II. GALLO-ROMAN PERIOD

LUTETIA GAUL Neolithic period: first settlements on the Bercy site: dugouts ( 4000 BC ). 122 BC: Rome annexes Transalpine Gaul. 53 BC : first mention of Lutetia an the 58-50 BC: the Gallic Wars. Parisii people by Caesar.

52 BC: the ‘battle of Lutetia’ destruction 52 BC: Vercingetorix’s revolt. of the oppidum, Camulogenus defeated by Caesar’s lieutenant Labenius.

50 BC: the Parisii send a contingent of 50 BC: defeat of Vercingetorix at Alesia. 8000 men to support Vercingetorix at Alesia. 43 BC: foundation of Lugdunum. 39 BC: first stay of Augustus. 39-19 BC: Agrippa designs the first Roman road network centred on Lugdunum. Late 1 st cent. BC: first traces of Gallo-Roman settlement on the site of Paris. 15-13 BC: Emperor Augustus resides at Lugdunum, capital of the Gauls. Constitution of the Gaulish provinces Aaquitania, Lugdunesis and Belgica. Early 1 st cent. AD: foundation of the Roman town Lutetia. Boatmen’s Pillar dedicated to the emperor Tiberius (14-37). 48: Emperor Claudius obtains the Senate’s Second half of 1 st cent.: building of the forum, agreement to allow nobles from the three the Collège de France baths and, probably, Gauls to occupy governing posts. the amphitheatre.

2nd cent.: the theatre is built (?). Renovation of 2nd cent.: height of the Roman Empire’s glory. the forum and construction of the Rue Gay-Lussac Pax Romana. baths. Late 2 nd cent.: the Cluny baths are built, at the height of the Roman town’s prosperity.

Mid 3 rd cent.: the town retreats. From the late 3 rd cent.: insecurity, fortification of towns.

260-275: ‘Gaulish empire’ From 307: Insecurity. much of the town stays 307: Trier is capital of the Gauls. within the confines of the île de la Cité. Construction of the ramparts, the ‘Palace’ and the civil ‘flower-market’ basilica.

Mid-4th cent.: Lutetia is a stategic site in the defence of Gaul. Frequent stationing of troops.

360: Julian proclaimed Augustus by his army in Lutetia.

365-366: Valentinian I stays in Lutetia during his campaigns against the Germans.

Gallo-roman and Merovingian monuments and mainlines of the urban network. (M. Fleury, La naissance de Paris , Imprimerie Nationale, Paris 1997) THE GALLIC AND GALLO ROMAN BEGINNINGS

Little is known about the prehistory and early history of Paris. Pre-Celtic settlers appear to have already established themselves in the area by the third millennium B.C., and it is from them that the Celtic Anavisii, who occupied the country in the third century B.C., took over the settlement’s name, Lucotesia, or Lutetia. The Parisii, a race of sailors, hunters, and fishermen who supplanted the Anavisii, built their huts on the Ile de la Cité, probably not before 250 B.C., and enriched themselves by collecting tolls at this important crossroad of northern Gaul. The density of the population was apparently already rather high, for the Parisii sent 8,000 men to support Vercingetorix in his struggle against the Romans before the inhabitants abandoned the city in 52 B.C., burning their homes and bridges behind them to hinder the advance of the Roman troops. Lutetia then became, in 51 B.C., a Roman colonial city of moderate importance for more than 300 years, its predominantly Celtic population never exceeding 10.000 people. Although situated in the center of fertile farmland and grown rich through the commerce of its boatmen - who, in the Middle Ages, would control the exchange of goods between Champagne (Troyes) and the sea (Rouen) - it never attained the political significance of Lyons or even of Reims The Romans respected the old core of the city, the Ile de la Cité, erecting there a temple, possibly a forum, but, most important, an administrative building. On the site of the later Palais de la Cité /…/, this structure housed the center of power for the state, and through it Lutetia first entered into world history in AD. 360: it was here that the Roman general Julian the Apostate had himself proclaimed emperor by his troops. In this period, Lutetia assumed the name Paris. There are no visible monuments from the Gallo-Roman period in present-day Paris except for the remains of the baths (Palais des Thermes /…/) and the amphitheater (Arènes de Lutèce /…/). However, the Roman plan of the city, together with the Seine, determined the entire course of later development and is still apparent in the routes of specific streets. As in most Roman settlements, this plan was characterized by the cross axis off the cardo (main street) and the decumanus (cross street), each of which was accompanied by parallel secondary axes. The cardo of Roman Lutetia was a road coming from Orléans in the southwest, crossing the island roughly in its center, and then leading northeastward between the Montmartre hills and Belleville toward Senlis. This main axis is preserved today in the Rue St-Jacques on the Left Bank and the Rue St-Martin on the Right, along with a secondary cardo in the course of the Rue St-Michel, Rue de la Harpe, and Rue St-Denis. The decumanus maximus was most probably located along the course of the present-day Rue Cujas and Rue de Vaugirard and led in a westward direction toward Dreux, while a second decumanus on the Right Bank, leading in the direction of Melun, can still be discerned in the route of the Rue St-Antoine. The swampy Right Bank was scarcely settled in Roman times, although the temples of Mercury and Mars were built on the heights of Montmartre. And only very little is known about settlement of the Ile de la Cité. The Roman city proper evolved on the Left Bank, on the slopes of Mont Ste-Geneviève. Its forum, consisting of temples, a basilica, and rows of shops, lay along the Rue Cujas between the Boulevard St-Michel and the Rue St-Jacques. Its baths, on the northern slope, faced the Seine, next to the Hôtel de Cluny and beneath the Collège de France; its amphitheater was built on the eastern slope, Rue Monge; and large villas stood on the western side, on the grounds of the Jardin du Luxembourg. An aqueduct roughly nine miles long brought water from the vicinity of Rungis; remains of it may be seen near Arcueil. The extraordinary diversity of readily available building materials - gypsum on the Right Bank, limestone, sandstone, and sand on the Left - promoted the construction of monumental buildings. Limestone was extracted from under Mont Ste- Geneviève; until modern times, the foundation of Paris would continue to be a gigantic quarry. Construction of the Roman city ended in about A.D. 250; Germanic tribes were pressing in upon Gaule with increasing frequency, and, in 275, the Franks and the Alemanni crossed the Rhine and advanced deep into Roman territory without meeting any resistance. The Roman colonial cities surrounded themselves with defense girdles, and Paris was no exception. It became a fortress with a ring wall, wich protected only the structures of the Ile de la Cité. This same period yields the first evidence of Christian congregations. According to Gregory of Tours, St. Dionysius (St. Denis) and seven comrades were dispatched to missionize Gaul in about 250. His cathedral possibly even stood on the Ile de la Cité. Legend has it that he was beheaded in about 280 at the foot of Montmartre and interred in St. Denis, later the necropolis of the French kings.

(Dumont Guide, Paris and the Ile de France. Art, Architecture, History , K. Bussmann, Stewart, Tabori & Chang publishers, New York, 1985, p. 11-13)

THE ‘NAUTAE’ PILLAR

… four blocks unearthed on 16 March 1710 during the construction of a vault for the archbishops of Paris. The blocks formed the ‘Nautae’ pillar. This outstanding monument bears a dedication from the boatmen of Paris to the emperor Tiberius, and representations of divinities from the Gallic and Roman pantheons.

Reconstruction by Jean-Pierre Adam in The Square of Notre Dame. Archaeology and history , Paris Musées, exhibition 2002, p. 14-15, fig. 4.

THE THERMAL BATHS OF CLUNY

In the corner of Boulevard St-Germain and Boulevard St-Michel; entrance through the Musée de Cluny (du moyen âge) .

This bathing establishment of impressive dimensions (325 by 210 feet) was constructed around AD. 200. Its central hall, the frigidarium (cold bath), with its massive cross-groined vaulting, has been preserved - the largest vaulted space from the Roman period in France. The other rooms - including the tepidarium (warm bath), the caldarium (steam room), and two long rectangular rooms for exercise and repose - survive in part as ruins and in part as foundations visible from the Boulevards St-Michel and St-Germain. The baths were excavated during the Restoration and combined with the Hôtel de Cluny, whose owners had used the vaulting of the frigidarium as a roof garden, to form the Musée de Cluny. The unique support for the vaulting in the frigidarium - depicting prows of ships laden with weapons - is thought to indicate that these baths (a second, smaller establishment once stood on the grounds of the present-day Collège de France) were sponsored by the fraternity of Seine shippers, already powerful in antiquity. Their votive column, the Pilier des Nautes (Boatmen’s Pillar), incorporating reliefs of Roman and Gallic deities, was discovered in 1711 under the choir of Notre-Dame and then set up in the frigidarium. Its inscription reveals that the column dates to the reign of the emperor Tiberius (A.D. 14 - 37). Remains of the aqueduct that brought water to the baths from Rungis have survived in Arceuil.

(K. Bussmann, Dumont Guide, Paris and the Ile de France. Art, Architecture, History , Stewart, Tabori & Chang publishers, New York, 1985, p. 105-106)

Plans published in Guide des Collections, Musée National du Moyen Age. Thermes de Cluny , Réunion des musées nationaux, Paris 1993 Lutecia Arenas

Second only to the baths, the arena, which was built toward the end of the first century AD., is the most important evidence of the Roman epoch still visible in Paris. It was discovered 1869, when the Rue Monge was being laid out, and promptly partially destroyed, over the protests of scholars, to make way for the new row of buildings. Restored and completed in 1917 and 1918, the layout reveals the combination, typical in Gaul, of arena and theater. The oval of the arena, whose rows of seats were set into the slope of the Luticius hill, was tied to a proscenium at the bottom of the hill that originally had rich architectural ornamentation. The structure, which could accommodate over 15,000 spectators, was imposing for the relatively small settlement of Lutetia. The arena was roughly 173 by 153 feet; the proscenium, 134 feet long; the total dimen- sions, 425 by 325 feet.

(K. Bussmann, Dumont Guide, Paris and the Ile de France. Art, Architecture, History , Stewart, Tabori & Chang publishers, New York, 1985, p. 106)

D. Busson, Paris, a Roman city, p. 81