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Glanum (Hellenistic Γλανόν, as well as Glano, Calum, Clano, Clanum, Glanu, Glano) was an ancient and wealthy city which still enjoys a magnificent setting below a gorge on the flanks of the Alpilles mountains. It is located about one kilometre south of the town of Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.
Originally a Celto-Ligurian oppidum, it expanded under Greek influence before becoming a Roman city. As it was never built over by settlements after the Roman period but was partly buried by deposits washed from the hills above, much of it was preserved. Many of the impressive buildings have been excavated and can be visited today.
It is particularly known for two well-preserved Roman monuments of the 1st century BC, known as "Les Antiques", a mausoleum and a triumphal arch.
Between the 4th and 2nd centuries BC, the Salyens, the largest of the Celto-Ligurian tribes in Provence, built a rampart of stones on the peaks that surrounded the valley of Notre-Dame-de-Laval, and constructed an oppidum, or fortified town, around the spring in the valley, which was known for its healing powers. A shrine was built at the spring to Glanis, a Celtic god. The town grew, and a second wall was built in the 2nd century BC.
The town had a strong Celtic identity, shown by the names of the residents (Vrittakos, Eporix, Litumaros); by the names of the local gods (Glanis and his companions, the Glanicae, (similar to the Roman Matres); and the goddesses Rosmerta and Epona); by the statues and pottery; by the customs, such as displaying the severed heads of enemies at the city gate; and by the cooking utensils found in the ruins, which showed that the people of Glanis boiled their food in pots, rather than frying it in pans like other Mediterranean tribes.
The people of Glanum were in early contact with the Greek colony of Massalia, present day Marseille, which had been founded in about 600 BC. By the 2nd century BC these contacts influenced the architecture and art of Glanum – walled fortifications, homes and villas, and a bouleuterion were built in the Hellenistic style. The local inhabitants also minted Hellenistic coinage with the Greek language legend "ΓΛΑΝΙΚΩΝ" ('of the Glaniques'). But by the 2nd century BC conflicts and wars arose between the Salyens and the Greeks of Marseille, who not having a powerful army, called upon the assistance of their Roman allies. In 125 BC the Salyens were defeated by the army of the Roman consul Marcus Fulvius Flaccus, and then by consul Caius Sextus Calvinus. Many of the old Gallo-Hellenic buildings and monuments of Glanum were destroyed and eventually replaced with Roman structures.
Due to its commercially useful location on the Via Domitia, and the attraction of its healing spring, the town prospered again. The city produced its own silver coins and built new monuments. The prosperity lasted until 90 BC when the Salyens again rebelled against Rome. The public buildings of Glanum were again destroyed. The rebellion was crushed this time by the Consul Caecilius, and the remains of the main buildings demolished and replaced by more modest structures.
In 49 BC, Julius Caesar captured Marseille and, after a period of destructive civil wars, the romanisation of Provence and Glanum began. The Glanum Dam, a curved stone arch dam, and the oldest known of its kind, and a Roman aqueduct were built in the 1st century BC, to supply water for the town's fountains and public baths. The Mausoleum of Glanum, a towering monument still standing and dedicated to members of the Julii family and veterans of Caesar's Gallic Wars, was built c. 40 to 30–20 BC during the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire.
In 27 BC, the Emperor Augustus created the Roman province of Gallia Narbonensis, and in this province Glanum was given the title of oppidum latinum. This gave residents the civil and political status of citizens of Rome. During the late reign of Augustus and his successor Tiberius, a triumphal arch was built at the site between 10–25 AD, the first such arch to be built in Gaul.
In the 1st century AD the city built a new forum and temples. Glanum was not as prosperous as the Roman colonies of Arelate, Avennio, and Cabellio, but by the 2nd century AD it was wealthy enough to build impressive shrines to the emperors, to enlarge the forum, and to have extensive thermae and other public buildings clad in marble.
The town was overrun and destroyed by the Alamanni in 260 AD and subsequently abandoned, its inhabitants moving a short distance north into the plain to found a city that eventually became modern day Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Eventually Glanum became a source of stone and other building materials for Saint-Remy. Since the Roman system of drains and sewers was not maintained, the ruins became flooded and covered with mud and sediment. The mausoleum and triumphal arch, together known as "Les Antiques", were famous and were visited by King Charles IX, who had the surroundings cleaned up and maintained. Some excavations were made around the monuments as early as the 16th and 17th centuries, finding sculptures and coins, and by the Marquis de Lagoy in the Vallons-de-Notre-Dame in the 19th century.
The first systematic excavations began in 1921, directed by the architect of historic monuments Jules Formigé. From 1921 until 1941, the archaeologist Pierre de Brun worked on the site, discovering the baths, the basilica, and the residences of the northern part of the town. From 1928 to 1933, Henri Rolland (1887–1970) worked on the Iron Age sanctuary, to the south. From 1942 until 1969, Rolland took over the work and excavated the area from the forum to the sanctuary. The objects he discovered are on display today at the Hôtel de Sade in nearby Saint-Rémy. New excavation and exploration work began in 1982, devoted mainly to the preservation of the site, and to exploring beneath sites already discovered for older works.
The Mausoleum of the Julii, located across the Via Domitia, to the north of, and just outside the city entrance, dates to either 40 BC, or 30–20 BC, and is one of the best preserved mausoleums of the Roman era.
A dedication is carved on the architrave of the building facing the old Roman road, which reads:
SEX · M · L · IVLIEI · C · F · PARENTIBVS · SVEIS Sextius, Marcus and Lucius Julius, sons of Gaius, to their forebears
It is believed that the mausoleum was the tomb of the mother and father of the three Julii brothers, and that the father, for military or civil service, received Roman citizenship and the privilege of bearing the name of the Julii, one of the most distinguished families in Rome.
The mausoleum is built in three stages. The upper stage, or tholos, is a circular chapel with Corinthian columns. It contains two statues wearing togas, presumably the father and grandfather of the Julii. (The heads of the statues were lost at an earlier date, and replaced in the 18th century). The conical roof is decorated with carved fish scales, traditional for Roman mausoleums. The frieze beneath the conical roof is decorated with a rinceau featuring carvings of acanthus leaves, used in Roman mortuary architecture to represent eternal rebirth.
The middle stage, or quadrifons, is an arch with four bays. The archivoltes, or curved bands of decoration on the tops of the arches, also have acanthus leaves. At the top of each arch is the carved head of a gorgon, the traditional protector of Roman tombs.
The frieze at the top of the quadrifons is decorated with carvings of tritons, carrying the disk of the sun, and with sea monsters.
The lowest part of the mausoleum is decorated with carved garlands of vegetation, theater masks and cupids or putti, and with mythical or legendary scenes.
The triumphal arch stood just outside the northern gate of the city, next to the mausoleum and was the visible symbol of Roman power and authority. It was built near the end of the reign of Augustus Caesar (who died in 14 AD). The upper portion of the arch, including the inscription, are missing.
The sculptures decorating the arch illustrated both the civilization of Rome and the dire fate of her enemies.
Glanum was laid out on a north–south axis through the valley of Notre-Dame-du-Vallon. At the northern end was the residential quarter, with the public baths, and at the southern end was the sacred quarter, with the spring and grotto. In the center was the monumental quarter, the site of the forum and public buildings.
The earliest monuments discovered in Glanum were built by the Salyens in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries BC and were strongly influenced by the Hellenic style of the nearby Greek colony of Marseille. They included a large building around a trapezoidal peristyle, or courtyard surrounded by columns; and a sacred well, or dromos, next to a small temple in the Tuscan style.
The first Roman forum in Glanum was built around 20 BC, at about the time that Glanum was given the title of oppidum latinum.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Glanum”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.