The Via Domitia was the first Roman road built in Gaul, to link Italy and Hispania through Gallia Narbonensis, across what is now Southern France. The route that the Romans regularised and paved was ancient when they set out to survey it, and traces the mythic route travelled by Heracles.[1]
The construction of the road was commissioned by Gnaeus Domitius Ahenobarbus, whose name it bore, following the defeat of the Allobroges and Averni by himself and Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus in 122 BCE. Domitius also established a fortified garrison at Narbo (modern Narbonne) on the coast, near Hispania, to guard construction of the road. It soon developed into a full Roman colony Colonia Narbo Martius.[2] The lands on the western part of the route, beyond the River Rhône had been under the control of the Averni who, according to Strabo, had stretched their control to Narbo and the Pyrenees.[3]
Crossing the Alps by the easiest passage, the Col de Montgenèvre (1850 m), the Via Domitia followed the valley of the Durance, crossed the Rhône at Beaucaire passed through Nîmes (Nemausus) then followed the coastal plain along the Gulf of Lion. At Narbonne, it met the Via Aquitania (which led toward the Atlantic Ocean through Toulouse and Bordeaux). Thus Narbonne was a crucial strategic crossroads of the Via Domitia and the Via Aquitania, and it was an accessible, but easily defensible port at that time. This "cusp point" in the Roman westwards expansion and ensuing supply, communication and fortification was a very important asset, and was treated as such (see Narbonne). In between the cities that it linked, the Via Domitia was provided with a series of mansiones at distances of a day's journey for a loaded cart, at which shelter, provender and fresh horses could be obtained for travellers on official business.
This route can be traced on topographical maps overprinted with the ancient route, in G. Castellve, J.-B. Compsa, J. Kotarba and A. Pezin, eds. Voies romaines du Rhône à l'Èbre: Via Domitia et Via Augusta (DAF61) Paris 1997.
Narbonne (Narbo Martius) At Narbonne, a section of the Via Domitia is exposed in the Place de l'Hôtel de Ville. The Via Domitia crossed the Atax (the Aude) by a seven-arched bridge at the site of the Pont des Marchands.[4]
↑ F. Benoît, "La légende d'Héraclès et la colonisation grecque dans le delta du Rhône", L'Humanité8 (1949:104-48), noted by Fred S. Kleiner, "Gallia Graeca, Gallia Romana and the Introduction of Classical Sculpture in Gaul" American Journal of Archaeology77.4 (October 1973:379-390) p. 381 note 20, with further bibliography.
↑ Brennan,T.C.,The Praetorship in the Roman Republic, p. 507
Raymond Chevalier, Les Voies Romaines, Picard, Paris, 1997. ISBN2-7084-0526-8
Pierre A. Clement and Alain Peyre, La Voie Domitienne: De la Via Domitia aux routes de l'an 2000, Presses du Languedoc/Max Chaleil Editeur, 1992. ISBN2-85998-097-0
Pierre A. Clement, La Via Domitia: Des Pyrénées aux Alpes, Editions Ouest-France, Rennes, 2005. ISBN2-7373-3508-6
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Via Domitia.
Narbonne is a commune in Southern France in the Occitanie region. It lies 849 km (528 mi) from Paris in the Aude department, of which it is a sub-prefecture. It is located about 15 km (9 mi) from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea and was historically a prosperous port.
Beaucaire is a commune in the Gard department in the Occitanie region of Southern France.
Gallia Aquitania, also known as Aquitaine or Aquitaine Gaul, was a province of the Roman Empire. It lies in present-day southwest France, where it gives its name to the modern region of Aquitaine. It was bordered by the provinces of Gallia Lugdunensis, Gallia Narbonensis, and Hispania Tarraconensis.
Ambrussum is a Roman archaeological site in Villetelle, Occitania, Southern France.
The Allobroges were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory between the Rhône river and the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Gallia Narbonensis was a Roman province located in what is now Occitania and Provence, in Southern France. It was also known as Provincia Nostra, because it was the first Roman province north of the Alps, and as Gallia Transalpina, distinguishing it from Cisalpine Gaul in Northern Italy. It became a Roman province in the late 2nd century BC. Gallia Narbonensis was bordered by the Pyrenees Mountains on the west, the Cévennes to the north, the Alps on the east, and the Gulf of Lion on the south; the province included the majority of the Rhone catchment. The western region of Gallia Narbonensis was known as Septimania. The province was a valuable part of the Roman Empire, owing to the Greek colony and later Roman Civitas of Massalia, its location between the Spanish provinces and Rome, and its financial output.
The Via Aquitania was a Roman road created in 118 BC in the Roman province of Gaul. It started at Narbonne, where it connected to the Via Domitia. It then went toward the Atlantic Ocean, via Toulouse and Bordeaux, covering approximately 400 kilometres (250 mi).
The Volcae were a Gallic tribal confederation constituted before the raid of combined Gauls that invaded Macedonia c. 270 BC and fought the assembled Greeks at the Battle of Thermopylae in 279 BC. Tribes known by the name Volcae were found simultaneously in southern Gaul, Moravia, the Ebro valley of the Iberian Peninsula, and Galatia in Anatolia. The Volcae appear to have been part of the late La Tène material culture, and a Celtic identity has been attributed to the Volcae, based on mentions in Greek and Latin sources as well as onomastic evidence. Driven by highly mobile groups operating outside the tribal system and comprising diverse elements, the Volcae were one of the new ethnic entities formed during the Celtic military expansion at the beginning of the 3rd century BC. Collecting in the famous excursion into the Balkans, ostensibly, from the Greek point of view, to raid Delphi, a branch of the Volcae split from the main group on the way into the Balkans and joined two other tribes, the Tolistobogii and the Trocmi, to settle in central Anatolia and establish a new identity as the Galatians.
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The Vocontii were a Gallic people dwelling on the western foothills of the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period.
Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, was a Roman statesman and general who was elected consul in 121 BC. During his consulship he fought against the Arverni and the Allobroges whom he defeated in 120 BC. He was awarded a triumph and the agnomen Allobrogicus for his victory over the Gauls.
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Capestang is a commune in the Hérault department in southern France.
The Roman Bridge at Saint-Thibéry was a Roman bridge on the Via Domitia in southern France. The partly surviving structure crossed the river Hérault in Saint-Thibéry, 17 km (11 mi) east of Béziers.
Gallo-Roman culture was a consequence of the Romanization of Gauls under the rule of the Roman Empire. It was characterized by the Gaulish adoption or adaptation of Roman culture, language, morals and way of life in a uniquely Gaulish context. The well-studied meld of cultures in Gaul gives historians a model against which to compare and contrast parallel developments of Romanization in other less-studied Roman provinces.
The gens Domitia was a plebeian family at ancient Rome. The first of the gens to achieve prominence was Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus, consul in 332 BC. His son, Gnaeus Domitius Calvinus Maximus, was consul in 283, and the first plebeian censor. The family produced several distinguished generals, and towards the end of the Republic, the Domitii were looked upon as one of the most illustrious gentes.
The gens Severia was an obscure plebeian family at ancient Rome. No members of this gens appear in history, but many are known from inscriptions.
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