In addition to creating a range of new buildings, a major aim of this large, coordinated progamme of urban development was to bring a water supply to the western residential areas of the town.

Within the difficult situation which existed at the end of the 3rd century AD, only a strong authority would have been able to take such decisions and have the funds available to carry them out.

It has often been asserted that Argentomagus was destroyed in 276 AD, corresponding to an invasion of barbarians from East of the Rhine and north of the Danube.

We can be certain that the temples were ruined at the end of the third century but the conflagration which caused the destruction could be explained by many other theories, accidental or religious. This was, after all a period when christianity was on the march in Gaul.