Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T10:57:56.607Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Note on the Street-Plan and Early Growth of Roman Amiens

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2011

C. V. Walthew
C. V. Walthew
Affiliation:
Department of Classics, University College Dublin
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.
Image of the first page of this content. For PDF version, please use the ‘Save PDF’ preceeding this image.'
Type
Notes
Information
Britannia , Volume 12 , November 1981 , pp. 298 - 302
Copyright
Copyright © Dr C. V. Walthew 1981. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

74 Frere, S. S., ‘Town Planning in the Western Provinces’, in Beiheft zum Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission lviii (1977), 91 f. and fig. 2.Google Scholar

75 Will, E., ‘Recherches sur le développement urbain sous l'empire romain dans le nord de la France’, Gallia xx (1962), 79 ff. and fig. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Vasselle, F. and Will, E., ‘L'urbanisme romain à Samarobriva-Amiens’, Revue du Nord xlii (1960), 337 ff. and fig. 1.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

77 e.g. those of North-South Streets V (Gallia xxxiii (1975), 311)Google Scholar and VII (information from M. F. Vasselle).

78 The alignment of East-West Street 5 remains very doubtful. In Celticum xv (1965), plate 82, fig. 1 it is sited further north than on earlier plans, running very close to the south side of the amphitheatre. But it must be admitted that this alignment rests on very slender evidence.

79 e.g. East-West Streets 2 and 8.

80 As shown by the discovery of an additional insula on the eastern side of the town, north of the SNCF station (Gallia xxxvii (1979), 324)Google Scholar and of an east-west street in the Rue Le Nôtre (Gallia xxxiii (1975), 313).Google Scholar

81 op. cit. (note 74), 91.

82 The alignment was clearly changed to avoid an area of marshy ground lying directly in its original path in the Rue des Chaudronniers (Bull. Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie xlv (1953–54), 131 ff. and plan). The discovery of early pottery beside the street on the new Post Office site, west of the Rue des Vergeaux and south of the Rue St. Patrice, would not suggest a late date (ibid. (1969), 65 ff., especially p. 70). And the thickness of 1·90 m stated for the street by Vasselle and Will (op. cit., (note 76), 339, table A) compares favourably with that of streets which they regard as early. Indeed, the published section (ibid., 351, fig. 7) might suggest a thickness of over 4 m and, in general, some misgivings may be felt whether the total thickness of Amiens’ streets has always been recognized. Thus, the section through East–West Street 6 on the north side of the baths (ibid., 344, fig. 2) would suggest a thickness of at least 4 m and this figure has been confirmed by a recent section of the same street just to the east (Gallia xxxiii (1975), 313)Google Scholar. In the Place Jules Bocquet North–South Street V has been shown to exceed 5 m in thickness (ibid., 311), whilst Vasselle's section of North–South Street III in the Nouvelle Rue Duméril would suggest a thickness of more than 4 m (Bull. Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie (1957), 1).

83 Accordingly there seems no valid reason for Vasselle's and Will's rejection of East–West Street 1 as located in the Place Vogel: op. cit. (note 76), 340. On the other hand, the recently discovered insula on the eastern side of the town appears to have measured 120 m from north to south: Gallia xxxvii (1979), 324.Google Scholar

84 Information from M. Vasselle.

85 Gallia xxxvii (1979), 322.Google Scholar

86 op. cit. (note 74), 92.

87 Since North–South Street 0, which may have been in existence from the first century (Bull. Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie xlviii (1959–1960), 173)Google Scholar, lies only slightly more than 160 m to the west of Street I, the difference may not be significant.

88 As confirmed by the discovery of the most easterly north-south street yet known: Gallia xxxvii (1979), 324.Google Scholar

89 Vasselle, F., ‘L'amphithéâtre romain d'Amiens’, in Hommages à Albert Grenier (Collection Latomus lviii (1962), 1586 ff.)Google Scholar. Despite the complete lack of dating evidence, it is clear that the amphitheatre underwent a number of modifications suggesting at least two phases of construction. It is not inconceivable that these modifications included changes in function of the sort observed in the Verulamium theatre (Kenyon, K. M., Archaeologia lxxxiv (1935), 242 ff.)Google Scholar. If, as M. Vasselle believes, the forum was sited in the insula just to the east of the amphitheatre, with a temple at the western end immediately adjacent to the amphitheatre, it would be even more tempting to suppose that the latter functioned as a theatre at some stage. On the forum, which may have extended further east than previously supposed, see now Gallia xxxv (1977), 313Google Scholar; xxxvii (1979), 321.

90 Bull. Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie lii (1967), 126.Google Scholar

91 op. cit. (note 89), plate cccxx, fig. 4.

02 So Vasselle claims (ibid., 1587, fn. 1), though it must be admitted that the evidence of the plan is less than convincing.

93 ibid., 1588 and fig. 4; see also note 82.

94 Gallia vii (1949), 104 ff.Google Scholar; ix (1951), 72 ff.; xii (1954), 131 ff. and fig. 2.

95 Will, E., Revue du Nord xxxviii (1956), 331 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

96 It is worth noting that a bas-relief of an anguipede giant was found at the corner of the Rue au Lin and the Voie Nouvelle A.10, north-west of the amphitheatre: Bull. Soc. des Antiquaires de Picardie xlv (1953–1954), 125 and plate 11.Google Scholar

97 Vasselle and Will, op. cit. (note 76), 349 and fig. 2; Gallia xiii (1955), 142.Google Scholar

98 ibid. xxxiii (1975), 313. If the dating is correct, this street may have been an addition to the original plan.

99 ibid. 311 and figs. 20–21.

100 ibid. xxxi (1973), 344 f.; xxxvii (1979), 324.

101 op. cit. (note 74), 91.

102 Gallia xxxiii (1975), 311 f.Google Scholar It is relevant to note that the earliest levels of the road were not reached.

103 It is not inconceivable that North–South Street V represents the original alignment of the road from Beauvais which should date from Agrippa's road-building operations c. 39 B.C. (Strabo iv, 6, 11).

104 Vasselle, F., ‘L'habitat urbain: les habitations gallo-romaines de Samarobriva (Amiens-Somme)’, Celticum ix (1963), 260 and fig. 3.Google Scholar

105 I am grateful to M. Vasselle for providing a large-scale plan showing the relationship of these buildings to the street-grid. For an early road running on an oblique alignment across the insula immediately west of the baths see Gallia xxxvii (1979), 323.Google Scholar

106 Vasselle and Will, op. cit. (note 76), 342. The alignment of such a road might be reflected in the modern Rue Saint Germain and Rue des Orfèvres.

107 And probably five, if the oblique road crossing the insula west of the baths is included.

108 Gallia xxxi (1973), 345Google Scholar; xxxiii (1975), 311, 313, xxxv (1977), 313.

109 Caesar, B.G. v, 24.

110 Gallia xxxiii (1975), 311Google Scholar; xxxv (1977), 313; xxxvii (1979), 321.

111 op. cit. (note 75), 83 f.; op. cit. (note 76), 343.

112 Caesar, B.G. v, 47; 53.

113 Gallia xxxiii (1975), 311Google Scholar; xxxvii (1979), 321. Particularly suggestive here is a V-shaped ditch of possible military origin and Augustan or earlier date discovered on the Logis du Roy site.