EPAMANTADURUM
or Epomanduodurum (Mandeure,
Mathay) Doubs, France.
The
Peutinger Table
and the
Antonine Itinerary mention it simply as a way-station on the road from Vesontio (Besançon) to the
Rhine. The locality appears later in the Ravenna Cosmographer as Mandroda. It stood on both banks of the
Doubs on the site of the present-day Mandeure and
Mathay, where milestones of the Roman road have
been found. Its history is unknown. Bricks bearing the
stamp of the Legio I Martia suggest the presence of a
military detachment in the 4th c.
The widespread ruins have been excavated since the
16th c. The artifacts, numerous and of good quality,
have been widely dispersed (museums of Montbéliard,
Besançon, Belfort, Epinal, Mulhouse, Colmar, Basle,
Stuttgart, Berlin, etc.). The buildings discovered have
been arbitrarily named.
The only edifice visible today is the theater, still only
partially excavated and one of the largest in Gaul (exterior diam. 142 m). It appears to have been related to
a sanctuary which lay along its axis and consisted of a
circular wall surrounding a temple, inside which artifacts
of Iron Age III have been found. The presence of a commemorative arch is indicated by fragments of sculpture. Baths have been discovered in the place called
Muraille-Bourg (with a dedication by the person who
faced them with marble) and at Courcelles-les-Mandeure. Recent digs in various areas have for the most
part unearthed private dwellings.
Votive inscriptions are dedicated to Jupiter Optimus
Maximus, Bellona, Castor, and Mithra. The Celtic cult
of the three-horned bull is attested by small bronzes.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Morel-Macler,
Antiquités de Mandeure
(1847); C. Duvernoy, “Le pays de Montbéliard antérieurement à ses premiers comtes,” Bull. Soc. Emul.
Montbéliard, 2d sér., 4 (1875); CIL XIII, 5408-22; E. Espérandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs . . . de la Gaule romaine (1907—) nos. 5290-98; H. Stern, Recueil généal des mosaïques de la Gaule romaine I, 3 (1960) nos.
323-30; Catalogue des collections archéologiques de Besançon II. Les fibules (L. Lerat) III. Les bronzes figurés
(P. Lebel); Catalogue . . . de Montbéliard I. Les fibules
(L. Lerat); II. Les bronzes figurés (P. Lebel). Recent
excavations: L. Lerat, “Informations,” Gallia 6 (1948)
230-31 and later issues.
L. LERAT
