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Current
estimates would suggest
the maximum population
of Argentomagus to be 3-4,000
inhabitants at the end
of the first century and
during the second, when
the demographic pressure
seems to have been at its
strongest.
Some
religious or funerary inscriptions,
graffiti on public monuments,
signatures on a painted
wall or on vases or a token
in bone have revealed the
identity of around twenty
inhabitants of the town.
Two
of these enjoyed Roman
citizenship: Quintus Sergius
Macrinus and Africanus
Proculus. The first was
a noble who, with his personal
fortune, offered to build
a temple. The second had
the traditional two names.
All
the other individuals identified
had a single name. Free
men and women but regarded
as subjects of the Roman
empire, they seem to have
originated abroad. Certainly
that is the case with two:
Eberus and Labrios.
During the second half
of the 2nd century A.D.
or during the course of
the 3rd, Colguron (or Colgurca)
has traced his name on
a painted wall. The bone
tessera found in the theatre
has given us the names
of two other men: Priscus,
son of Amandus. Two pieces
of graffiti inscribed on
two pillars of the monumental
fountain reveal new masculine
names: Dometianus and Venerianus.
Bladamus and Cato, two
androgynous names, appear
on two funerary stelae.
The
limestone base of one of
these funerary stele was
discovered in the middle
of the 19th century in
a railway cutting between
Saint-Marcel and Argenton.
It
carries the inscription "BLADAMI
FIL (ius)" or "son of Bladamus".
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Argentomagus, du site
gaulois à la ville gallo-romaine,
G. Coulon et Coll. © Editions
Errance
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