"All the people of Gaul are very religious. The god they honour most is Mercury. His statues are the most numerous. They consider him to be the inventor of all the arts. He is for them the god who shows them the path to follow, who guides the traveller. It is he who is most capable of making them money and of protecting their business.

"Next to him they worship Apollo, and Mars, and Jupiter, and Minerva; respecting these deities, they have for the most part the same belief as other nations: that Apollo averts diseases, that Minerva imparts the invention of manufactures, that Jupiter possesses the sovereignty of the heavenly powers; that Mars presides over wars. To him, when they have determined to engage in battle, they commonly vow those things which they shall take in war. When they have conquered, they sacrifice whatever captured animals may have survived the conflict, and collect the other things into one place." Caesar in De Bello Gallico.

A syncretic process operated between the Greco-Roman pantheon and the indigenous divinities. Six Gallo-Roman gods are evidenced at Argenomagus - Mercury, Minerva, Apollo, Mars, Jupiter and Venus plus one hero, Hercules.

Mercury

"The god they honour most is Mercury. His statues are the most numerous." This statement of Caesar's is largely confirmed here.

Archaeologists have in fact discovered eight figures definitely identified as Mercury to which can be added three inscriptions. Twice he is described as 'felix' - happy or fruitful, an epithet which is rarely applied to him. He is sometimes portrayed in classical fashion, that is to say as a nude young man holding in one hand a caduceus, a winged rod around which serpents are coiled, and, in the other, a purse. He wears a petasus, that winged broad-brimmed hat of travellers and is accompanied by a cock, a ram, a tortoise and a buck.

The dig in the cultural area has turned up a small bronze buck as well as two fibula whose arc is in the shape of a tortoise. Two portrayals show him seated on a rock, a commonly-found position for him throughout Gaul.

One of these, a statuette in bronze, is considered to be one of the most remarkable representations of Mercury to be discovered in Roman Gaul. A number of indicators would lead us to think that indeed the sanctuary at Argentomagus was indeed dedicated to him or, at the very least, one of the temples.

Here, as in all of Gaul, Mercury has blatantly borrowed the personalities of pertinent divinities and there is a tendency to attributes to him which he lacked in the Greco-Roman pantheon.

Minerva

In 1833, near the theatre in Le Veou, a vigneron dug up the remains of a statue of Pallas, also called Minerva. Two metres tall, wearing a helmet, cloak and armour, the goddess possessed a proud allure according to those witnesses fortunate to see her before she was broken up by her discoverer.

The goddess is also evoked in an incomplete inscription found in 1970 on the basin of the monumental fountain but now, sadly, lost. "NVMI (NIBVS) AVG (VSTORUM) ET MINERVAE..." (to the divine will of the Augustans and Minerva).

In the same part of the fountain, a ditch dating from before its construction yielded up a medallion from an oil lamp depicting Minerva armed with her lance and shield. From the necropolis at the Champ de l'Image have come several fragments of a white clay figurine of the goddess.

Finally, in the cultural area, a ditch dug in the interior of the cella of the small temple III contained fragments of two statues, one of which was a female bust dressed in a folded tunic.

Two studded thongs framed her stomach, lending a warrior-like quality to this goddess who could well be Minerva.

Apollo

Of this god whose major function, according to Caesar, was to avert illnesses, we possess two depictions. The first, a very fragmented piece in high relief, shows the god nude in repose. Heavily lopsided, his pose is reminiscent of that of two sculptures from Trèves, the so-called Apollos of Hochscheid and Altbachtal. The latter has an altogether classical appearance in which the draped god wears a short tunic and is playing a lyre.

Mars

A figure in high relief on a tiny fragment, carrying a bandolier on his right hip leads to the conclusion that this is Mars, god of war, protector of tribes (or possibly Apollo the archer). A large head, traditionally thought of as being that of Apollo, obviously portrays a god, but it could also be Mars. This head is inscribed in typical Gallic fashion. It is striking by its resemblance to what survives of Celtic traditions: a low forehead, strongly accentuated arched eyebrows and, in particular, the workmanship on the spiral locks of hair.

Jupiter

A small bronze depicts him nude, standing, endowed with long hair and a thick beard, on his head a crown of oak. In his broken right hand, he would have been brandishing a bolt of lightning. Also in bronze, a small, beautifully-crafted eagle, discovered in the courtyard of the temples together with the little buck and Mercury, evokes the master of the heavens. Much larger altogether is a statue in sandstone linked to the episode in which Jupiter defeats the anguipede, that monster with legs of serpents and huge, beaked face.

But in contrast to the Jupiter riding an obstinate horse which is trampling the monster, one sees him here standing, nude, posing with his left hand on a small human head, that of the anguipede.

Hercules

Although the Greek hero experienced remarkable success in Gaul, Arentomagus has yielded but a single little bronze of Etruscan manufacture.

Hercules is depicted standing, nude, in combative pose, his right arm raised and brandishing a club. His left arm holds the hide of the Nemean lion, reduced here to its most simple expression.

  Vénus

On these inexpensive statuettes, Venus is the favourite subject. She appears in Argentomagus in an astonishing range of guises. She is found nude, emerging from the bath, her right hand in her hair, the left holding a drapery. Less frequently, she is depicted with a hand pressed to her breast or accompanied by an owl, an eagle and a dolphin.

Other versions show her standing in a lavatory or amidst a group of children, in which she is obviously being confused with the Gallic mother-goddesses. If these clay figures are a little banal, there is also at least one stone statuette, which although incomplete, could be identified as her.