Old man-the-Roman

Old man-the-Roman ( Aregenua ) is a Gallo-Roman archeological site of the Calvados, with about fifteen kilometers in the south of Caen. It is in the current village of Vieux. Excavated since the time of Louis XIV, the ancient city was prosperous under the Roman empire. Chief town of the city of the Viducasses, Aregenua (name which meant in Gallic " above the embouchure" , in fact of the Guigne, brook which is thrown in the Orne) had the monuments and buildings which identify a Gallo-Roman capital of civitas .

History

Created at the 1st century after J. - C., Aregenua is the capital of the Viducasses, one of the people of Gaulle Lyons. The city seems a city-stage on the chart of Peutinger. Its golden age is at S. One knows thanks to an inscription (Marbre of Thorigny) that the city had a privileged statute from the tax point of view and that its magistrates were of right Roman citizens.

Very touched by the first cruel invasions at the end of the 3rd century, Aregenua is not surrounded for all that an enclosure. At the time of christianization, it does not become seat of évêché with the difference of the majority of the other cities of future the Normandy. As many signs or causes which announce a decline of the capital of the Viducasses. Aregenua is not however abandoned with the Bas-Empire: the archeologists noted new constructions of houses, restorations and found artisanal coins and products, indices of the maintenance of a trade with long distance. However, it is clear that the town of Augustodurum (Bayeux), defended by a Castrum , takes the step on Aregenua .

With the Top the Middle Ages, the inhabitants settle a little more in north (Saint Martin's day hamlet) and use the Gallo-Roman ruins as career to build their dwellings (example: house of Gaudines). Aregenua is nothing any more but one simple Vicus . It is the only capital of city of Normandy, with Lillebonne, which did not become a city with the Moyen-âge.

Archaeological reconstitution of the city

The archaeological excavations made it possible to outline an image of Aregenua all the more easily as no modern city covered the Gallo-Roman vestiges. This type of condition is exceptional enough for an old capital of city (case of Jublains also). First discovered, the Marble of Thorigny, goes back to 1580. The first excavations started on the site in 1697,45 years before those of Pompéi.

Aregenua is with a crossroads of ancient ways. The axes of communication slipped by towards the Cotentin, towards the countries of the the Loire, towards Lisieux and Rouen. Some of its ways formed the Cardo and the Decumanus of the city. They were not however as right as one usually thinks it.

The archeologists recognized several monumental constructions:

a Aqueduct
a Roman Theater, of an intermediate size (80 meters diameter approximately), apparently transformed into Amphitheater at the 2nd century
of the Roman Thermal baths public. One knows his two founders, two notable of the city: Solemninus and his/her son Titus Sennius Sollemnis
a sanctuary in which a furnace bridge with Venus was found and with Mars. This temple is under the current Notre-Dame church. It is a rather rare case of continuity between a place of pagan worship and a place of Christian worship.
an exceptional Domus by its decoration. Called " house with large the péristyle" , she was excavated in 1988-1991 per P. Vipard. Its plan which extends on 1250-1500m ² organizes around a central court decorated with a basin ( impluvium ) and surrounded by a Péristyle. A Hypocauste ensured the heating of several parts. The room of pageantry, the court and the garden were decorated (fresco of Achille and Téthys, bacchic sculptures, engraved columns of vegetable reasons, pillars decorated with low-reliefs, mosaics…). The domus preserves also part of its pavement of origin out of limestone. It is a typically Mediterranean residence which proves the assimilation of the Roman Architecture by the Gallic ones of North.

An artisanal district was located in south-west: a workshop of bronzier and furnaces of glassmakers were released.

A museum installed on the site shows the discoveries while the house with the large peristyle (more exactly its restored vestiges) is freely accessible.

From plans drawn up by the Company of the Antique dealers of Normandy, of recent prospections air and geophysics allowed to confirm, with the locality " the field of the crêtes" , the presence of the Forum of the city and various public edifices, thermal baths, but also Curie and probably basilica. A new excavation campaign began in 2007, which should continue in the years to come to release these public edifices still badly known for the city of Aregenua . ----

Internal bonds

History of Normandy
suburban Villa

External bonds

the museum of Old man-the-Roman

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