The Cadastre of Orange is an ancient plan that shows the Roman centuriations (land distributions) that extended across the territory of the colony of Arausio (modern-day Orange in France) in Gallia Narbonensis, as well as across the territories of neighboring cities and colonies.
Excavations carried out between 1949 and 1952 near the ancient theater of the city of Orange uncovered a large number of marble fragments that turned out to be pieces of three different cadastral tables (three copies) that divided the territory of the colony of Orange and that of surrounding cities for agricultural exploitation purposes.
The city of Arausio was located in the territory of the Tricastini, in the middle Rhône valley, and the earliest mention of it in historical sources goes back to Livy, who describes Hannibal’s army passing through it on their way to the Italian Peninsula.
The region came under Roman control after the conquest of Gallia Transalpina; however, it was not until after Julius Caesar’s conquest of Gaul that the city was founded (on the site where there already existed a Celtic settlement called Arausio, the place of a battle where the Cimbri and Teutons inflicted a major defeat on the legions) in 35 B.C. with the settlement of veterans of Legio II Gallica as Colonia Julia Secundanorum Arausio.
The territory of the colony extended mainly across the current plain of Orange, on the left bank of the Rhône River—a river whose dangers were already highlighted by ancient authors—and was surrounded by a wall that enclosed an urban territory of about 70 hectares. The city experienced monumental development, particularly notable for its Augustan-era theater and the triumphal arch from the early 1st century A.D.
At the time of its foundation, the colony used the traditional method of centuriation or division of land into equal parts: a grid with parallel lines spaced 710 meters apart that intersected to form centuries of 50 hectares each. This was a rapid method of land allocation used alongside the Hippodamian planning of the city.
During Vespasian’s reign, he ordered the restoration of the colony’s cadastre to identify those land plots that had not been originally distributed and thus belonged to the State, even if they had been improperly occupied. For this purpose, a map was created, carved in stone, which was publicly displayed so that citizens could identify and return public lands they had appropriated.
The architect Auguste Caristie, who was in charge of the restoration of the ancient theater of Orange, discovered a marble fragment in 1856 that he recorded but is now lost. Sent to Theodor Mommsen of Humboldt University in Berlin, this fragment turned out to be part of the cadastre and was recorded in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum from an incomplete version. Other fragments were discovered in the late 19th century, mainly in 1886 and 1888.
The major breakthrough came during work carried out in 1949 by the Marseille Credit Bank in one of its Orange branches. On Rue de la République, next to the theater where the first marble fragment had been found, the construction of a vault required excavation three meters below street level, revealing a large number of fragments.
Architect Robert Amy and archaeologist Joseph Sautel led the excavations between 1949 and 1953, not only on the site of the future bank but also on nearby plots.
Gradually, more fragments emerged, corresponding to three different copies of the cadastre. The most complete is the so-called Cadastre B, whose recovered fragments cover almost the entire northern part of the city and extend east to Dentelles.
The three maps were classified as A, B, and C, each featuring a grid pattern carved in marble: a regular square grid for Cadastres B and C and a rectangular grid for Cadastre A, showing the coordinates of the plot (century), assigned surfaces, payable rent, and sometimes the name of the assignee.
The coordinates follow the system: DD (to the right of the decumanus), SD (to the left of the decumanus), CK (below the cardo), and VK (above the cardo). The main axes, the decumanus maximus and cardo maximus, are represented by two orthogonal bands painted in red, according to the traces of dye found.
The maps also show major topographical features, such as rivers, islands, and even Roman roads, which surveyors noted in their records during the surveys and then transferred to the base map.
Archaeological excavations in Orange continue to uncover fragments of these ancient plans, which are displayed in the city’s museum. The large marble slabs cover three of the walls of one of the museum’s rooms, the largest of which measures 7.56 meters wide by 5.90 meters high.
This article was first published on our Spanish Edition on October 9, 2023: El catastro de Orange, el mapa romano que muestra como se repartía la tierra conquistada entre los colonos
SOURCES
Lionel R. Decramer, La grande carte romaine d’Orange
André Piganiol, Les documents cadastraux de la colonie romaine d’Orange
O.A.W. Dilke, Roman Large-Scale Mapping in the Early Empire
Richmond, I. A., & Stevens, C. E. (1942). The Land-Register of Arausio. The Journal of Roman Studies, 32, 65–77. doi.org/10.2307/296461
Wikipedia, Le cadastre d’Orange
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