Augustobona
AUGUSTOBONA[TRICASSES]
Situated in the marshy Seine valley in Champagne, at a crossroads of ancient highways (to Poitiers, Reims, Langres, Autun, Orléans), Augustobona was the center of the civitas of the Tricasses, who had been separated from the Senones tribe by Augustus. The Early Empire settlement, 80 ha in area, replaced a Gallic one of unknown size. Some traces of the ancient roads have been found, including the SW-NE urban section of the Lyon-Boulogne road that served as the cardo, as well as some cellars and other residential elements (especially in the Chaillouet quarter), some remains of an aqueduct, and several necropoleis. However, no public monument has been found.
Reduced to an area of 16 ha in the Late Empire, from which time on it was known as urbs Tricassium or Tricassae, the city was ringed by a wall with four gates; construction of the wall caused the surrounding areas to be at least partly abandoned. Christianization probably took place under Aurelianus, and the city, situated in Lugdunensis Secunda, was the seat of a bishopric after the reign of Constantine.
BIBLIOGRAPHYPtol. 2.8.10; Plin., HN 4.107; Amm. Marc. 15.10.11-12; 16.2.6.
Corrard de Bréban, Mém. Soc. Arch. de l'Aube (1831-62) passim; H. d'Arbois de Jubainville, Répertoire archéologique de l'Aube (1861); A. Blanchet, Les enceintes romaines de la Gaule (1907); M. Toussaint, Réertoire archéologique de l'Aube (1954) 82-110; J. Scapula, La Vie en Champagne (1962, 1964, 1968); E. Frézouls, Gallia 25 (1967) 280f; 31 (1973) 406.
E. FRÉZOULS