‘The Recent Discovery of an Augustan Piscina with Triclinium in La Nautique (Narbonne, France)’ Seminar

Over three campaigns, (2011-2013), the excavations of the Lac de Capelles in Narbonne (France) have cast light on an exceptional circular building identified as a Roman piscina, dated from the Augustan period. The circular basin is 65m in diameter and a rectangular building at its centre is interpreted as a summer triclinum. Inside the triclinium a secondary and very well preserved fishtank has been excavated with the bones of fish still in situ. Luxury structures such as this are usually found on the Italian coast associated with the villae maritimae of the late republican and early imperial aristocracy. The presence of this piscina in Narbonne may suggest it was associated with the villa of the most important roman individual in the capital of the province of Gallia Narbonensis - perhaps even Augustus who came to Narbonne around the time the basin was constructed.