FANUM MARTIS
(Corseul) Côtes du Nord, France.
The ancient city, the center of which is now
occupied by the small township of Corseul, was one of
the chief towns of the Coriosolites tribe, and became the
capital of the new civitas under Augustus. Built on a
N-S and E-W grid plan, the city grew in the Claudian
period and flourished under the Antonines. After uncertainty and economic recession in the 3d c. the city shrank
in size, and many quarters were abandoned. In the 4th c.,
however, with the renaissance under Constantine, it came
to life again although it had lost its title of capital to
Aleto (St. Servan sur Mer), and the abandoned quarters
were once more occupied.
To the E and outside the limits of the ancient city
stands the most important monument, the temple of Le
Haut-Bécherel. All that is left of this edifice—in area,
the greatest religious monument in all Armorica, even in
all Gaul—is the impressive remains of the cella. Excavations ca. 1868 traced the general plan of the temple
(110 x 101 m). A huge central court, rectangular in
shape, was open to the E and lined on the other three
sides by a gallery formed by two parallel walls, the first
of which probably supported a colonnade. The sanctuary
proper, to the W, consisted of a hexagonal cella built of
mortared rubble faced with small blocks and with iron
joints, surrounded by an ambulatory. The sanctuary was
reached by a monumental entrance opening on the W colonnade. On either side of the sanctuary, in the outer
gallery wall, were two small rectangular rooms, and there
were two other identical rooms in the N and S passageways. In the NE and SW corners of the courtyard were
two quadrangular structures projecting into the interior;
they had sturdy buttresses on their outer corners. The E
wall of these structures extends to close off part of the
great central court. It is not certain to what divinity this
temple was dedicated, but the name would indicate that
it was the god Mars.
Recent excavations have uncovered a residential sector,
in particular the plan of a villa urbana from the Claudian
period. Actually a country house in an urban setting, the
building is of the so-called horseshoe type. The main
building, rectangular and facing S, is flanked to the W
by a wing at a right angle, forming a courtyard that is
closed to the E by a wall. The courtyard, which contains
a well, is lined on three sides by a portico and opens to
the S on one of the paved streets of the ancient city. Excavation also revealed the substructures of a bath building erected in the 4th c. when this section of the city was
reoccupied.
Most of the objects found can be seen at the Corseul
Mairie, but some are in the museums of Rennes and
Dinan. The Corseul church contains a fine funerary inscription dedicated to a woman from the Roman provinces of Africa.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
E. Fornier, “Rapport sur les fouilles du
Haut-Bécherel en Corseul,”
Bulletin de la Société d'émulation des Cötes du Nord (1870); “Informations,” Gallia
27, 1 (1969) 248-51; 29, 2 (1971).
M. PETIT
