Lutetia Lutetia List of Melbourne railway stations Category="Celts"Category="History of Paris"Category="Roman sites in France"Lutetia (sometimes Lutetia Parisiorum or Lucotecia, in French Lutèce) was a town in pre-Roman and Roman Gaul. The Gallo-Roman city was a forerunner of the re-established Merovingian town that is the ancestor of present-day Paris. Lutetia and Paris have little in common save their position where an island, the Île de la Cité created a convenient ford of the Seine.

Celtic origins

Somewhere in the immediate area was the chief settlement or Oppidum of the Parisii, a Celtic people who settled in the area during the 3rd century BC. However, dendrochronological study of wooden pilings beneath the lowest stratum of the Roman north-south axis date the road's construction after 4 CE, more than fifty years after the Roman pacification of the region.

Roman Lutetia was founded above the flood-prone point where the Bièvre stream reaches the River Seine, centered on the slopes of the hill later dedicated to Saint Genevieve, on the left bank of the Seine (modern-day Quartier Latin). There were outlying suburbs on an island across from the confluence, the Île de la Cité, which was the Merovingian and modern centre of Paris.

The name of Lutetia was first recorded by Julius Caesar in his Commentaries on the Gallic Wars (notably in book 7, chapters 57-58). The name seems to be related to an Indo-European root meaning "MUD", reflecting the marshy surroundings, which the Romans avoided.

Urbanization

The regular grid-plan of Roman Lutetia marked it as the city, in the Gallo-Roman sense. The city was the only sector in which, starting in the 2nd century CE, public monuments were constructed. The north-south axis was dictated by the need to cross the marshy riverbanks in the shortest possible distance; several routes converged at the bridgehead. The Roman public works were all on the north-facing slope of the hill of Ste Genevieve. The discovery of ancient paved roads, the established boundaries of the main monuments-the forum at the top of the hill, theatre, baths- even the path of certain medieval roads show that the Roman city was laid out with a module of precisely 300 Roman feet. On the Left Bank, the Rue St-Jacques and on the Right Bank, the Rue St-Martin still follow the Roman main axis (cardo maximus).

An aqueduct 26 km in length, with a flow rate estimated at 2000 cubic meters a day, watered the city with spring water collected from several points. To bridge the Bièvre valley at Arcueil-Cachan, a bridge was required, whose piers and ruined arches, still discernable, gave rise to the Toponym Arcueil.

The amphitheatre, built into the slope of the hillside outside the city itself, is commonly referred to as Les Arènes de Lutèce. It was one of the largest such structures in Gaul.

Events

The town was captured by the Roman Republic in 52 BC during the conquest of Gaul under Caesar.

The Lutetians backed the revolt of Vercingetorix against the Romans under Caesar, reportedly contributing 8,000 men to Vercingetorix's army. It was garrisoned by Vercingetorix's lieutenant Camulogenus, whose army camped on the Mons Lutetius (where the Panthéon is now situated). The Romans crushed the rebels at nearby Melun and took control of Lutetia.

Under Roman rule, Lutetia was thoroughly Romanised with a population estimated at around 8,000 people. It did not have a great deal of political importance - the capital of its province, Lugdunensis Senona, was Agedincum (modern Sens, Yonne). It was Christianised in the 3rd century, traditionally when St Denis became the city's first bishop. The process was not entirely peaceful - in about 250 St Denis and two companions were arrested and decapitated on the hill of Mons Mercurius, where Roman foundations have been found, thereafter known as Mons Martyrum (Martyrs' Hill, or Montmartre).

Lutetia was renamed Paris in 212, taking its name from the Celtic "Parisii" Tribe name. The name had already been used for centuries as an Adjective ("Parisiacus"). Around the same time, the city quarter on the left Seine bank, which housed the baths, the theatres and the Amphitheatre, was gradually abandoned with the population being concentrated on the island, which received new fortifications. The classical theater began to be dismantled during the 4th century.

For the history of the city after its renaming, see the article on Paris.

Present-day remains

Very little is now left of the ancient city. In a small park on high ground in the Latin Quarter of the Left Bank, tucked behind apartment blocks, one may still see some remains of the 1st century Amphitheatre (Arènes de Lutèce). Furthermore, there are the remains of public baths at the Musée de Cluny (Frigidarium with vault intact and Caldarium), the Early Christian archeological Crypt under the Notre Dame Forecourt and the catacombs under Montparnasse.

Related facts

There is also an Asteroid named 21 Lutetia; and the element Lutetium was named after the city, in honour of its discovery in a Paris laboratory.

External links