LE BRUSC
(“Tauroention”) Var, France.
Located on the seacoast ca. 50 km E of Marseille, Le
Brusc was very probably (in spite of contrary assertions:
cf. Saint-Cyr sur Mer) the site of the port of
Ταυροεντιον
(or
Ταυροεις), cited by Strabo (
4.1.9) as a Massaliot establishment like Olbia, Antipolis, and Nikaia. Later the
name was Romanized as Tauroentum. The Hellenistic
and Roman town occupied the site of the modern Citadelle district. It was surrounded by a rampart of tufa in
opus quadratum; old excavations found traces of it. The
town was fed by an aqueduct, a good-sized section of
which has been discovered. Floors of dwellings have
been uncovered; they are made of clay, limestone, and
crude mosaics of Hellenistic date. The coins and the
ceramic material date from the 3d c. B.C. to the 3d c.
A.D. continuously. They thus lead one to date the founding of Tauroention to the same period as that of Olbia.
The island of Les Embiez which faces Le Brusc has
produced more ancient remains (5th c. B.C.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
L. Fiessinger,
Les fouilles du Brusc
(1898); E. Duprat,
Tauroentum (1935);
Gallia 6 (1948)
215.
C. GOUDINEAU
