PUBLICA´NOS
PUBLICA´NOS,
AD, in Gallia, is placed in the Itins. on a road which leads from Vienna (
Vienne) on the
Rhone to the Alpis Graia (
Little St. Bernard).
In following this road Ad Publicanos comes after Mantala [
MANTALA], and its position is at the commencement of the territory of the Centrones or
La Tarentaise. Wesseling observes that the name Ad Publicanos indicates a toll place at a bridge. [
PONS AERARIUS]. D'Anville supposes that Ad Publicanos was at the point where the
Arli, a tributary of the
Isère, is crossed, near which there was an ancient Hospitium or Stabulum, as it was called, such as we find on several Roman roads.
This place is now called
L'Hôpital de Conflans, and is near the junction of the
Arli and the
Isère. Ad Publicanos was probably on the boundary of the Allobroges and Centrones, where some dues would be paid.
These dues or customs were established in a period of Gallic history even anterior to the Roman conquest. (
Strab. iv. p.190.) Gallia was loaded with these imposts, which continued to the time of the French Revolution of 1789.
The distance between Mantala and Ad Publicanos is marked xvi. in the Itins., which does not agree with the site fixed by D'Anville. Other geographers place Ad Publicanos at the village of
Des Fontaines. [
G.L]
