusts them - causing the loss of his honor, life, and those of his men.  Using negative reinforcement, this incident rams home the point that when faced with seemingly hopeless odds, the only course of action (once fighting one's way to freedom is impossible) is to fall on one's own sword. 
  I am concerned that I may not have enough time to cover the issue in the 22 minutes allotted to me at the conference, but can/will expand the paper after.

Ce mémoire de master propose un examen des entrepôts publics en milieux urbain et militaire durant les Haut et Bas-Empire, en Gaule Belgique et Germanie inférieure. Pour cela, il a d’abord été nécessaire d’établir un catalogue de toutes les structures interprétées comme telles. Le corpus dressé a ensuite fait l’objet d’un examen des composantes architecturales, urbaines et géographiques.

How did the ‘Fall of the Roman Empire’ change social and economic networks in eastern Gaul, and how did new ‘barbarian’ political frontiers shape those changes? Synthesising historical and archaeological approaches, this interdisciplinary study combines text-based prosopography with distribution analysis of ceramics and ‘pseudo-imperial’ coins in Burgundy and beyond. The study reveals that the frontiers of the second Burgundian kingdom (5th-6th centuries) curtailed traditional movements along one of Europe’s key riverine corridors and reshaped, temporarily, the mental geographies imagined by local Gallo-Romans, until Merovingian princes conquered the region. The book includes the most thorough assessment to date of the distribution of Burgundian coins found across France. Illuminating the Burgundian kingdom’s internal dynamics and its foreign relations, this assessment revises current understandings of the circulation of gold money across sixth-century Gaul, correcting over-generalisations that can obscure the importance of political frontiers at the end of antiquity.

Within the classicising mindset of many Late Antique Gallo-Roman writers, we witness examples of the learned minority appropriating the right to represent the alleged historical memories of the majority’s pagan past. Distrust towards demotic morality and civilizational aptitude – never very far from being uttered aloud by the Imperial elites – are explicitly commented upon in the fifth-century Gallic play Querolus. Ausonius’ confidence within his textual universe in constructing the personal memories of his slave girl Bissula and the Gallic pagi alike can be compared to the received Lucanic topoi of dark Celtic groves, and to the development of these stock scenes in the episcopal gesta of the Merovingian Gaul. The vicarious creation of memories for the silent majority by the learned minority (with its mixture of Christian identity and a thorough knowledge of the classics) is not limited to narrative genres. An intriguing paratextual space for the construction of demotic religiosities is framed by the already-mentioned ecclesiastical writings and the scholia to Lucan and Juvenal, all pointing to creative re-imagining of the divinities worshipped by Gallic vulgus (implied to be changeless in an almost colonialist sense). The Gallic cult of Diana as a literary artefact is a particular case in point.

L’objectif général de ce travail est d’étudier les relations de domination entre l’aristocratie, l’État et la paysannerie aux Ve et VIe siècles dans la Gaule méridionale. L’opinion courante dans l’historiographie affirme que la paysannerie de l’époque tardo-antique doit être perçue comme une classe soumise à une considérable exploitation (soit par le biais de l’impôt, soit moyennant la rente). En revanche, nous proposerons que la forte crise de l’ordre politique antique a donné lieu à une coexistence de processus divergents : la réaffirmation des relations de domination et même l’émergence de nouvelles (les « patrocinia », qu’on analysera en détail), mais aussi l’indépendance croissante des nombreux paysans. Ce qui a finalement prévalu, donnant lieu à une « société de base paysanne ».

Les meules romaines recensées le long de la voie Boulogne – Bavay – Cologne sont taillées dans différents matériaux extraits de carrières spécifiques et mis en forme dans des ateliers spécialisés. Ces roches, issues de formations géologiques soigneusement sélectionnées, ont fait l’objet d’une exploitation massive durant l’Antiquité pour la taille de meules, et leur extraction a laissé localement des stigmates encore bien visibles dans le paysage. Ces productions sont retrouvées sous forme de produits finis sur la plupart des sites de consommation du nord de la Gaule et de Germanie, et l’étude de leur distribution permet d’aborder les systèmes économiques antiques sous un angle nouveau.
Le commerce des biens pondéreux apparaît dépendre de plusieurs facteurs liés, non seulement à la ressource (disponibilité et accessibilité des ressources géologiques), mais aussi aux implantations humaines et à la disposition des voies de communication qui fournissent des débouchés. Ainsi en fonction de l’implantation des carrières sur le territoire, certaines productions circulent par la route, d’autres par voie fluviale voire maritime. La redistribution secondaire apparaît plus multimodale, ce qui permet d’atteindre tous les marchés demandeurs. Quand des « anomalies » de répartition se dessinent, celles-ci sont au contraire très rationnelles et sont liées au temps de parcours réalisé par les productions équivalentes et concurrentes dans l’autre sens.

[FR v.infra] The aim of this paper is to question the traditional polis religion model as it presents an artificial, static and distorted image of the religious conditions in the Roman West. The religious experienceof the individual and his/her religious identity go far beyond the “civic cults”. Compared to the Iron Age, the Principate seems to be characterised by an enormous diversification of cults and cult practices. In every region and civitas, this diversity resulted from individual – and sometimes contradictory – choices concerning deities, theonyms, cult practices, architecture, sculpture, iconography, etc., with cults taking up substance from Greco-Roman, Greco-Oriental andindigenous traditions. This plurality is particularly characteristic for Gallia Narbonensis. Although media and architecture appear Greco-Roman in nature, “Romanitas”did not seem to play an important role for people’s religious expressions in Southern Gaul. Finally, we should not overestimate the role of the “Roman model” in the study of religions in the Roman West : the creation of a Roman-style municipality is only one step in the development of manylocal cults, notably in Southern Gaul where cults have already undergone profound transformations prior to the Roman conquest.
Résumé: L’objectif de cet article est de remettre en question le modèle de la religion poliade qui présenteune image artificielle, statique et déformée des conditions religieuses dans l’Occident romain. L’expérience et l’identité religieuses de l’individu vont au-delà des cultes civiques, car il faut tenircompte du grand choix de cultes disponibles sous le haut Empire : en comparaison avec la fin del’âge du Fer, le haut Empire se caractérise par une diversité de cultes et de pratiques cultuelles. Cette diversité, que l’on constate dans chaque région et dans chaque cité, résulte de choix individuels en ce qui concerne les divinités, les théonymes, les pratiques cultuelles, l’architecture, la sculpture, l’iconographie, etc. Les cultes tirent à la fois leur substance de traditionsgrécoromaine, gréco-orientale et indigène: cette pluralité est caractéristique des cultes de Gaule Narbonnaise. Bien que l’expression et l’architecture soient de tradition gréco-romaine, la Romanitas ne semble pas jouer un rôle important dans les expressions religieuses en Gaule méridionale. Finalement, il ne faut pas donner une importance excessive au modèle romain dansl’étude des religions de l’Occident: la création d’une municipalité romaine n’est qu’un pas dansl’évolution des cultes locaux, notamment en Gaule méridionale, où les cultes ont déjà connu des transformations profondes avant la conquête romaine.
Online version:
https://www.persee.fr/doc/ran_0557-7705_2010_num_43_1_1799
doi : https://doi.org/10.3406/ran.2010.1799

By the late fifth century, there were two primary barbarian powers in Gaul, the Visigoths and the Franks. Both were enlarging their territories in the wake of the final precipitous decline of Roman authority during the 470s. The expansion achieved by the Frankish king Clovis I inevitably brought him into conflict with the Visigothic king Alaric II. During the 490s, the Franks made several unsuccessful forays into Brittany and south of the Loire. Subsequently, both sides did their best to consolidate their resources. Attempts by the Os trogothic king Theoderic to avoid direct conflict failed, and war began in earnest in 507, when Clovis made a massive attack on the Visigothic kingdom. The decisive Frankish vic tory at Vouillé determined the map of sixth-century western Europe: the Franks gained control of most of Gaul, and the Visigoths consolidated their holdings in Spain.

Dans un premier temps, je ne mettrai pas de pdf de l'article qui se rapporte aux découvertes de la nécropole fouillée près de la place E. Wernert (Lyon 5). Voici seulement en pièce jointe une photographie d'un sarcophage qui remploie une architrave-frise d'un mausolée et une liste de quelques mots-clefs : Lyon ; églises Saint-Just et Saint-Irénée ; paléochrétien ; remplois ; nécropole ; sarcophage ; mausolées antiques ; sanctuaire du culte impérial ; décor architectural ; sculpture ; griffons ; Méléagre ; stèle funéraire avec un portrait ; Eros sur un sarcophage.

Dit artikel is tot stand gekomen als een samenvatting van mijn master thesis. Het bevat een overzicht van de fibulae die gevonden zijn in de zuidwest hoek van het castellum van Oudenburg (opgraving Oudenburg-Spegelaere). Deze vondsten worden in een breder kader geplaatst door een vergelijkende studie. Bovendien wordt er specifiek ingegaan op de kruisboogfibulae (drieknoppen) aangetroffen in zowel het fort als het grafveld (opgravingen Mertens).

When the Early Imperial Roman writers imagined the cultural processes taking place in the newly-conquered Gaul, they frequently had recourse to a rhetoric that can appear strikingly similar to some later, colonial narratives of civilizational improvement and the abolition of nefarious ritual life. I will focus on the possible local informants of those Romans who, according to our literary sources (e.g. Pliny, Suetonius), rooted out the Druidic rites from Gaul. How did a Roman administrator recognize the forbidden ‘Druidic’ parts of Gallic ritual life? Who acted as the subaltern middlemen for the Romans in this process, and did they have any influence on the direction of the Roman gaze? This paper seeks to explore whether we might be able to use colonial analogies, particularly from British India, to aid us in distinguishing the knowledge-generation practices of the Roman administrators in the Early Imperial religious ‘middle grounds’ of Gaul.

De Romeinse weg tussen Tongeren en Tienen maakt deel uit van de heerbaan die liep van Boulogne-sur-Mer via Cassel, Velzeke, Tienen, Tongeren en Maastricht in de richting van Keulen. Het gaat om een zeer mooi bewaard tracé. De publicatie tracht een meer gedetailleerd inzicht te geven in dit stuk Romeinse weg dat zeker bij een wat groter publiek te weinig bekend is.

Can we use the "polis religion" model for understanding religious activities in the Roman provinces? No! Models based on Classical Greece and religious institutions in Rome are not helpful for understanding developments in the Roman provinces, like here in the case of southern Gaul. There, we see the importance of individualisation in a highly connected world. Even in major cities in this highly "Romanized" province, the nature of the religious activities is non-Roman and not controlled by a pro-Roman "ordo". This paper looks at a number of cites, like Nemausus / Nîmes, Glanum, Aquae Sextiae / Aix and her territory. Despite the wealth of epigraphic evidence, we can recognise that "public priests" are marginal in shaping the religious activities in this region.

Two well-known icons of modern French culture: the Gauloise cigarette packet and the Asterix strip cartoon. Why is the former, in effect, a right-wing nationalist symbol, but the latter, to generalize a little, a left-wing version? To answer this, we go back to the period of the French revolution, and trace the way in which the ancient Gauls have been expropriated by different political groups for patriotic ends. We shall be dealing with three peoples – the Gauls, the Romans and the Franks – together with their respective leaders (according to popular mythology) – Vercingetorix, Julius Caesar and Clovis. The other ingredient in the consideration of French nationalism and its symbols is modern French history, with its rapidly shifting political climate and succession of Empires and Republics. In addition to internal history, a vital factor was the threat of war, specifically war with Germany on three occasions – the Franco-Prussian War, World War I and World War II. Germany also had nationalist symbols from the ancient past, such as Herman (Arminius), which were important as a foil for French propaganda, and as a catalyst for change in the perception of France's own national origins and symbolism.

Caracalla. A Military Biography is now available as a hardcover, Kindle and e-book an from the website of its publisher Pen & Sword Publishing and from most of the major booksellers.  It is not only the first published biography in English of this remarkable individual, but also the first that reassess the evidence from the point of view of military history.

In 475 Clermont-Ferrand is besieged and Provence is invaded by the Goths. In a bid to liberate Provence, Graecus of Marseilles negotiates to surrender Clermont-Ferrand to the Goths, much to the dismay of Sidonius Apollinaris. The latter is Clermont's bishop and defender of the city, whose only choice resides in writing a letter to Graecus to convince him not to surrender his city. This short essay (1100 words) discusses Epistulae VII.VII in which the might of the Roman rhetoric and the feeling of a crumbling Roman world are laid out powerfully by Sidonius in his call for help against the barbarians.


When Justinian became the Eastern Roman Emperor in 527 and started reforming the state, not everybody welcomed these changes with open arms. Procopius of Caesarea in particular was fiercely against them and set about creating a pamphlet to highlight all the disasters these had caused to the empire. This short essay (549 words) discusses his Secret History which directly links contemporaneous upheavals with Justinian.

This paper is the first study to map the transmission of the Appendices to the Lex Ro-mana Visigothorum. Based on full collations of all (8+3) known witnesses, it establishes the stemma codicum for the Appendices, which differs markedly from the stemma of the LRV text in the same MSS. Furthermore, the philological analysis shows that Appendix 3 is not so much a legal dossier as it is a medieval attempt to fill a lacuna, whereas the composite nature of Appendix 1 (= 1a+b) still leaves us with three Appendices. Moreover, Krüger and Mommsen were mistaken to claim that Vat. Reg. lat. 1128 and Hincmar of Reims relied on the Appendices. Finally, MS Berlin lat. fol. 270 must have been copied from MS Ivrea XXXV (17), which goes against palaeographers' communis opinio about their relative dating.

The Catalaunian Fields is a battle well known for the role of terrain in the battle, with Jordanes' description of the engagement focusing almost in its entirety on the hill. With the location of the battlefield now known and new research having recently come to light, the role of terrain on the battle can now be accurately assessed and used as an example to show the importance of terrain in battles as a whole. Ancient Warfare 13.2, October 2019.

South Gaulish terra sigillata of La Graufesenque was produced on a large scale and exceptionally widely exported in the western provinces and beyond in the 1st century AD; and other South Gaulish and the later Gaulish production centres in Central and East Gaul had far more regional export ranges, which follow a more normal pattern typical of fine pottery industries in the Roman Empire.
In terms of production levels and distribution, the Central and East Gaulish potteries and smaller potteries of South Gaul seem to fit the pattern of many other pottery producing centres in the Roman world throughout the 1st to 6th centuries, such as various centres in Spain, Britain, Asia Minor, and Egypt. These all produced finewares (usually red-slipped) for regional consumption, or for specialist trade to a particular regional market, but not for large-scale long-distance trade. On the other hand, the South Gaulish pottery workshops of La Graufesenque were comparable to the terra sigillata italica (‘Arretine’) production centres of the preceding century and to later centres of production in Tunisia and the Eastern Mediterranean, which produced large quantities of fine pottery which were widely exported to many different regions.
What unusual factors impelled the Gaulish workshops of La Graufesenque alone to become a large-scale export centre in the 1st century AD? The aim of this paper is to explore and assess some factors by looking at La Graufesenque in relation to its context - other types of production, transport and supply systems and natural resources - and in comparisons with other regions of the empire which also produced widely exported pottery, or which notably did not.

A Roman cadastre is a particular form of land allotment which looks like a chequerboard. It was implemented by the Romans in regions throughout the Empire, from Syria to Gaul. Yet, how did a Roman cadastre exactly look like? What has Roman cadastration in common with centuriatio and parcellation, and what not? Are aerial photographs and maps a reliable source to reveal traces of a Roman cadastre? Did Roman cadastres exist outside the Mediterranean region, and if so, what are the consequences of its existence on a socio-cultural level?

Behind these apparently straightforward questions are for most scholars simple definitive answers. On the basis of these answers scholars have regarded the archaeological study of Roman cadastres often as optimistic, biased and even unscientific.

In Cadastres, Misconceptions and Northern Gaul Rick Bonnie argues that during the Middle-Roman period a cadastre was implemented by the Romans around the provincial Roman city of Tongres. In contrast to general beliefs, Bonnie demonstrates that it is possible, using aerial photographs and maps, to reconstruct a landscape outside the Mediterranean region that was overlain by a Roman cadastre. It furthermore discusses and examines the history of research, historical and archaeological sources on Roman cadastres, as well as the Roman period of the Belgian Hesbaye region.

This study offers an analysis of geographic information concerning Gaul in the Bellum Gallicum. Only the fourth part of the cities and peoples named by Caesar are associated with geographic landmarks. Information related to physical features is limited to eastern Gaul, with a density that increases as one approaches the Rhine, a strategic area that became the centre of attention of the Romans after the submission of Gaul. These scattered elements are based on personal observations or reports commissioned by Caesar, not on pre-existing geographic knowledge. The description in paragraphs 5-7 of the prologue of Book I is of a different nature. This simplified picture based on cartographic knowledge, centred on ethnic spaces and structured by orientations, adapts the tripartite scheme of a Greek geographer on whom Strabo (IV 1, 1) is also dependent. Its faulty insertion into the prologue, as well as contradictions with the information contained in the description of Britain in Book V, raise questions about the role of Caesar in the addition of these geographic excursus, but the hypothesis of a late interpolation is not retained.

Des premiers sauvetages archéologiques des années 1970 aux fouilles préventives d’aujourd’hui, 40 ans se sont écoulés.

Les informations collectées par les archéologues ont totalement renouvelé les connaissances sur l’histoire de la ville de Poitiers. Loin de renier l’héritage des antiquaires du XIXe siècle et celui des premiers historiens et archéologues du XXe siècle, les archéologues s’appuient également sur les données et découvertes anciennes pour étudier la morphogénèse de la ville.

Si l’aspect de Lemonum, l’oppidum des Pictons, reste toujours difficile à décrire, la ville antique commence à être cernée dans les grandes lignes de son organisation spatiale, dans l’aspect de ses rues, son cadre monumental, son habitat, son confort, ses habitants, leurs animaux, mais aussi dans le domaine de la vie religieuse qui s’y déroulait et des rites funéraires.

This contribution deals with a group of five late literary testimonies which are connected by modern scholarship with the Celtic oak-cult. The texts under discussion are from Maximos of Tyre (λόγοι 2 (8),8), the Commenta Bernensia (ad Lucan. 1,451), Claudius Claudianus (de consulatu Stilichonis 1,228–231), the late antique comedy Querolus sive Aulularia (1, 2 = p. 17,6–22 RANSTRAND) and the Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum (CGL V p. 633,68 GOETZ). A thorough analysis will show that these passages can only be used with some reservation as evidence for the Celtic veneration of the oak, since the testimonies are either problematic or irrelevant at all.