ARAUSIO
(Orange) Dépt. Vaucluse, France.
Situated 7 km E of the Rhône and slightly S of the
Aigues river, Arausio in pre-Roman times was one of
the centers of the confederation of the Cavares, occupying the corridor of the Rhône between the Durance and
the Isère (
Strab. 4.1.11). This confederation was made
up of the Cavares properly speaking—the Menini, Segovellauni, and Tricastini—and was the richest and most
powerful tribe of SE Gaul. Probably allied with Marseille, then with Rome at the time of the conquest, these
people were one of the most rapidly and thoroughly
Romanized (
Strab. 4.1.12). Rome divided the territory
of the confederation into six civitates, the chief cities
being Valence, Saint-Paul-Trois-Chateaux, Carpentras,
Avignon and, most important, Orange.
Like Nîmes-Nemausus, Orange very likely got its
name from that of a water divinity (dedication Arausioni on a bronze tablet: Inscr. lat. Narbon., No. 184).
That it was occupied for so many centuries may be explained by the strategic importance of the site: the
Saint-Eutrope hill rises more than 100 m above the
plain, dominating the whole region and in particular
providing a means of controlling the great traffic route
along the banks of the Rhbne. It is quite certain that
the Roman legions occupied the hill in their campaign
against the Cimbri and the Teutones, and one of the
functions given the colony that Augustus created ca.
35 B.C. was that of a citadel: cf. the epithet
firma in its
official name, Colonia Julia Firma Secundanorum Arausio, a colony with Roman rights for veterans of the 2d Gallic Legion.
From various remains that have been found of the
city rampart it is possible to trace its plan. Hexagonal
in shape, it ran around the Saint-Eutrope hill to the S,
then at the foot of the hill to the N enclosed some 50 ha
of low ground, which would give it a perimeter of
3,500 m and a total area of some 70 ha. The ancient
sewers and foundations, those monuments that are still
standing in situ, and the orientation of the modern streets
all point to a strict overall plan. The path of the cardo
maximus has been traced from the arch N of the city
up to a postern gate in the S curtain of the surrounding
wall, also that of the decumanus which is strictly perpendicular to it. The forum probably lay SE of the spot
where the two axes crossed, that is, N of the theater:
there is nothing left of the forum, but on the other hand
Orange is fortunate in having preserved not only a great
many objects (sculptures, pottery, inscriptions, etc.,
many of them in the museums at Avignon and Saint-Germain-en-Laye) but also two extremely important
monuments and remains of a number of others.
The most famous monuments at Orange are the arch
and the theater. The former stands 50 m N of the rampart and marks the spot where the Agrippan road
reached the city; it was erected on the foundations of
an earlier monument (either an arch or a gate). It has
been described as the oldest of the homogeneous triple
arches, with the clumsiness of a provincial attempt at
innovation, at the same time showing a “rare virtuosity”
so far as sculpture is concerned. Its massive, square form
with a double attic and central pediment, its trophies,
panels of arms and naval spoils, and its battle scenes
are well known. Its date, long disputed, may be set
between A.D. 10 and 26-27 (perhaps following the events
of 21).
The theater is oriented to the N and has a diameter
of 103 m. Its cavea is built against the Saint-Eutrope hill
and is divided into three sections by two praecinctiones
and surmounted by a portico; it could seat 7000 spectators. Essentially it is interesting because of the preservation of the stage section, particularly the stage wall which stands 103 m wide and 37 m high. It is generally
believed to date from the Augustan period, but this
theory is based more on town-planning criteria than
on architectural study of the monument, which might
possibly assign it a somewhat later date.
Also backed against the hill, to the W of the theater
and connected to it is another, smaller, semicircular
building (74 m in diameter) with the remains of a large
temple 35 x 24 m in the middle of it. In the subfoundation underneath the cella were several vaulted chambers.
The podium, which was 3.75 m high, was reached by
a stairway on the N side. The temple was peripteral
octostyle, the colonnade breaking off on the S side
where an apse was hollowed out of the cella. The impressive dimensions of this building have generally led
it to be dated relatively late, in the 2d c., though some
writers date it to the Augustan period. The semicircle,
on the other hand, is commonly dated from the Augustan
period, and its original purpose has given rise to different hypotheses. If its side walls are extended theoretically 200 m to the N, they are found to meet other
rectilinear walls, in the foundations as well as in elevation. A rectangular area like this, very elongated and
ending in a semicircle, has suggested a circus or a gymnasium. On the other hand, excavations N of the temple
have revealed some fragments of substructures that may
possibly represent the base of a stage wall. Thus a third
hypothesis has been proposed, that a smaller theater may
have preceded the “great” theater, then, when the latter
was built, have been used as the peribolus of the temple.
According to this theory, the N walls of the semicircle
formed a monumental portico that was part of the Forum; if this is correct, a new date should be found for
the great theater. The debate is highly complex and
probably cannot be settled without decisive evidence that
the semicircle predates the temple.
Traces of two more monuments, possibly religious
buildings, have been found S of the semicircle and exactly on its axis; they stood on two terraces cut in the
Saint-Eutrope hill and thus overlooked the city. The first,
probably a temple, has a porticoed peribolus around it
and was 7.70 m wide (its length is not known). All that
remains of the second building are some huge subfoundations, which some believe may have belonged to a large
Capitolium; this identification is still hypothetical.
One particularly important find has made it possible to
reconstruct, in part, the cadastres of the rural territory
of the Orange colony. From several hundred fragments
found in a pile along with various architectural elements
in a limekiln near the theater it was possible to piece
together part of three such surveys, A, B, and C. The
first, A, has an inscription at the top showing that it was
posted up in the city tabularium in 77 by order of the
emperor Vespasian. B, the most complete of the surveys,
apparently dates from Trajan's reign. C is later than the
other two, although it cannot be dated precisely. The
only certain localization of terrain is in B. Research is
still going on into the information provided by these
documents on land confiscation when the colony was
formed and the restitution of the least fertile of them to
the natives, the extension of the civitas, its encroachment
on the territory of other cities, and so on.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Sautel,
Forma Orbis Romani, Carte
arch. de la Gaule romaine, VII (1939) (avec bibliographie précédente)
MPI; A. Grenier,
Manuel d'arch. gallo-romaine III (1958)
MPI; L. Crema,
L'architettura romana (1959); R. Amy et al., “L'Arc d'Orange,”
Gallia, Suppl. XV (1962)
PI; A. Piganiol, “Les documents cadastraux
de la colonie romaine d'Orange,”
Gallia, Suppl. XVI
(1962)
MPI; G. Barruol,
Les peuples pré-romains du Sud-Est de la Gaule (1969)
M.
C. GOUDINEAU
