Autun

An Augustan Roman city in central France whose remains include city walls with two Augustan gates, a theater, and a temple of Janus. It was a fortified town built for Augustus in the last decade BC as a replacement capital for the Celtic tribe of the Aedui. The city was also known as a center of learning and for its schools of rhetoric. The city was ruined when it supported Claudius II in 269 AD.

[Roman Augustodunum]. City in Saóne-et-Loire, Central France. It was a fortified town of Gallia Belgica (see Gaul) built for Augustus sometime in the last decade bc as a replacement capital for the Celtic tribe of the Aedui. (The site of their previous capital is known at nearby Mont Beuvray; see Bibracte). An expansive concept (some 200 hectares), it was clearly designed to give strong representation to Rome’s interests in the area. The importance of Romanization and favourable propaganda is also seen in the investment made in local education. Tacitus notes the town as a centre of learning only a few decades after its foundation, and from the end of the 3rd century ad we have the eloquent witness of Eumenius, schools principal. The city’s prosperity was finally ruined by supporting the wrong side (Claudius II) in 269 AD and it never recovered its size or wealth. Two of the city’s original gateways (Porte d’Arroux and Porte St Andre) are well preserved and probably date in their original construction from early imperial times. Also interesting are the remains of the theatre, one of the largest in Gaul and probably begun in the 1st century AD.