Augustoritum

History

Augustoritum was founded by the Romains about year 10 before our era under the name of Augustoritum. The emperor Auguste indeed decides the foundation of a new capital of the Lémovices, within the framework of the reorganization of the cities and the Gallic provinces of the Roman empire.

A vast slope overhanging Vienna is selected like site of establishment of the new city. Directed to south-east and soft and regular inclined, this slope is exposed less to winter freezing. Moreover, the city is placed at the crossroads between the route connecting the Mediterranean to Armorique and the “way of Clutched”, connecting Lugdunum (Lyon) and Mediolanum (Holy). To finish, to this place the river presents a ford which makes its crossing possible.

The name of Augustoritum is given to this new city. This name is derived from rito (ford in Gallic language), and Augusto (in homage to the Empereur Auguste, thanks to which the city was born). Augustoritum is thus “the ford of Auguste”.

The city is built according to a network of south-eastern/north-western directed parallel streets, coming to cross in right angle another network of north-eastern/south-western directed parallel streets. An almost perfect squaring is thus drawn, according to the diagram of town planning of use among Romans.

Ancient vestiges

The Roman city was very rich.

the Amphitheater : monuments of spectacle, the amphitheaters are among most representative of Roman civilization. The amphitheater of Augustoritum, surely built at the end of the 1st century, is still partly visible today. It was located a little at the variation of the Roman city and had the form of an oval of 136 meters by 115 meters.

It is the monument of Augustoritum which marked the population the most because there remained partly until 1718 before being hidden under the walk of the Intendant of Orsay (current garden of Orsay).

the theater : vestiges of this other monument of spectacle were recently discovered in edge of Vienna, Saint-Martial quay and place Holy-Happiness. Augustoritum is one of the rare cities of the time to have at the same time an amphitheater and a Théâtre.

the Roman Thermal baths : these so expensive places in Romains were obviously present at Augustoritum. The thermal baths of the Jacobins (located at the level of the current place of the Jacobins of Limoges) dating from the 2nd century and richly decorated, were among most imposing of the Gaulle. They were unfortunately destroyed in their quasi-integrality to build a carpark. In 2004 of the excavations in the current garden of évêché allowed to discover new thermal baths.

the forum : it is the heart of the Roman cities. Meeting place, one milked there of the policy, justice, the trade, the religion. The forum of Augustoritum (100 meters by 150 meters), is located at the back of the Town hall. A mosaic found near the Forum, below the multi-media French-speaking Library, was reinstalled with the ground floor of this one and is visible since public spaces (free entry). It presents two geometrical carpets of which one is decorated of a subject probably appearing a lioness. This mosaic is the only visible vestige on the spot of an immense archaeological building site having updated a very interesting Gallo-Roman district. It was destroyed in order to build the media library and the Faculty of Law. To Limoges, archeology passes after the real estate transactions…

the sanctuaries : no Gallo-Roman temple was identified in Limoges. According to the tradition, a temple devoted to Venus, Diane, Minerve and Jupiter would have risen where current the Cathédrale is. Excavations were to take place in 2004 to confirm this assumption.

Well few Gallo-Roman vestiges are still visible in Limoges: the Villa of Brachaud, of the vestiges located under the Renoir College… there exists a great distortion between what was discovered and what was preserved. Contrary to the policies led to Périgueux, Poitiers, or Holy, the municipality of Limoges does not seem to have understood that the safeguarding of the ancient vestiges was a factor of economic development of a city. The destruction of the districts and buildings discovered in Limoges since the middle of the years 1960 also constitutes a serious loss for the study of the Graeco-Roman civilization.

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