PORTUS VENERIS
(Port-Vendres) Canton of Argelès-sur-Mer, Pyrénées-Orientales, France.
Excellent seaport located at the E extremity of the Pyrenees
on the rocky shore of the Albère, near Cape Béar. It
should be identified with Pyréné, a native harbor frequented by the Massaliots from the 6th c. B.C. on (Avienus
Ora maritima v. 559). The Aphrodision mentioned by Strabo (
4.1.3 and 6) should be located near this port,
perhaps on Cape Béar itself. Standing on the last slope
of Mt. Pyréné, it marked for sailors the dividing line
between Gaul and Iberia, and during the Roman period
gave its name—Portus Veneris—to the ancient city
(
Plin. 3.22; Ptol. 2.10.2).
Port-Vendres has yielded to date little in the way of
antique remains, but a ship of the Late Empire laden
with amphorae has been discovered in the port and
explored.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Jannoray.
RE s.v. Portus Veneris,
22, 1 (1953) cols. 411-18; “Informations,”
Gallia 22
(1964) 475
I; 24 (1966) 450-51
I.
G. BARRUOL
