Divio
On the Ouche river 30 km W of the Saône, on the border of the civitates of the Lingones and the Haedui, a fortification of the second half of the 3d c.
Gregory of Tours (Historiae Francorum 3.19) attributes to Aurelian the construction of the castrum divionense. He places it N of the Ouche, indicates that it is traversed by a small river which supplies the moat and operates the mills, and mentions the proximity, to the W, of famous vineyards. The plan of this almost square fortification, ca. 1200 m in circumference, may be reconstructed from mediaeval texts and particularly from elements of it which have been found, although often destroyed. Many of its 33 round towers are known; bases of many of them are still in place. The river that flowed through it is the Suzon, a tributary of the Ouche. Its course has changed several times, but probably it crossed the castrum N-S, fairly close to the E wall.
The only clues to the settlement before it was fortified are the numerous architectural or sculptural blocks which were reused in the rampart: funerary sculpture, stelai, piers, or fragments of large monuments, which testify to a rich necropolis and, therefore, to an important city. Three of these fragments show the same scene, the loading of a wagon. One of them bears the inscription nauta araricus, “sailor of the Saône,” suggesting that Dijon owed its existence to its position astride several routes of communication. The city profited not only from the proximity of the Saône and the Ouche valley with its easy passage to the W, but also from a network of roads. Agrippa's great Rhine road runs a little E of the Late Empire castrum. A military milepost dedicated to Tetricus was found there. Secondary roads connected the castrum with the Rhine route, and another road went to Autun.
A number of buildings and funerary monuments have been discovered, especially to the NE between the castrum and Agrippa's road, including a necropolis at the place called Les Poussots, and a rather large edifice, with a bath, at the place called Les Petites-Roches. Some of the tombs yielded terra sigillata, but none of the buildings could be dated.
The finds are in the Musée Archéologique.
BIBLIOGRAPHYReports of discoveries: Mémoires de la Commission des Antiquités de la Côte-D'Or (1832ff). Sculptures: E. Esperandieu, Recueil général des bas-reliefs . . . de la Gaule romaine (1907ff) III. Castrum: E. Fyot, “Le castrum divionense,” BAC (1920) 299-321; P. Gras & J. Richard, “Le castrum de Dijon et le Suzon,” Revue archéologique de l'Est 1 (1950) 76-87. Roads: E. Thevenot, Les voies romaines de la Cité des Eduens, Collection Latomus XCVIII (1969).
C. ROLLEY