ROMAN VENABLES

After the invasion of Gaul by Caesar's legions, the Roman model will give another new dimension to the development of the future Venetian territory. The Roman administration will urbanize the cities or civitas which each independent tribe occupied in Celtic Gaul. To connect these cities the Roman administration dominates the space by the construction of large communication routes 1 and secondary routes which follow the hairline of the Celtic routes. On the soil of the town, the presence of a secondary Roman road was partially rediscovered in 2012 during the burying of the sewerage networks.

 

The archaeological investigations of 1987 and 2005 made it possible to highlight two sites of small farms on the Villae system in the near valley of the Seine. In 2006 an aerial investigation revealed the establishment of a Gallo-Roman Villa on nearly 1.5 hectares on the locality of Les Ifs 2  and the secondary route described above. Facing this first site, the still visible traces of a set of embankments and ditches describing a circular enclosure confirmed by further study that we are in the presence of a small Gallic oppidum 3  located near a sector of the first Gallic occupation. This last construction makes it possible to envisage an establishment on the belvedere of a surveillance post favoring the bases of a lasting establishment to become an important strategic point of military interest until the 15th century.

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In the valley, the recent discovery of a Roman construction along the river confirms the economic development at that time. The first surveys allowed the discovery of elements of tiles, amphoras and vases. This building was to allow storage to export by water the foodstuffs produced by the three villae and import foodstuffs and materials useful to the economic life of the territory. But any growing model has its setback. The decline of the Roman societal model and its empire will increase with the arrival in the third century of different migrations of Germanic peoples.

 

It will start with the Franks. It is an agglomeration of several pagan tribes. Between 257 and 278 they attempted a first incursion into Gaul. Defeated some tribes will settle at the gates of Limes 4  guarded by the Roman legions. The great reforms of the year 303 dictated by Diocletian who proceeded to a complete reorganization of the territorial system. It subdivides the provinces into smaller territorial units  5 . It was under Constantine (337-372), the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, that the dioceses grouping the provinces would appear. Towards 376 again the empire will experience a second migration offensive of the German peoples. The Salian Franks will obtain a treaty which will allow them to settle west of the mouth of the Rhine when the Rhine Franks will settle east of the Rhine.

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In the middle of the 5th century the Salian Franks resumed their migration to control the north of France. Emperor Aetius stops them at Cambrai and Tournai. The Empire will have to face other migrations of Indo / Germanic peoples. In 451 the Huns will be defeated at the Catalaunic Fields by the Roman army of Aetius, with reinforcements from Germanic peoples established in the Gauls.

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1 MM Léopold Delisle and Louis Passy: Memoir and notes of Monsieur Auguste le Prévot: Volume 1 make a census      remarkable for all the Roman roads that cross our department.

2 Investigation carried out by Archéo 27

3 The oppidum (in the plural, oppida) is the name given by Julius Caesar to the Celtic cities he met during the conquest     of Gaul.

4 Limes: vast border lines delimit a territory and separate populations, but they are also zones of      contacts. and exchanges.

5 The territorial holdings of its small units will be taken over by the Merovingians to create the Pagi (country)