DIVIO
or DIBIO (Dijon) Câte-d'Or, France.
On the Ouche river 30 km W of the Saône, on the border of the civitates of the Lingones and the Haedui, a
fortification of the second half of the 3d c.
Gregory of Tours (
Historiae Francorum 3.19) attributes to Aurelian the construction of the castrum divionense. He places it N of the Ouche, indicates that it is
traversed by a small river which supplies the moat and
operates the mills, and mentions the proximity, to the W,
of famous vineyards. The plan of this almost square
fortification, ca. 1200 m in circumference, may be
reconstructed from mediaeval texts and particularly
from elements of it which have been found, although
often destroyed. Many of its 33 round towers are known;
bases of many of them are still in place. The river that
flowed through it is the Suzon, a tributary of the Ouche.
Its course has changed several times, but probably it
crossed the castrum N-S, fairly close to the E wall.
The only clues to the settlement before it was fortified are the numerous architectural or sculptural blocks
which were reused in the rampart: funerary sculpture,
stelai, piers, or fragments of large monuments, which
testify to a rich necropolis and, therefore, to an important city. Three of these fragments show the same
scene, the loading of a wagon. One of them bears the
inscription nauta araricus, “sailor of the Saône,” suggesting that Dijon owed its existence to its position
astride several routes of communication. The city profited
not only from the proximity of the Saône and the Ouche
valley with its easy passage to the W, but also from a
network of roads. Agrippa's great Rhine road runs a
little E of the Late Empire castrum. A military milepost
dedicated to Tetricus was found there. Secondary roads
connected the castrum with the Rhine route, and another road went to Autun.
A number of buildings and funerary monuments have
been discovered, especially to the NE between the castrum and Agrippa's road, including a necropolis at the
place called Les Poussots, and a rather large edifice,
with a bath, at the place called Les Petites-Roches. Some
of the tombs yielded terra sigillata, but none of the
buildings could be dated.
The finds are in the Musée Archéologique.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Reports of discoveries:
Mémoires de la Commission des Antiquités de la Côte-D'Or (1832ff). Sculptures: E. Esperandieu,
Recueil général des bas-reliefs . . . de la Gaule romaine (1907ff) III. Castrum:
E. Fyot, “Le castrum divionense,”
BAC (1920) 299-321; P. Gras & J. Richard, “Le castrum de Dijon et le Suzon,”
Revue archéologique de l'Est 1 (1950) 76-87. Roads: E. Thevenot,
Les voies romaines de la Cité des Eduens, Collection Latomus XCVIII (1969).
C. ROLLEY
