LUTEVA
(Lodève) Hérault, France.
A town
of Narbonese Gaul which for a while bore the name of
Forum Neronis (
Plin. 3.37), given to it in 45 B.C. by
Tiberius Claudius Nero. In the Late Empire, it became
the capital of a civitas, then the see of a diocese. The
town, at the edge of the plain of Languedoc and at the
foot of the Causses, was a way station on the road that
ran from Agde to Rodez by way of Cessero (St-Thibéry), Piscenae (Pézenas), and Condatomagus (Millau),
and for this reason played a considerable role in the
economy of the province. Luteva was an important market for export of the ore of the Cévennes, resin from
the Causses, wool produced intensively in the interior
and worked especially at Pézenas (
Plin. 8.191), and the
ceramics of La Graufesenque (near Millau) and Banassac.
The modern town masks the ancient one, which has
been localized, however, by some chance discoveries.
At the edge of the town, recent exploration has uncovered
the large blocks of a structure thought to have been
a mausoleum.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carte archéologique de la Gaule romaine, fasc. X,
Hérault (1946) 22, no. 71; “Informations,”
Gallia 22 (1964) 491-93
I.
G. BARRUOL
