From the end of independence to Romanization: excavations at Mont Castel in Port-en-Bessin

The period between the end of Gallic independence and the beginning of Romanization – from 52 to 24 BC – is an obscure period for historians and archaeologists because the historical records provide only vague or indirect information on the political and social situation.

The year 52 and the defeat of Alésia marked neither the end of the war against Rome, nor the immediate Romanization of the Celtic society. The foundation of the material and spiritual culture of Gaul remained essentially indigenous until the Augustinian period. After the final battle of the Gallic Wars at Uxellodunum, the situation was not entirely under Roman control. Caesar had distributed all of his legions throughout Gaul and himself spent the winter of 51-50 at Nemetocena (Arras?). Gaul was exhausted, unstable and probably unsettled by internal conflicts, requiring the presence of an occupying army.

The discovery of militaria tardo-républicain on Mont Castel was a new occurrence in western France and recalls a situation that archaeology has begun to reveal on the grand oppida of northern and central-eastern Gaul. It supports the hypothesis that the first Roman military camps were installed on the oppida at the end of the conquest before being moved away from these urban centers during the Augustinian period.