On the 13th of July, in occasion of Christian Archeology Seminaries organised by “Ecole Française de Rome”, Claude Sintes, Keeper of the Arles Museum, has given a lecture, “Arles du IV au Ve siècle, l’apport des fouilles récentes”, with the aim to illustrate, through slides, the acquisitions of the late-antique story of the site obteined through a new campaign of excavations. From the analysis of the structures inside the town-walls and the rest of the living suburban quarters, it can be affirmed that Arles, after a period of decadency in the third century A.D., regained importance in Costantine age as commercial junction of the shunt and distribution of goods in the whole Province, thus obtaining the name of “Gallulla Roma” between the fourth and the fifth century. With this new phase corresponds a monumental programme of enlargement and re-utilisation of existent structures required first by Costantine, so as to give Arles a worthy imperial residence 1.
Iulia Arelate Sextanorum (n.1) founded by T.Claudius Nero on account of Iulius Caesar on the left bank of the Rhone, was populated by veterans of VI Legio after the deportation of the native population on the opposite bank of the river. The built-up area, originally extended 40 hectares, in a line of town walls 1640 mts long, uses the joint road to Marseilles as decumanus in an east-west direction.
The preliminary works for the creation of the forum, the Theatre and the Arch of Triumph were commenced by Octavian between the 40 and 50 B.C. and completed between the 25 B.C. and 10 A.D..
The forum of August, placed at the intersection of the principal visible axes, extends for an area of 5200 m2. around the Temple of Genius Augusti, afterwards dedicated to Lares, and it is sorrounded by arches leanings on crypyoporticus.
The Theatre built in the eastern zone and aligned to cardo communicates with the sourthern sector of the city through a decumanus which flows in its northen parodos. It displays a type of decoration in the central cavea identical to that one in the Triumphal Arch on the Rhone, monumental northern door of the city.
After this first phase there follows an enlargement of the forum required by Tiberius (the forum adiectum opened on the major axis of the more ancient one), the construction of the “Arc admirable” in the southwest sector of the city, which is symmetrical to the other triumphal arch, and the construction of the Amphitheatre in the Flavian age.
The Amphitheatre dated by Sintes at 90/100 A.D. can be found North-East of the forum and is situated in a divergent position in respect to the axis of the city. The major axis is 136 mts.long, the minor axis107 mts.long. It is composed of sixty arcades subdivided in two arrangements in jonic style. The rock arena extends 69 mts.x 39 mts. and is separated by a tall wall from the cavea, capable of holding 21000 spectators.
Previous to the latest excavation it was considered that the “simmetrical” monument of the Amphitheatre was the Circus, built in the same chronological period but in the opposite South-West suburban sector aligned with a bridge of boats on the Rhone. The finding of a beautiful bronze oin of Antoninus Pius has denied this hypothesis and Sintes has now dated the Circus to the 149 A.D., i.e. successivily to the Amphitheatre.
The Circus (n.2) with a cavea of 28 ft. in width and an opening of 286 ft. from one podium to the other, had a capacity equal to that of Amphitheatre. It was inaugurated by Ludi circenses in memory of Aulius Annius Camars, ambassador propraetor of the Province of Africa, at the beginning of the second century. In the Late Empire the Circus was the center of the officials festivities. Constance II celebrated here the Fasti for the thirtieth year of the exertion of the authority in 363 A.D..Constance III, in 407/8 A.D., inaugurated the foundation of the dynastic Mausoleum paral to the tribunes of the Hippodrome. In 461 races were held in the presence of Emperor Maioranus. In 508/9 Theodoric granted subsidies to the city for the reconstuction of embankments which permitted, in 548/9, the last horse-race historically certified.
Also, the excavations witness the utilisation of the structures between the fourth and the fifth century since, in spite of the traces of a village of huts along the perimeter of the monument, and the exploitation of internal alveoli as living habitations, the truck remains empty, so that normal races could take place. Besides, it seems avident a change in the complex during the Tetrarchy, or under Costantinus with the reinforcement of the spina by counterforts, with the addition of decorations on it, such as metae and the obelisque, made in Europe according to Sintes, with the ornamental use of marble slabs cut in its place.
The Arles task as a link of communications between Gallia and Rome in the fourth century, leads to an exploitation of the available spaces and the alteration of the forum. At the entrance of the area, the sanctuary wanted by Augustus and completed in 30 A.D. was restored by Costantinus , who added the forepart to the building, while the lower cryptoporticus were used as horrea for the goods to be sorted. The cryptoporticus have two galleries of arcades 90 mts. in length, 4,50 mts. in width; each one of them is subdivied in two passages by a range of 50 rectangular pillars, with vaults of 3,30 mts. in height. In the Southern, Eastern and Western sides light and ventilation are provided by vents obtained from the vaults, while the Northern facade is at the same level of decumanus maximus because of the natural gradient of the ground. On the Northern facade remains of walls testifies the exsistence of a flight of stairs, leading from the porticus to the decumanus.
The Eastern and Western sections of the Northern Gallery communicate through a passage, where two bases of granite columns have been found. On the architrave there is an iscription in bronze letters that mentions the monuments which Constantinus II used to adorn the city, and includes the names of the persons who supervised the works (337-340). In the eastern extremity of the passage there is also a chapel dedicated to St.Lucy where the remains of the altar and the canalisations are still visible.
The excavations have also permitte to date, with more precision, the big room believed to be of Costantinian age, while today it is supposed to be dated previous to Costantinus at least of some decads. This room was a depandance of the thermae , the so called “Palais de la Trouille” (from late latin trullus, circular buiding) or of Costantinus, thermae north of the forum erroneously believed to be the imperial palace. A round apse with a dome with three windows of coloured glass to which corresponds a swimming pool with hypocaust alimented by lateral prefurnia, gives the name to the monument.
The last archeological researches have also included the suburban zones, la Verrerie at Trinquetaille, on the right bank of the river, the Esplanade, the Alycamps, the zone of the “Crédit Agricole” and Jardin d’Hiver on the left bank (n.3). The villae with tassellated paving in these zones extra muros have all been destroyed in the middle of the third century (240-300) and have never been repaired but abandoned. Only during the fifth century there was a reoccupation of the Verriere by a low social class, as cn be evidenced by the material used for the reconstruction of the houses; the reconstruction of a house on the ruins of the Esplanade; the utilisation of a chimney at the Alyscamps and the creation of a built-up area in the circus zone by a social class wealthier than that of the opposite bank of the river, as evidenced by numismatic discoveries.
In light of the new acquisition we can deduct that Arles, in decadency in the third century, had a moment of renewed commercial and monumental importance between the fourth and the fifth century due to a political project by Costantinus and his successors, and finally lost all its importance as commercial provincial center in the sixth century, first conquered by Visigoths (480 A.D.), later by Franks (536 A.D.).
1 The Emperor was in the city twice, first in 316 A.D..In 313 A.D. the Ostian coiner atelier was transferred here, in 314 at Arles took place the Council on the Donatistian Heresy; in the fifth century the city was the seat of the Praefectus Praetorio and the Delegati of the Seven Provinces had a council here.
I thank Sabina Alletto for the translations from French and Liliana ed Ada Martirano for the english version of this article.

Michela Nocita