Forum Julii on Gardens of the Roman Empire

Edifice of the Platform

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Ancient Roman colony (founded 118 BCE) and senatorial province located in modern southern France, along the Mediterranean. This province had stronger cultural and political ties to Italy than the rest of Gaul.

Location

Sublocation

Edifice of the Platform

Garden

Edifice of the Platform

Keywords

House Description

This construction is situated in the southeast corner of Network B of the town plan, near the port. The parcel has a surface 8,422 square meters with 6,860 for the habitation properly speaking and a covered useful surface of 3390 square meters. The present construction goes back to the end of the first century B.C., between 30 and 10 B.C., but there was an anterior condition. The edifice was lavishly decorated and underwent multiple rearrangements in second century and then again in late antiquity.

At the north, a large vestibule gives access to a vast courtyard with a peristyle [2] of 41.5 meters by 45 meters around which the residence is organized. This court was not a garden but rather was paved with flagstones and sloped, according to Charles Texier, to collect the rain water into a mighty central subterranean cistern that was covered by a rectangular ornamental pool of 9.5 by 12.5 meters. This cistern would have made the residence self-sufficient in water. The peristyles and courts that led to the apartments with many rooms seem also to have had no gardens, for the surface was hard, either of concrete or opus sectile. It is on the outside that a garden would have been developed, on the south façade of the construction along a portico or gallery; the garden [26] of 900 square meters of arable land was limited by the rampart to the south. It would have offered a panorama on the port and plain.

Plans

Edifice of the platform

Bibliography

Bouet, Alain. La Maison Urbaine D'époque Romaine: Atlas Des Maisons De Gaule Narbonnaise. Vaucluse: Service d'Archéologie du Conseil Général de Vaucluse, 1996, P. 94-96, fiche n°2, P. 104-105 (worldcat)
RIVET, D. BRENTCHALOFF, S. ROUCOLE, S. SAULNIER, Fréjus, Atlas topographique des villes de gaule méridionale, R.A.N., supplément 32, Montpellier, 2000, P. 251-257. (worldcat)

Places

Edifice on St. Antoine's Mound

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

Edifice on St. Antoine's Mound

House

Edifice on St. Antoine's Mound

Keywords

House Description

This grand residential edifice may be either a public building or a great mansion. Built on St. Antoine's mound, it is situated in the southwest corner of network A of the town plan. In immediate proximity of the port, it was first interpreded as the praetorium of the naval arsenal (A. Donnadieu 1932). Then it was assigned the role of residence of the perfect of the fleet or the occasional palace for the governor of the province (P.-A. Février, 1977). Less luxurious than the edifice of the platform (see below), it has been classified in the recent l'Atlas topographique de Fréjus among the public buildings of the city.

Less than half of the plan is known. The residence occupied more than 15,000 square meters, of which at least 6,000 were living space. The construction appears to go back to the first century B.C. with a poorly known prior condition.

The house was organized around a principal courtyard with porticos [1] with concrete floors. Composed of very many rooms, the mansion had a very large axial ceremonial room and four dwelling units, two of which were organized around peristyles leading to the apartments. Only peristyle [11] (5 x 10 m) can have had a garden; it is ornamented by a square pool with a frame about 1.30 meters long on each side.

The residence perhaps enjoyed an exterior garden in the vast open space of arable land along the eastern side of the construction. As in the intervallum of the military camps, some see in the open space a extensive garden estimated at 2,600 square meters. Irregular in shape and enclosed within the rampart, it overlooks the port.

Plans

Edifice on St. Antoine's Mound

Bibliography

Atlas Des Maisons De Gaule Narbonnaise. Avignon: Service d'archéologie du Conseil général de Vaucluse, 1996, P. 94-96 et fiche n°1, P. 100-101. (worldcat)
RIVET, D. BRENTCHALOFF, S. ROUCOLE, S. SAULNIER, Fréjus, Atlas topographique des villes de gaule méridionale, R.A.N., supplément 32, Montpellier, 2000, P. 278-281. (worldcat)

Places

House Formigé Square - 2 phases

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

House Formigé Square-2 phases

House

House Formigé Square-2 phases

Keywords

House Description

The house found under Formigé square lies 200 m south of the intersection of the cardo maximus and the decumanus maximus at 150 meters from the quays of the port. It is in the southwest quarter of Insula A of the network of the city. A parcel of 462 square meters has been recovered with a useful covered surface of about 342 square meters. To the south it is paralleled by a decumanus and by other habitations to the north and east. The principal entrance was probably on the south. What may be called the first stage of construction, though it replaced a previous condition, seems to go back to around A.D. 1-5. In this condition, it was occupied until A.D. 60-70. Its pavements have been preserved, along with a large part of its painted decoration up to a considerable height.

One enters the house on the south from the edge of the street by a wide entrance with a floor of pounded earth, which accommodates a bench. At the end of the vestibule, there is an atrium [2] of 9.2 by 10.54 meters, around which the house is organized. The impluvium was surrounded by low walls on which an imaginary garden was painted. In a second phase, nine planters filled with earth were arranged on three sides of the impluvium.

Around A.D. 65-70, the house entered a second stage which lasted three and a half centuries. It was enlarged over a two-meter deep fill on which was planted a garden [1] of 12.5 by 10 meters, framed by a portico [2] and bordered on the south by four rooms. The portico was 2.8 meters wide, including the stylobate. The courtyard of the first condition was transformed into a rectangular pool (9 by 2.2 m) divided into two parts by a low wall with a fountain to the north and two rectangular planters (each 1.7 by 0.7 m ) on the south.

Plans

Fig. 1 Plan of the House Formigé Square-2 phases

images

Excavation of the House Formigé Square

Axon of the House Formigé Square

Dates

A.D. 1-5 First Stage of Construction A.D. 65-70 Second Stage of Construction

Bibliography

Bouet, Alain. La Maison Urbaine D'époque Romaine: Atlas Des Maisons De Gaule Narbonnaise. Vaucluse: Service d'Archéologie du Conseil Général de Vaucluse, 1996, fiche n°3, P. 110-111, fiche n°4, P. 112-113. (worldcat)
RIVET, D. BRENTCHALOFF, S. ROUCOLE, S. SAULNIER, Fréjus, Atlas topographique des villes de gaule méridionale, R.A.N., supplément 32, Montpellier, 2000, P. 195-198. (worldcat)

Places

House of the Silver Bust, La Vilasse Quarter

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

House of the Silver Bust, La Vilasse Quarter

House

House of the Silver Bust, La Vilasse Quarter

Keywords

House Description

This house was in a central residential quarter across the street (rue des Boutiques) from the public baths of the town center. Unearthed between 1924 and 1946, it occupied a parcel of 4354 square meters with a useful covered surface of 1957.3 square meters. The condition now shown goes back to the second half of the first century; though previous states are possible, nothing is known of them. It was subsequently occupied during at least two centuries. There was a fire and doubtless at least partial abandonment in the course of the third century. Its complex plan made it one of the largest grand homes of Vaison during the Flavian epoch. It groups together several elements of distinct origin: one or two houses to the east, one in the center, and a bath structure that was originally public. This development explains the different orientations of these buildings.

To the east, on the "rue des Boutiques," was the principal entrance: a monumental vestibule paved with flagstones opened directly through a triple bay with two columns onto a peristyle [17] (13 by 8,50 m - 4 by 4 columns) of Tuscan order. The court was probably planted as a garden, but it had no pool. The western portico, somewhat wider than the others, underlined the importance of the reception room [16] which connected with the central part of the house.

A second garden [12] (15 by 13 m) was found in the southern part of the house, lying a meter below the main part and formed by rooms for lodging and reception, though their function is not altogether clear. This garden is dominated on the north by a portico with 7 columns; at each end a flight of steps descended to connect the house to covered walkways (with 5 columns) that extended south to form a U around the garden and delimit the house on this side, for there were no rooms attached. {I need the plan to be sure that I have understood "en U (7 x 5 colonnes)" correctly.} Along the portico on the north was a rectangular pool (10 by 1.5 meters) without water jets; it was originally covered with red tiles which are today much restored. A lead pipe, possibly for drainage, was noted during the excavation.

The spaces [13-14-15], on which little has been published, are badly preserved. Without any real certainty, [13] is considered a reception room at once having a dominating view onto the garden and opening directly past two columns onto a courtyard [14] (13 by 9.50 m) that was perhaps planted. Room [15] constitutes another room separated by a gallery and a portico from the other columns of the space [14]. The excavator, the abbot Sautel, proposed, without evident proof, to cover the space [13] with a pergola. The space [13-14-15], in the axis of the garden [12], formed an alternation of covered and open spaces giving air and light to the center of the house.

The western part of the house has been interpreted as a former public bath complex, with double baths (total surface of 2235 square meters), all subsequently incorporated into the house. The palestra of the bath was converted by the proprietor of the house into a large pleasure garden of 1590 square meters. Of trapezoidal form (36 x 30 m), it is bordered on four sides by a Tuscan portico 3.4 meters wide. Along all sides runs a trench lined with limestone for catching rainwater. The former natatio (14,50 x 4,40 m) in the southwest corner of the palestra became an ornamental pond with an east-west drainage ditch connecting to the sewer that crosses the peristyle.

Midway along the northern portico is placed just at the edge a well with a limestone top that is circular in the part that has been exposed.

In the northeast corner of the peristyle was discovered the famous silver bust which gives its name to the house. This 29.5 cm hight bust, now in the museum of Vaison-la-Romaine, was found in the context of the collapse of the roof of a burned portico. Along with it were found an Antonianus of Tetricus I {????} and two large lead plates of the roof. All of this would seem to give a general date for the abandonment of the garden.

To the north spread out the bath establishment, which continued to serve but as private baths. The space left free to the south of the baths has often been considered to have been a garden, but probably it was only a simple courtyard.

Finally, between the baths to the west and the "rue des boutiques," the house is dominated on the north by a vast platform lying 3 to 4 meters higher. A rectangular pool (10 x 3,50 m) still preserved there ornamented, according to Sautel, another garden also related to the house, but this remains to be demonstrated. The lack of real excavation makes it impossible to say whether this space contained any construction.

A number of sculptural discoveries are noteworthy. In the vestibule [18] was found half of an oscillum 19 cm in diameter; on one face, a hare nibbles fruits coming out of a wicker basket while on the other are two dolphins in the water. In the east portico of the peristyle [17] was a fragmentary oscillum (26 cm long) in the form of a pelta; one horn terminates in the head of an eagle-griffon. On one of the faces is a mask of a bearded person in profile with frilly hair held by a band; on the reverse is a mask with wavy hair.

Plans

Plan of House of the Silver Bust

Bibliography

P.Gros, J. Cuyon, Ph, Leveau, La maison urbaine d'epoque romaine, Atlas des mainsons urbaines en Gaule Narbonnaise, t. II, Doc.d'Arch. Vaucl., 6, 1996, fiche n°2, p. 342-345 (worldcat)
Gros, Pierre. L'architecture romaine: du début du IIIe siècle av. J.-C. à la fin du Haut-Empire. 1, 1,. Paris: A. et J. Picard, 2011, P. 159-161.(worldcat)
Chr. Goudineau, Y. de Kisch, Vaison-la-Romaine, Guide archéologique de France, 1999, 1ère éd. 1984, P. 28-33; (worldcat)
Provost, Michel, Joe͏̈l-Claude Meffre, and Dominique Carru. Vaison-la-romaine Et Ses Campagnes. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2003, P.168-80. (worldcat)

Places

House with the Arbor, Puymin Quarter, Formerly called the Praetorium

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

House with the Arbor, Puymin Quarter, Formerly called the Praetorium

House

House with the Arbor, Puymin Quarter, Formerly called the Praetorium

Keywords

House Description

This house stood southwest of the theater, on the Puymin hill, in the residential northeast quarter of the city. Unearthed between 1927 and 1929, it covered a surface of about 3000 square meters. A first stage was built around 40-30 B.C., followed by a considerable extension to the northeast in the first century A.D.. First interpreted as an official residence, a praetorium, by J. Sautel, it takes its present name from an arbor found in the garden. The house, organized on at least three levels, was considerably worn down so that interpreting the different phases is not easy.

Garden Description

The residential part best known was organized around a garden 17 by 20 meters, framed by three wings in a U. At the center of the east wing, the bottom of the U, a grand stairway with two {curving?) symmetric ramps framing a niche (possibly for a statue) rose to the second storey where a portico overlooked the garden from three sides. To the west, the fourth side of the garden was closed against the outside by a straight wall. On it was supported a wall accented by a central apse (with a opening of 5.8 meters) centered on the axis of the garden. Along this wall, but separated from it by a space, lie three related pools which are below the garden. Built of masonry, one is semi-circular (3.85 meters in diameter) with a lateral set of stone steps for access, while the other two are symmetrically placed rectangles (2.4 by .85 meters). No water jet was noted. There was also a well with masonry rim in the southeastern part of the garden.

In the axis of the garden but a little off to the west is a structure with masonry walls in the form of a T, 7.15 m long. On top of this wall has been reconstructed without proof a T-shaped arbor shading the site of a summer triclinium. {Is this arbor "reconstitué" mentally or in wood ?} We believe that if there were here a pergola it would have covered a banquet space organized in a T + U shape and built of wood resting on the masonry of which only the T by itself is drawn. {Drawn in what sense?}

To the northeast of the house are remains in which it has been proposed to see a bath with a pool surrounded by a 3-by-5 colonnade. This pool could have also have served as a water reservoir for irrigation of the tree-covered slopes and gardens below the hill of Puymin.

Plans

Dates

B.C. 40-30 First Stage A.D. 1-100 Considerable extension to the northeast

Bibliography

La Maison Urbaine D'époque Romaine. Avignon: Service d'archéologie du Conseil général de Vaucluse, 1996, P. 80-81. (worldcat)
Chr. Goudineau, Y. de Kisch, Vaison-la-Romaine, Guide archéologique de France, 1999, 1ère éd. 1984, P. 74-77; (worldcat)
Provost, Michel, Joe͏̈l-Claude Meffre, and Dominique Carru. Vaison-la-romaine Et Ses Campagnes. Paris: Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, 2003, P.267-274. (worldcat)

Places

Tower Enclosure, Insula III, House IIIA - 3 phases

Wed, 21 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Province

Province Description

Location

Sublocation

Tower Enclosure, Insula III, House IIIA – 3 phases

House

Tower Enclosure, Insula III, House IIIA – 3 phases

Keywords

House Description

This house is 65 meters south of the rampart and 120 meters to the west of the theater. It occupies the northeast corner of an insula in network B, in the northeast quarter of the city. The house occupies a parcel of 192 square meters, with a useful covered area of 85.5 square meters. It was bordered on the north by a decumanus and on the east by a cardo with porticos. To the west and south, it had common walls with other habitations. Constructed around A.D. 20-25, the house continued in use for 40-45 years.

In the first phase, the house was composed of large rooms around an open space (10 by 5.5 m) that was perhaps a garden [4]. In the northeast corner there was a square masonry mass, 1.6 meters on a side, of unknown function. The court is bordered on the north by a portico [5] 10 meters long and 2.6 meters wide, which connected the rooms on that side of the house. {Literally, "which played the role of space for circulation in leading to the rooms of habitation to the north."} In the axis of the entrance was the principal reception room.

In a second phase, around A.D. 70, houses IIIa and IIIa'' were combined. The structure is called "House with the Greek style mosaic." This new domus occupied a parcel of 375 square meters with a useful covered surface of 199.5 square meters. It adopted an L-shaped plan completed by a rectangular (15.3 by 6 m) garden [1] of 104.5 square meters. The north side of the garden is paralleled by a portico [2] 1.7 meters wide, which provides access to four rooms. In the southwest of the garden there was a well and in line with it one of the principal rooms of the house was arranged. {This makes little sense to me; how can a room be in line with a well? But a literal translation is worse: "… there was a well, in the axis of which one of the principal rooms of the house was arranged." If the well is round, it has only one axis, and that is vertical! The plan might help.}

In a third and final phase, dated from around the end of the second century, the surface of the parcel grew to 401 square meters, with a useful covered surface 265 square meters. The oecus, or formal dining room, opened through a large bay to the south onto the garden. This courtyard of about 10 by 5.7 meters was certainly treated as a garden. {I do not understand the parenthesis. It seems to be a question by the author to himself.} A small pool of white marble, which runs along the west wing is fed from the north by a water jet that made a fountain. Drainage was through a lead pipe. Behind it was a second pool; at the back, against the wall, it had a narrow space filled with dirt, perhaps a planter for plants to mask the wall which was certainly without openings. This pool, of about 5.7 by 2.1 meters overall, was divided into two by a low wall and included a well at this level. The wall of the south façade is bordered by a drainage gutter. The courtyard was framed on two sides, north and west, by a portico with a space of 2.2 meters between columns, with the third {what?} to the east {from the east?} serving as a vestibule [1]. {I need the plan to know what is being said.} By the large door, one enters the eastern end of a portico 2 meters wide which opens onto the courtyard through a row of brick columns covered with stucco. The west wing has four rooms; the largest, ceremonial room [4] looked out onto the garden with the pool straight ahead.

Plans

Plan of Tower Enclosure, Insula III, House IIIA

Dates

A.D. 20-15 First Phase A.D 70 Second Phase A.D. 200 Final Phase

Bibliography

La Maison Urbaine D'époque Romaine: Atlas Des Maisons De Gaule Narbonnaise. Vaucluse: Service d'archéologie du Conseil général de Vaucluse, 1996, P. 114-115. (worldcat)
RIVET, D. BRENTCHALOFF, S. ROUCOLE, S. SAULNIER, Fréjus, Atlas topographique des villes de gaule méridionale, R.A.N., supplément 32, Montpellier, 2000, P. 127-128. (worldcat)