Narbo
Narbo, historically known as Narbo Martius, is an ancient city located in southern Gaul (modern-day France), strategically positioned on the Via Domitia, the first Roman road in the region. Situated approximately twelve miles from the Mediterranean coast, Narbo served as a vital harbor due to its proximity to the river Atax (now the Aude) and Lake Rubresus, facilitating trade and commerce. The origin of Narbo can be traced back to the hill fort of Montlaurès, which was the capital of the Elisycii tribe and later became the center of a Celto-Iberian kingdom.
In 118 BC, the Romans established Narbo as a colony, making it the capital of the province Gallia Narbonensis, despite initial hesitations from Roman senators about founding a colony outside Italy. The city played a significant role in Roman military and commercial activities and was described by Cicero as a crucial defense against the Gallic tribes. Over time, Narbo flourished with various commercial enterprises, even exporting pottery. However, a series of events, including a devastating fire in AD 145, led to a gradual decline, further exacerbated by its distance from key communication routes.
Despite these challenges, Narbo remained influential into the fourth and fifth centuries, as noted by literary figures like Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris. The city experienced various occupations, including by the Visigoths, and its historical remains can still be studied today, providing insights into its architectural and cultural legacy.
Subject Terms
Narbo
(Narbonne)
A city in southern Gaul (France), twelve miles from the Mediterranean coast, near the outlet of the river Atax (Aude) into Lake Rubresus, a sea lagoon, which provided the place with one of its harbors. The name of Narbo, recorded by Hecataeus (c 500 BC), originally denoted the hill fort of Montlaurès (three miles northwest of the later city), which was the capital of the tribe of the Elisycii and became the center of a Celto-Iberian kingdom, issuing coins inscribed NERONC (Avienus called the place Naro). In the third century the town was annexed and destroyed by the tribe of the Volcae Tectosages, but was subsequently rebuilt, serving them as a harbor, and trading in tin from south Britain.
In 118, according to Velleius Paterculus (although some favor a date a few years later), the Romans—despite reluctance among their senators to embark on such a foundation outside Italy—established the colony of Narbo Martius in the plain beneath the hill fort, after annexing the strip of southern Gaul of which it became the capital, so that the province was now known as Gallia Narbonensis. The colony, which issued a short-lived but varied series of Roman denarii, stood on the Via Domitia (121) which ran from the river Rhodanus (Rhône) to Spain, forming the main street of the town.
About 69, Cicero spoke of Narbo as a `watchtower and bulwark’ of the Roman people, with reference to its role as a defence against the still unconquered Gallic tribes in the hinterland. After Julius Caesar had reduced these tribes to subjection, he settled veterans of the Tenth Legion in the city (45), which was renamed Colonia Julia Paterna Narbo Martius Decumanorum; it constituted the eastern terminal of a cross-country route to Tolosa (Toulouse) and Burdigala (Bordeaux). In 27 Augustus presided at Narbo over a general assembly drawn from the whole of Gaul. Claudius enlarged the colony, which took his name. It possessed a number of commercial corporations and exported large quantities of pottery from Condatomagus (La Graufesenque). Damage by fire in AD 145, which contributed to the transfer of the provincial capital to Nemausus (Nîmes), started a slow process of decline accentuated by the city's remoteness from the main Rhône-Rhine channel of communications. Nevertheless, in the fourth and fifth centuries Ausonius and Sidonius Apollinaris described Narbo as still flourishing. The Visigoths entered the city in 413 and their king Ataulf married the imperial princess Galla Placidia there in the following year, but they were expelled soon afterward and allotted territories further to the west. In 462, however, their descendants took the city again, thanks to the treachery of the imperial governor Agrippinus.
The main topographical outline of ancient Narbo can be reconstructed by studying the plan of the medieval town. Its very large Capitol, raised high on a lofty podium, was surrounded by a colonnaded precinct, of which one side adjoined the colonnade of the forum. Also bordering on the forum was a large underground grain silo, constructed in the time of Augustus; it contained a hundred and twenty-six rooms, opening on to vaulted corridors. Another group of buildings, on the outskirts of the city, included an amphitheater (one-third of the size of the Colosseum) and public baths dating from about the time of Vespasian (AD 69–79), in whose reign a priest of the province's imperial cult is mentioned on an inscription. A residential district lying between this complex and the principal urban center was burned down and abandoned in the third century, after which new walls were built enclosing a diminished perimeter. A Christian basilica of the age of Constantine I the Great (306–37) was destroyed by invasions, but replaced by a new building in 442/5.