Glanum

Initially inhabited in the Bronze Age, Glanum is named after the Gaulish god, Glanis, a shrine to whom was dedicated at this site in the 4th century BCE. The earliest excavated dwellings at this site from the 7th and 6th centuries BCE significantly predate the shrine. The city was Hellenized through interaction with Greek traders from Marceilles in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE.

Though the city was briefly occupied by Marius' army during his Teutonic campaigns, Romanization didn't begin in earnest until Augustus' time. Roman staples like an enlarged forum, public bath houses and a triumphal arch were built during and subsequent to Augustus' reign. The arch, depicting a Gaulish defeat at Roman hands, was built ca 10 to 25 CE.

A mausoleum dedicated to Lucius and Marcus Julius, grandsons of Augustus, was erected at the site ca 20 BCE. The cenotaph, one of the most well preserved of its kind depicts, in heavy relief, scenes from several Greek myths on the four sides of its pedestal.

Glanum continued on as a Roman colony until it was destroyed by the Alamanni ca 260 CE at which time its inhabitants moved several miles northward to found Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, a city inhabited to this day.

Glanum lies 947 km from Rome and 2,344 km from Athens.

Sources:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glanum
www.livius.org/a/france/remy/glanum.html
www.educnet.education.fr/musagora/voyages/provence-en/g...

www.monuments-nationaux.fr/fichier/m_docvisite/306/docv...

Categories: town, archaeological site, Roman Empire