History Like other later Roman settlements on the southwest coast of Sardinia, Nora owes its urban foundations to the establishment of a Phoenician colony at the site; though there was native Sardinian habitation at the site previously. Pausanias also describes a mythological foundation of the city; an Iberian named Norax crossed to Sardinia, conquered the…
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Continued From Nemausus Part I About 800 meters to the west (as the crow flies; it’s nearly a kilometer following streets) of the Porte de France, there is a small section of the Nemausus city wall that is heavily conserved and probably largely of later construction at the intersection of Avenue Kennedy and Rue Armand…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2018. One of the great things about having a private vehicle is being able to visit some of the smaller sites that are often in rural areas with limited or no public transportation options. As with some of the other sites in Gallia Narbonensis, I’ve grouped some of these smaller sites…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2018 Not far from the confluence of the Rhône and L’Aigue rivers is the French town of Orange, which boasts perhaps two of the most well-known Roman monuments in France; the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of the Théâtre Antique d’Orange and the Arc de Triomphe d’Orange. Located in the territory of…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2018. Tucked into a fertile agricultural valley about 7 kilometers to the west of the Rhône, along the L’Escoutay River, a tributary of the Rhône, are the remains of the Roman town of Alba Augusta Helviorum. The archaeological site is located just to the north of the present-day town of Alba-la-Romaine,…
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Continued From Glanum Part I Monumental Area Further on from the residential area of Glanum to the south is the monumental area, where many of the public buildings or the settlement were located. Immediately south of the bathing complex is what is described as being the curia, or some kind of town council or town…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2018 As early as at least the 4th century CE, the site of the Roman town of Vienna (not to be confused with modern Vienna, Austria, which was called Vindobona during the Roman period) was the location of an oppidum of the Allobroges tribe. The location of Vienna on the Rhône…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2018. The site of the modern-day city of Jublains, France seems to have been inhabited by the Gallic Diablintes people (also referred to as the Aulercii Diaulitae) as a domestic site as early as the late 2nd century BCE. The town of Noviodunum (also known as Noeodunum or Noiodunum, and not…
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Continued From Syracusae – Part I Just to the west of the park, though outside, are some rows of tiered seating associated with a possible viewing area, referred to as the ‘linear theater’. This may be the remains of a 5th century BCE, or earlier, theater that preceded the theater in the park. It has…
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Most Recent Visit: June 2017. The area around the modern city of Taormina, and ancient Tauromenium, seems to have been originally inhabited by the native Siculi people, who may have even dwelt on the site of Taormina. A few kilometers down the coast, though, in 735 BCE, the Greek colony of Naxos was founded. Naxos…
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