Lactora
LACTORAin Gallia Aquitania, is placed by the Antonine Itin. on the road between Aginnum (Agen) and Climberrum ( Auch), and 15 Gallic leagues from each. The distance and name correspond to the position and name of Lectoure. Several Roman inscriptions have been discovered with the name Lactorates, and Civitas Lactorensium; but the place is not mentioned by any extant writer.
[G.L]The town of Lactora was first part of the province of Aquitaine, then of Novempopulania. It was the capital of the civitas of the Lactorates and one of the high places of the cult of Cybele. Recent investigations, outside the original oppidum, have led to the following discoveries: 1) On the Lamarque plateau there are a series of funerary pits of the 1st c. B.C. 2) In the district of Pradoulin a dwelling which was devastated by the invasions and troubles of the 3d c. has produced three hoards of coins buried under Aurelian and Probus. In the 4th c. it was covered by a group of workshops where potters produced a rather rough red ware decorated with appliqué. 3) In the same district an inhumation necropolis of the Late Empire has produced, among others, an adorned sarcophagus of the School of Aquitaine. 4) At La Payroulère there is a barbarian necropolis of late date.
BIBLIOGRAPHYR. Etienne, “La chronologie des autels tauroboliques de Lectoure,” Bull. de la Soc. arch. du Gers 60 (1959) 35-42; M. Labrousse, “Les lampes romaines du Musée de Lectoure,” ibid. (1959) 43-67; 65 (1964) 25-30; Mary Larrieu, “Céramiques romaines du Musée de Lectoure,” ibid. 60 (1959) 69-83; M. Larrieu, “Découverte à Lectoure d'un nouveau sarcophage sculpté de l'Ecole d'Aquitaine,” Cahiers archéologiques 18 (1968) 1-12.
For reports on recent excavations see M. Labrousse in Gallia 5 (1947) 476-77 & figs. 10-11; 7 (1949) 138; 24 (1966) 433-35 & figs. 23-26; 26 (1968) 540-43 & figs. 27-29; 28 (1970) 418.
M. LABROUSSE