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A large number of towns in Northern France have Roman ramparts. What does this say about Roman society at the time?
The conquest of Gaul is thought to have been particularly vicious. Julius Caesar and later campaigns wiped out perhaps 1 million people in six years. This had been a warrior society, proud of their fighting skills, but facing a professional Roman army was beyond them. The tribal elites were given an option: either be wiped out, or come and fight for us. So they became Romanised, many of them joining the Roman cavalry. In the early Roman period, despite a few local rebellions, few towns in Gaul were walled, with the exception of, for example:-
Nimes: had early Roman fortifications around the Roman city (the area enclosed was very large, c200 hectares). There are still traces of the wall, 1.80m thick, plus outside circular towers. The walls are of small mortared stone blocks and rubble, and there is a very decorative gate with four openings: two for pedestrians, two for carts.
Autun: The town was laid out on a grid, of which not all of the sectors were built up. There are circular towers set within the wall, 2m thick, plus the St André gate.
Trier (now in Germany): a frontier town, walled, with originally four gates, of which one survives: the Porte de Mars. The town originally had an earthen rampart and ditches.
Xanten: a naval base on the Rhine. The towers and ramparts were quite thin and could have been easily smashed in, and people would not be able to pass each other easily on top of the wall. Perhaps its ceremonial gates were to welcome barbarian emissaries? One writer says these walled towns are “theatre sets”, built to impress, to be seen from a distance, but were not effective for defence.
Boulogne: here there was a fort for the Roman navy, resembling the one at Chesters in Britain.
Post the 270s AD, a new society evolved. The term used for this population, the equivalent of “Romano-British”, is Gallo-Roman. Romanisation is very apparent, with many Roman features, especially in physical remains such as amphitheatres etc. Old tribal centres became a Civitas. The tribal elites had been warrior chieftains, the old social contract comprising the warrior and his noble. The old elite now became the nobility of the Civitas, retaining their old status. They controlled the local ruling council, collecting rents and taxes to be redistributed, often on things to make the populus “happy”, a mix of benevolence and dependency.
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It was important to build such facilities as baths, and to provide spectacle, in return for loyalty. There had been a priesthood in France, at sanctuaries linked with the druids, who were wiped out as a political force. A new kind of (Roman) temple appeared (often built over old Gallic wooden sanctuaries): the Fanum - a square temple plus an enclosure, giving an outline in the ground of a square within a larger square, such as the well- preserved Temple of Janus at Autun, and a large sanctuary outside Le Mans. The Emperor might be worshipped as a god, plus local gods, and nobles and local people brought offerings such as coins, pottery, statuettes. The temples were also a meeting place - on the same site there might also be a theatre or amphitheatre, so there was entertainment as well as worship.
In the late Roman period (the 280s AD onward) virtually all towns became fortified, in some places with massive stone blocks and brick courses (although smaller areas than before were now enclosed). Towns needed the Emperor’s permission to build walls – this perhaps now became an order, with the Emperor providing funds and soldiers the workforce, working in gangs. Towns were now defendable. Those not fortified declined – one dwindled to a tiny hamlet. U-shaped towers were built on the outside of the walls, with a more solid base, often 3 metres thick – there was no possibility they could be rammed. Now there was enough space for two people to pass on top of the walls. Windows at walkway level would allow ballistas to be fired – they could shoot 400 metres. Gates were not now so decorative, with only two doorways, but with perhaps a small postern nearby for sallying out. The vast majority of town walls were built in the 280s AD; Tours, Rheims, Rouen were all walled in the mid to late 4th century. Le Mans has a huge late Roman fortification surviving along the river frontage; its very decorative walls show it was not built in a panic. Everything was subsumed into defence, former public buildings being smashed down when walls were built. At Tours, the amphitheatre was converted into a fortress, at Amiens, into a bastion. German barbarians were now besieging and trying to capture Gallic towns. There are Roman fortifications along the French coast, but nothing like our Saxon shore forts.
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Outside the walls, there was contraction, abandonment, cemeteries replacing houses. There are not as many villas in Northern France as there are in Britain, and 70% of the villas in existence at the beginning of the third century had disappeared by the end of the century. Where did the people go? To the villas in Britain? More likely they went into the towns for safety, but people in the countryside continued to pay rents and taxes, and there were still volunteers for the army.
Within the walls, urban life was limited. Who lived inside the ramparts is difficult to determine as most of the town centres are occupied by medieval and renaissance buildings, restricting archaeological excavation. But some guesses have been made:
1) Soldiers. The Noticia Galliorum lists troops in the 4th century. At Arras traces of late Roman barracks have been found.
2) Tax collectors. In the late Roman period, taxes were often made in kind, such as the “Anona”, perhaps wheat, which was put in warehouses.
3) The Elite, perhaps moved in from the countryside for security.
4) The Clergy. Although Christian objects before the 5th century are rare in museum collections, there are records of church council meetings: after a bishop from Rheims attended a meeting, there is no other mention of a bishop for the next thirty years. Sanctuaries were falling down, abandoned well before the introduction of Christianity.
The new ramparts were the culmination of a crisis in the 3rd century. Romanisation was disintegrating. It was now a dangerous world of barbarians and revolution. Towns in the North began changing their names at the beginning of the 4th century, e.g. Lutetia became Civitas Parisiorum – Paris. There is evidence of popular revolution, with Civil Wars, in the late 3rd century and again at the beginning of the 5th. Roman withdrawal in France was more gradual than in Britain, but Barbarian rule gradually took over, in the 480s and 490s AD the Franks in the North of France, the Visigoths in the South.
Yvonne Masson
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