Cularo was the name of the Gallic city which evolved into modern

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

, until 381 when it was renamed Gratianopolis in honor of Roman emperor

Gratian Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and w ...

Model of the Gallo-Roman Walls that surrounded Grenoble

The first reference to Grenoble dates back to July 43 BC.''Ad Familiares'', 10, 2
Letter 876
/ref> At that time, the small town was called Cularo and had been founded by the Gallic people known as the

Allobroges The Allobroges (Gaulish: *''Allobrogis'', 'foreigner, exiled'; grc, Ἀλλοβρίγων, Ἀλλόβριγες) were a Gallic people dwelling in a large territory between the Rhône river and the Alps during the Iron Age and the Roman period. ...

. In 292 the western emperor

Maximian Maximian ( la, Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maximianus; c. 250 – c. July 310), nicknamed ''Herculius'', was Roman emperor from 286 to 305. He was '' Caesar'' from 285 to 286, then ''Augustus'' from 286 to 305. He shared the latter title with his ...

built walls around the town after elevating it to the rank of “city”. These Gallo-Roman walls protected the urban area and served as a status of

Civitas In Ancient Rome, the Latin term (; plural ), according to Cicero in the time of the late Roman Republic, was the social body of the , or citizens, united by law (). It is the law that binds them together, giving them responsibilities () on th ...

. The vestiges of the Gallo-Roman wall are now a landmark of this era. In 381, wishing to thank and honor the emperor

for having created there a bishopric, the inhabitants of Cularo renamed their town Gratianopolis. That name would subsequently evolve into Grenoble. Dating back from the Gallo-Roman period (4th century), the Saint-Laurent crypt and the Grenoble baptistery have been preserved to this day; the latter had been used until the 9th century and was rediscovered in 1989 during the construction of the tramway tracks and excavated until 1996. Several sections of the Gallo-Roman city wall can also be seen in the old town, especially in rue Lafayette.

References

External links

Perseus.
{{Coord, 45, 11, 32, N, 5, 43, 50, E, source:kolossus-frwiki, display=title History of Grenoble Allobroges Archaeological sites in France Roman towns and cities in France Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region articles needing translation from French Wikipedia

References

Further reading

External links