BAGACUM
(Bavai or Bavay) Nord, France.
City in the Belgica province of Gaul. Although its typically Celtic name was taken from a Gallic settlement the
location of which is unknown, the city of Bagacum was
a Roman creation. Searching the territory of the civitas
of the Nervii for a suitable site for a capital city, the
Romans chose a position overlooking strategic routes
(from Tongres and Trèves on the one hand, from Cambrai and Tournai on the other); they also selected a
convenient, healthy spot—the summit of a hill sloping
down to the Bavai stream.
The first piece of chronological evidence is a dedication to Tiberius (A.D. 4). The city flourished from the
1st c. on, as evidenced by finds made to the S (Arretine
ware) and traces of a monumental development in the
city center. The construction of this huge complex,
which may have been accompanied by a general reorganization of the city plan, can be dated from the 2d c., the
period of the city's greatest vitality. That Bagacum was
a victim of the invasions of the mid-3d c. is indicated by
the very recent discovery of a large quantity of bronzes
buried in haste (statuettes, handles of chests, etc.). Only
a narrow urban area (4 ha) was rebuilt and walled:
from that time on, Bavai was merely a fortress of minor
importance; not mentioned in the later texts, it disappeared at the beginning of the 5th c.
The Roman remains make it clear that under the Empire the city covered the same area as the mediaeval city
and at some points spread beyond it. Some remains of
Roman structures appear outside the mediaeval embankment, to the W along the modern road to Valenciennes
and E on the road to Maubeuge. To the SW, still outside the mediaeval limits, a whole series of sand-pits
were worked, and this apparently gave rise to a kind of
industrial suburb with a number of potter's furnaces and
some fairly rich houses. These various remains, the evidence of the roads (curving as they near the settlement),
and the position of certain tombs (tomb of Julia Feticula
to the S, next to a vault with niches decorated with
painted stuccos) indicate the approximate boundaries of
the inhabited area. Bagacum extended ca. 700 m E-W
and 600-650 m N-S, a total area of ca. 40-45 ha; it
remained a small city and did not experience the economic expansion of Amiens. Judging from the arrangement of some of the streets that have been traced (especially the Rue des Gommeries), from that of the sewers
which run parallel below ground, and from the alignment
of many remains of houses, the city appears to have
been designed on an orthogonal plan. Several groups of
houses have been found (Rue de Valenciennes, Rue des
Gommeries), some of which are fairly rich (rooms with
hypocausts, mosaic floors, wall paintings, and stuccos),
and an industrial quarter with poor homes S of the great
complex. There is evidence of public monuments at several points: a temple was discovered in 1722 at Le
Bisoir, an area unknown today but probably situated to
the S; several dedications show that the wealthiest citizens of Bavai contributed their denarii to the building
of useful works (for example, public scales); remains of
hypocausts and mosaics have located the public baths
close to the church. The water supply came from the
Floursies springs by a system of aqueducts.
But most important was the large complex in the city
center, which has been systematically excavated since
1942. it consists of a double forum, designed for political
and commercial purposes, 95 m N-S and ca. 230 m E-W.
East of it stands a building with a central nave (16 x 66
m) and two side naves (6 x 78 m), against which on
three sides (N, E, and S) were built wide, deep shops.
This huge monument was a basilica, originally dating
from the 1st c. A.D. West of the basilica is a square,
paved with blue stone and lined to N and S with a
double row of shops opening on the square and street.
Probably separated from this square by a N-S road is
another square, extending farther W; it is edged on the
other three sides (N, S, and W, each 60 m long) with a
great portico the pillars of which supported a wooden
frame. The N and S galleries that form the two ends of
this horseshoe-shaped structure terminate to the W in an
apse; the W gallery leads, through a vestibule flanked
by two rectangular rooms, to a large hall (23 x 25 m);
in the middle of the W wall is a flattened apse. The purpose of this last complex is hard to determine: is it a
curia or perhaps some development connected with the
cult of emperors.
Below the portico is a cryptoporticus, identical in plan:
it has three galleries similar in arrangement and dimensions to those on the ground level, but differing in that
the N and S galleries are interrupted at regular intervals
by four barrel-vaulted enlargements. Covering the whole
of the cryptoporticus is a groined vault supported by
strong piers. To the W is a large rectangular room laid
out like the one at ground level; originally it had a ceiling supported by beams, but after a fire it was split up
into three vaulted naves. The function of this substructure remains uncertain; the paintings with which all the
stonework was decorated seem to rule out mere cellars,
which has sometimes been suggested. More likely the
complex is a better protected continuation of the forum,
a cryptoforum, perhaps with quarters for the collegia of
artisans. Finally, in the middle of the square, with the
portico galleries around it, is a foundation block 2 m
high, 20 m wide, and 32 m long. A foundation of this
kind and in this spot could only be that of a temple, and
a large one at that; the frieze fragments and capitals
discovered in the excavations probably come from it.
The city was ravaged by the 3d c. invasions, and both
public and private buildings provided the materials for a
double surrounding wall: the first, built hurriedly at the
end of the 3d c., was followed by one more solid in the
period of Diocletian and Constantine. This rampart,
which enclosed the monumental complex of the Empire,
took the somewhat unusual form of a very long rectangle
(100 m N-S, 400 m E-W); it was divided by a N-S wall
into twin castella, that to the W being the larger and
stronger. The area of the city inside the wall was very
small, ca. 4 ha. Thus Bagacum in the Late Empire was
not only a walled city but a veritable fortress.
The large quantity of pottery and bronzes proves beyond doubt that this was a local production center (especially so-called Bavai vases). A museum is being established which will house all local finds.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
H. Biévelet, “L'Exploration archéologique de Bavai,”
Gallia (1944); E. Will,
Bavai, cité gallo-romaine (1957); id., “Les enceintes du Bas-Empire a Bavai,”
Revue du Nord 44 (1962) 391-401; id., “Recherches sur le développement urbain sous l'empire romain dans le nord de la France,”
Gallia 20 (1962) 79-101;
Gallia,
periodic reports of the excavations.
C. PIETRI
