Download Antic Paris Chronology and history

II. GALLO-ROMAN PERIOD
LUTETIA
GAUL
Neolithic period: first settlements on
the Bercy site: dugouts (4000 BC).
53 BC : first mention of Lutetia an the
Parisii people by Caesar.
122 BC: Rome annexes T ransalpine Gaul.
58-50 BC: the Gallic Wars.
52 BC: the ‘battle of Lutetia’ destruction
of the oppidum, Camulogenus defeated
by Caesar’s lieutenant Labenius.
52 BC: Vercingetorix’s revolt.
50 BC: the Parisii send a contingent of
8000 men to support Vercingetorix at Alesia.
50 BC: defeat of 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 1st cent. BC: first traces of Gallo-Roman
settlement on the site of Paris.
Early 1st cent. AD: foundation of the Roman
town Lutetia. Boatmen’s Pillar dedicated to
the emperor Tiberius (14-37).
Se cond half of 1 st cent.: building of the forum,
the Collège de France baths and, probably,
the amphitheatre.
2 nd cent.: the theatre is built (?). Renovation of
the forum and construction of the Rue Gay-Lussac
baths. Late 2nd cent.: the Cluny baths are built, at
the height of the Roman town’s prosperity.
Mid 3 rd cent.: the town retreats.
From 307: Insecurity. much of the town stays
within the confines of the île de la Cité.
Construction of the ramparts, the ‘Palace’
and the civil ‘flower-market’ basilica.
15-13 BC: Emperor Augustus resides at
Lugdunum, capital of the Gauls. Constitution
of the Gaulish provinces Aaquitania,
Lugdunesis and Belgica.
48: Emperor Claudius obtains the Senate’s
agreement to allow nobles from the three
Gauls to occupy governing posts.
2 nd cent.: height of the Roman Empire’s glory.
Pax Romana.
From the late 3 rd cent.: insecurity, fortification of
towns.
260-275: ‘Gaulish empire’
307: Trier is capital of the Gauls.
Mid-4 th 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 M erovingian 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 o f Paris. Pre-Celtic settlers ap pear to hav e 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 cen tury B.C., took over the settlement’s name, Lucotesia, or Lutetia. The Parisii, a race o f sailors, hunters, and
fishermen who sup planted the Anavisii, built their huts on the Ile d e l a Cité, probably not before 250 B.C., and enri ched
themselves by collecting tolls at this important crossroad of northern Gaul.
The density of the population was app arently already rather high, for the Parisii sent 8,000 men to support Vercingetorix
in his struggle ag ainst the Romans b efore the inhabitants ab andoned the city in 52 B.C., burning their homes and bridges
behind them to hinder the advance o f the Roman troops.
Lutetia then became, in 51 B.C., a Roman colonial city of moderate importan ce fo r more than 300 years, its predominantly
Celtic population never exceeding 10.000 people. Although situated in the center o f fertile farmland and grown rich through
the commerce o f its boatmen - who, in the Middle Ages, would control the exchange o f goods between Champagne
(Troyes) and the sea (Rouen) - it never attained the political significan ce o f Lyons or even o f Reims
The
Romans
respected the old core o f the city, the Ile de la Cité, erecting there a temple, possibly a fo rum, but, most important, an
administrative building. On the site of the later Palais de la Cité /…/, this structure housed the cent er o f power for the stat e,
and through it Lutetia first entered into world history in AD. 360: it was here that the Roman general Julian the Apostate had
himself pro claimed 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 fo r the remains o f the baths (Palais des Thermes /…/) and the
amphitheater (Arènes de Lutèce /…/).
However, the Roman plan o f the city, together with the Sein e, determined the entire cou rse o f later dev elopment and is
still apparent in the rout es o f sp eci fic 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 o f which was accomp anied by parallel secondary ax es.
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 o f 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-d ay 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 set tled in Roman times, although the temples of M ercu ry and M ars 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 th e Left Bank, on th e slopes o f Mont Ste-Genevièv e. Its fo rum, consisting o f temples, a basilica, and rows o f
shops, lay along the Rue Cujas between the Boulev ard St-Mich el and the Rue St-Jacques. Its b aths, on the northern slop e,
faced the Seine, next to the Hôtel d e Cluny and beneath the Collège de France; its amphitheater was built on the eastern
slope, Rue Monge; and larg e villas stood on the west ern side, on th e grounds o f the Jardin du Luxembourg. An aqu educt
roughly nine miles long brought water from the vicinity of Rungis; remains of it may be seen near Arcueil.
The extraordinary diversity o f readily av ailable building materials - gypsum on the Right Bank, limestone, sandstone, and
sand on the Left - promoted the construction o f monumental buildings. Limestone was extract ed from under Mont SteGenevièv e; until modern times, the foundation of Paris would continue to be a gigantic quarry.
Construction of th e Roman city end ed in about A.D. 250; Germanic tribes were press ing in upon Gaule with increasing
frequ ency, 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 defens e girdles, and Paris was no exception.
It became a fo rtress with a ring wall, wich protected only the structures of the Ile de la Cité.
This same period yields the first evidence o f Christian congregations. Acco rding to Grego ry o f Tours, St. Dionysius (St.
Denis) and seven comrad es 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 o f 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 ‘N AUTAE’ 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-M ichel 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 M usée 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. Re stored 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 dimensions, 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