A Group of Late Roman City Walls in Gallia Belgica

Abstract

THE late Roman defences which are found in many of the chief cities of France have long been remarkable for similarities of design. In the northern and western parts of France many of the cities were protected by thick, high walls, built in rubble concrete with a facing of 'petit appareil', interspersed with rows of tiles usually in double or triple courses. The foundations were of large unmortared stone blocks, which were, as often as not, re-used from earlier buildings destroyed in the barbarian raids of the later third century or else deliberately demolished to provide a solid foundation for the new walls. The whole circuit was strengthened by the addition of external towers, usually of one build with the walls. Fortifications of this type are also found in other provinces of the western empire.' But despite this similarity of style, there are remarkable differences of building technique and planning. Studies of the fortifications have tended to show that the style described above is 'normal', but have not attempted to add much to that assertion. However, within this framework there is scope for much variation of detail. Differences in the town plans, for example, are well known: many of them are published in Blanchet's book, which despite its appearance as long ago as 1907 is still the only major work on the subject.z Construction methods, too, and details of the varying sizes of materials used, particularly of the tiles, though previously noted, have lacked specific comment on the relevance or usefulness of the information.3 Wall-thicknesses, shapes and types of towers, the number and width of tile-courses, all differ from one site to another, but although lack of evidence at some sites makes a comprehensive comparison impossible, there are cities where sufficient remains of the walls exist or demolished fragments have been recorded in enough detail to make the comparative study of such minutiae significant and valuable. The sites discussed in this paper, as a kind of pilot study in this field, are three cities of Belgica Secunda. Beauvais, the capital of the Bellovaci, has one of the best-preserved enceintes of France. Recent excavations in areas of the city near the