CARCASO
(Carcassonne) Gallia Narbonensis, Aude,
France.
The ancient town was located on the
site of the mediaeval city: on a steep hill 400 m from
the right bank of the Aude (Atax), on the road from
Narbonne to Toulouse. Pliny the elder calls it an oppidum (
HN 3.36) and the Bordeaux-Jerusalem Itinerary
calls it a castellum. On this site stood a small center
fortified by the Volcae Tectosages, then by the Romans,
and finally by the Visigoths who took possession of it
in 436. The interior rampart of the mediaeval city is
generally supposed to rest on Roman foundations, which
are in places visible (at the Tour du Plo, for example),
and which may date to the 3d or 4th c. The construction
of this fortification is sometimes attributed to the Visigoths, but without decisive proof. It appears that the
Visigoths were content to restore the Roman work.
Fine monochrome mosaics have been found inside the
ramparts. No building is known, although the remains
of a Temple of Apollo were noted in the 17th c. The
town was supplied with water by an aqueduct. Outside
the ramparts funerary remains and foundations on the
right bank of the Aude may attest to the existence of a suburb.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A. Grenier,
Carte arch. de la Gaule
romaine, fasc. XII, Aude (1959)
MP; G. Rancoule &
Y. Solier, “La Cité de Carcassonne à l'âge du fer,”
Bull. Soc. Etudes Scient. Aude 72 (1972)
PI.
M. GAYRAUD
