Divona
- a city in the neighborhood of Bordeaux, with a clear spring, now Cahors, Aus. Urb. 14, 32.
Hodie apud Cambros,Divona Celtarum lingua fons addite divis.
DiuDeum, et
Vonanfontem significare testatur Zuerius Boxhornius in Orig. Gallic. cap. 1.
DI´VONAafterwards CADURCI( Cahors). In Ptolemy (Ptol. 2.7.11) the name is written Δουήοναor Δούκονα.In the Table the name is miswritten Bibona. In the Notitia of the Gallic provinces it appears under the name of Civitas Cadurcorum. The name Divona is in Ausonius ( Clarae Urbes Burdig. 5.32), who gives the etymology of the name as he understood it:--Divona Celtarum lingua, Fons addite Divis.
He means to say that Dior Divmeans God,and vonor on, wateror fountain.It is said that it is the fountain at Cahorscalled Des Chartreuxwhich gave the place the name Divona. It was the capital of the Cadurci, and there are four roads in the Table and the Itin., from Vesunna ( Périgueux), Aginnum (Agen), Tolosa ( Toulouse), and Segodunum ( Rhodez), which meet at Divona, or Cahors, in the department of Lot. De Valois affirms that there is in Cahorsa place still called Las Cadurcas, and it is further said that the ruins are those of a temple of Diana. The Roman aqueduct at Cahorswas a great work. It was about 19 miles in length, and had a very winding course through valleys and along mountain sides. It crossed the valley of Larroque-des-arcsby a bridge of three tiers of arches, the elevation of which is estimated to have been nearly 180 feet. On the sides of two ranges of hills there are still some remains of this magnificent work, the dimensions of which must have equalled; or even surpassed, those of the Pont-du-Gard. It is said that it continued in pretty good preservation to the end of the 14th century. The aqueduct is generally cut in the rock on the sides of the hills along which it is carried. The channel for the water was constructed of masonry lined with cement and covered with tiles, so that no water could filter through. It was a work worthy of the grandeur of the Romans. Part of the wall of the baths remains, and a portion of a doorway. Some beautiful mosaic work has been discovered on the site of the baths. The theatre was of a semicircular form. A plan of this theatre and an elevation were published in L'Annuaire de Lotfor 1840. The fountain Des Chartreux, so called because it was in the inclosure of a convent of this religious society, the ancient Divona, is an abundant source. A large marble altar has been found at Cahors, with an inscription which records that it was set up by the Civitas Cadurcorum, in honour of M. Lucterius Leo, the son of Lucterius Senecianus, who had discharged all the high offices in his native place, and was priest at the Ara Augusti, at the confluence of the Arar and the Rhodanus. One Lucterius, a Cadurcan, stirred up the revolt against Caesar in B.C. 52 ( B. G. 7.5, &c., 8.44), and this man may have been one of the family. At least he had the name, with a Roman praenomen. The authority for the remains of Divona is in the work entitled Coup d'oeil sur les monuments historiques du Lot, par M. le Baron Chaudruc de Crazannes.from whose work there are large extracts in the Guide du Voyageur, par Richard et E. Hocquart.
[G.L]See Cadurci.
First called Divona, then Cadurci, Cahors was the capital of the civitas of the Cadurci throughout the Roman period and a center of pilgrimage. It owed its existence to the holy spring of Divona (undoubtedly the Fontaine des Chartreux) and to the ford (later a bridge) which allowed the crossing of the Lot. Some remains of the Roman bridge and theater still existed in the last century, but nothing of them can be seen today. However, recent housing construction in the districts W of Cahors has uncovered an “Arch of Diana” (in reality a part of the public baths), mosaics whose number and diversity may indicate the existence of a local workshop. Dwellings and their associated assemblages have been identified, and information about the aqueduct which brought the waters of the Vers from 30 km away has been gained.
BIBLIOGRAPHYA. Viré, “Le Quercy à l'époque romaine . . . ,” Rev. arch. 2 (1940); Jean Thiéry, “Compte rendu des découvertes faites dans les fouilles de la rue Wilson, à Cahors,” Bull. de la Soc. Et. du Lot 71 (1950) 130-32; id., “Contribution à l'étude de l'aqueduc romain de Murcens à Cahors,” ibid. 77 (1956) 14-25; M. Labrousse, “Amiantus, briquetier de Cahors,” ibid. 74 (1953) 117-19; id., “A Cahors et en Quercy au temps des Romains,” ibid. 75 (1954) 81-93; id., “Une statue du Cadurque M. Lucterius Leo au sanctuaire fédéral des Gaules,” ibid. 76 (1955) 114-18; id., “Mosaique gallo-romaine trouvée à Cahors rue Joachim Murat,” ibid. 91 (1970) 41-55.
See also M. Labrousse in Gallia 9 (1951) 139; 12 (1954) 227-30 & figs. 16-19; 13 (1955) 220-23 & figs. 23-26; 15 (1957) 276 & fig. 22; 17 (1959) 435; 20 (1962) 588-89 & figs. 48-49; 21 (1963) 191-225 & figs. 1-30; 22 (1964) 457-58 & figs. 36-38; 26 (1968) 546; 28 (1970) 424-26 & figs. 33-34; 30 (1972) 497-99I.
M. LABROUSSE