Tag: Walls

Introduction to Merida, Emerita Augusta

On By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Colonia, SpainLeave a comment

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Overall          6 ****** a must-see Roman Colonia with ‘one of everything’

Display         5 ***** informative bilingual display boards all around the City

Access           3 *** in a well laid-out archaeological park – parking is difficult

Atmosphere 6 ****** remarkable assemblage of Roman remains

Other             4 **** Merida has Spain’s Roman Museum (closed on Mondays of course!)

The Roman Colonia of Emerita Augusta was founded in 25 BCE by P. Carisius, legate of Augustus, for veteran soldiers (emeriti) from the bloody wars against the Cantabri in the north of the Iberian Peninsular.  The soldiers originally came from Legio V Alaudae and Legio X Gemina, and later from VI Victrix and VII Gemina.

Emerita guarded the principal crossing of the River Guardiana (Fl. Ana in Latin) and became the capital of the Roman Province of Lusitania.  The territorium of the Colonia stretched out as far as 100kms from the City.

The original settlement was probably a rectangle like a military camp, possibly with the surviving Arch of Trajan marking one of its gates.  Later, in the 3rd Century, a much larger city wall was built enclosing the amphitheatre and theatre in the north-east, to protect the City against the rampaging Franks and Alamanni who had by then broken into the Empire.

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Emerita contains a remarkable assemblage of Roman remains including a bridge of 57 arches over the Guardiana which carried the Roman road from Asturica Augusta in the north to Italica in the south. (See our separate post about the bridge.)

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There are remains of the Forum and porticos, a Temple to Rome (wrongly called the Temple of Diana) adjacent to the Forum, and the remains of the Temple of Mars under the Church of Santa Eulalia in the west.

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The most remarkable remains are the “entertainment quarter” in the north-east, containing arguably the best-preserved Theatre in the Roman World for refined entertainment, a large Amphitheatre for gladiatorial games, and a Circus for chariot racing.

Excavations at the Alcazabar (later Arab citadel) have revealed Roman streets and insulae inside a Roman wall, and remains of the Roman dyke that protected the river quality, an ancient forerunner of Bazalgette’s ‘interceptor sewer’ in London.

Emerita had a large population whose water consumption required advanced hydraulic systems fed by two large reservoirs, both of which are still in working order.  The Proserpina Reservoir could hold 8 million cubic metres of water.  Two aqueducts fed the town.

There is also a stunning Roman Archaeological Museum with the finds from Emerita, in a modern building made out of replica Roman brick. Sadly the museum was closed on our Monday visit to Merida (although we did see it years ago), so we will need to review it on a future occasion.

So why the very high score of 6 stars?  The Bridge, Amphitheatre and especially the Theatre are wonderfully preserved, they are well presented and there are enough other key Roman buildings preserved (temples, porticos and aquaducts) that it gives you a real feeling for what a major Roman Colonia was like.

Roman Civitas Walls, Exeter

On By Paul Coby and Sally BlandfordIn Civitas, Roman BritainLeave a comment

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Overall          1 * the lower courses survive in some sections

Display         2 ** good wall walk published by Council covering all periods

Access           4 **** easy throughout the entire length on streets and parks

Atmosphere 2 ** you can get start to get a feel for the shape of the Isca Dumnoniorum

Isca Dumnoniorum inherited the site and presumably many of the buildings of the former Legionary Fortress of II Augusta, when the legion vacated the site in c75CE.

In Ptolemy’s Geographia of the 2nd Century Isca – which means ‘water’ in Celtic – is one of the four ‘cities’ of the Dumnonii, and is also the termination of one of the routes of the Antonine Itinerary.

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The Civitas capital of the Dumnonii was twice as large than the preceding Legionary Fortess of 17ha and was enclosed by a ditch and rampart enclosing 37ha (92 acres).   In the late 2nd Century a stone wall was constructed.  The circuit of stone defensive walls is on the Roman foundations but has successively been rebuilt and raised by Saxons, Normans, Plantagenets and in the Civil War. The layers of wall can be clearly seen in the Northenhay section above.  The Roman layers are the squared grey volcanic ‘trap’ at the bottom.  The Alfredian section is the white stone above.  Further examples from the same sector are below.

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Not much of Isca has been discovered in excavations and there is even less to see.  There was a civilian bath house and there is evidence of copper and bronze working. A possible stock-yard has also been identified.

Many coins have been discovered from the early 4th Century but hardly any later than 380, suggesting that at least its role as a regional market centre ended several decades before the end of central Roman rule.