LUXOVIUM
(Luxeuil) Haute-Saône, France.
The name appears only in the 7th c. in the
Vita Colombani of the monk Jonas, but two Roman dedications to
a god Luxovius or Lussoius, who must have been the
eponym of the place, are known. In them he is associated with a goddess Brixta or Bricta (not Brixa-Bricia,
as has been incorrectly read).
The site is rich in hot and cold springs, used since
antiquity. Antique catchinents and the remains of a
Gallo-Roman bath house have been discovered. The
cult of the springs is attested by hundreds of traditional
Gallic votive statuettes made of oak, as well as by
dedicatory inscriptions made not merely to the divine
pair mentioned above, but also to the healing divinities
Apollo and Sirona, associated as at Hochscheid. Another religious artifact is a curious group representing
Jupiter on horseback, the anguiped monster, and a third
person attached to the horse.
From perhaps the end of the 1st c. on, Luxeuil had
a workshop producing terra sigillata, but its output was
not used very widely. The numerous stone monuments
found on the site and now in the museum at Luxeuil
(classic funerary stelai and house-shaped stelai) should
likewise be considered as local products.
Situated at the extreme N of the territory of the
Sequani, at the foot of the Vosges which supply the
sandstone for its monuments, Luxeuil appears to have
been oriented more towards the Vosges region than
towards the Jura.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Roussel,
Luxovium ou Luxeuil gallo-romain (1924); L. Lerat, “Le nom de la parèdre du dieu
Luxovius,”
Revue Archéologique de l'Est (1950) 207-13; id. & Y. Jeannin, “La céramique sigillée de Luxeuil,”
Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 31 (1960);
id.,
118è Congrès Archéologique de France (1960) 98-104.
L. LERAT
