It was previously believed that ancient Narbo-Marcius was an open city and a major trading center. They now realized that it was most likely built as a serious fortress. Researchers from the French National Institute for Conservation and Archaeological Research (Inrap) were excavating at a construction site in the historic center of Narbonne in southern France. This region belongs to the Roman period: B.C. Narbo-Marcius, the first Roman colony outside the Apennine Peninsula, was founded here in the 2nd century.

In the late 2nd century BC, the Roman general Gnaeus Domitius Agenobarbus, together with Quintus Fabius Maximus Allobrogicus, conquered all of Southern Gaul, defeating the Arverni and Allobrogi tribes, and founded the colony of Narbo-Marcius in 118 BC. Gnaeus Domitius, as proconsul of Gaul, decided to organize his province, named Narbon Gaul (Gallia Narbonensis), according to the Roman model. Over time this will become the norm for conquered lands.

He built the first Roman road in Gaul – Domitia (Via Domitia) from Spain to Italy. The second road was the Via Aquitania, which ran from Narbo-Marcius through the province of Aquitaine to the Atlantic Ocean. At the time, the city was located at the mouth of the River Aude, making it a strategically important crossroads for trade, agriculture, travel, and Roman military expansion.

The meaning of Narbo-Marcius can be understood from the speech of Marcus Tullius Cicero. In 69 BC, Gallic tribes accused the Gallic ruler of Narbonne of oppression. Cicero defended the former praetor, describing Narbo-Marcius in his speech as “a colony of citizens serving as the watchtower and fortress of the Roman people and as a defensive barrier against these tribes.”

After these words, the city is thought to be a great castle, but so far no traces of Roman defensive structures have been found in the Narbonne region. Scholars have offered various explanations for why the ancient Roman city had no walls.

According to one of the hypotheses, there was always a large number of warriors in Narbo-Marcius who could suppress the rebellion of the Gallic tribes. For example, in 46-45 BC, by the order of Julius Caesar, the X Legion (Legio X Equestris) was divided into four here. In historical literature, Narbo-Marcius is often called the city of open trade.

The Narbonne region, where excavations are currently ongoing, was located on the outskirts of the ancient city. It was built around AD 50 to store goods and was subsequently rebuilt several times (from the mid-1st century to the 3rd century, followed by a period of desolation in the 4th and 5th centuries). Here archaeologists discovered several warehouses, three streets, an alley, and a system of intersecting canals carrying rainwater and sewage.

In one of the warehouses there was an unusual device: the first floor used for storage was equipped with a technical floor with a drainage function made of amphorae. The upper floor was used as either a home or an office; It was a very nice floor with a concrete floor decorated with mosaics and adobe walls. This warehouse suffered major damage during the fire.

A little further on is the second warehouse, which was destroyed by the same incident but was later rebuilt like the first. One of the rooms of the building, whose walls are well preserved, is decorated with painted plaster. The pattern imitates marble slabs and the ceiling is decorated with intertwined floral motifs on a white background.

But the most interesting find was a section of the castle wall just over 30 meters long. On one side, a section of the wall was connected to a round stone tower. The tower was built in an unusual way: the base of the round part of the building was built on a square foundation. This was probably done to give additional stability to the massive walls.

The thickness and construction of the wall is the same as the Roman castles at Lyons and Othen. There is no exact dating yet, but French archaeologists believe the castle was built in the 1st century AD, during the heyday of the empire.