Luxovium
LUXOVIUM This name appears on some inscriptions dug up at Luxeuil, in the French department of the Upper Saône. Luxeuil is on the Brenchin, and it has warm baths. The name on the inscriptions is said to be Luxovium or Lixovium. These inscriptions were published by Caylus, but they may not be genuine. In the life of St. Columban, written in the seventh century, Luxovium is mentioned:--Castrum quod olim munitissimum, /un>priscis temporibus Luxovium nuncupatum, ubi etism Thermae eximio opere instructae habebantur. Multae illic statuae lapideae erant.( D'Anville, Notice, &c.; Walckenaer, Géog. vol. 1. p. 320.)
[G.L]The name appears only in the 7th c. in the Vita Colombani of the monk Jonas, but two Roman dedications to a god Luxovius or Lussoius, who must have been the eponym of the place, are known. In them he is associated with a goddess Brixta or Bricta (not Brixa-Bricia, as has been incorrectly read).
The site is rich in hot and cold springs, used since antiquity. Antique catchinents and the remains of a Gallo-Roman bath house have been discovered. The cult of the springs is attested by hundreds of traditional Gallic votive statuettes made of oak, as well as by dedicatory inscriptions made not merely to the divine pair mentioned above, but also to the healing divinities Apollo and Sirona, associated as at Hochscheid. Another religious artifact is a curious group representing Jupiter on horseback, the anguiped monster, and a third person attached to the horse.
From perhaps the end of the 1st c. on, Luxeuil had a workshop producing terra sigillata, but its output was not used very widely. The numerous stone monuments found on the site and now in the museum at Luxeuil (classic funerary stelai and house-shaped stelai) should likewise be considered as local products.
Situated at the extreme N of the territory of the Sequani, at the foot of the Vosges which supply the sandstone for its monuments, Luxeuil appears to have been oriented more towards the Vosges region than towards the Jura.
BIBLIOGRAPHYJ. Roussel, Luxovium ou Luxeuil gallo-romain (1924); L. Lerat, “Le nom de la parèdre du dieu Luxovius,” Revue Archéologique de l'Est (1950) 207-13; id. & Y. Jeannin, “La céramique sigillée de Luxeuil,” Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 31 (1960); id., 118è Congrès Archéologique de France (1960) 98-104.
L. LERAT