Langres. Ancient town of France, in Champagne, capital of the Bassigny in the time of Julius Caesar, it was also the capital of the people called Lingones of whom we shall speak under that word, and it was called Andematunum or Audumatunum. At that same epoch the town belonged to the Celtic provinces, then became the town of the Belgic provinces under Augustus, and remained so until Diocletian returned it to the Lyonnais.

Like many other towns in France, Langres has been subjected to various revolutions. It was taken and burned by Attila. It recovered, only to experience the same fate during the invasions of the Vandals, who massacred its bishop, St. Didier, in 407. After the barbarians invaded the Roman Empire, Langres fell to the Burgundians and remained part of that kingdom under the Franks, conquerors of the Burgundians. By the divisions of the land of Louis the Good, Langres fell to Charles the Bald. After that, until the time of Hugues III, Duke of Burgundy, it had its own counts. Hugues, having acquired this country from Henry, Duke of Bar, gave it, around 1179, to his uncle Gautier, Bishop of Langres, in exchange for the domain of Dijon; later King Louis VII raised this county to a duchy and annexed the city to the crown.

It is in this way that the bishops added Langres to the domain of their church and became very powerful as feudal lords over the entire diocese. Odon, Count of Nevers and Champagne, paid homage to them for the county of Tonnerre; this homage was renewed by Margaret, Queen of Sweden and wife of King Charles. The kings of Navarre, the dukes of Burgundy for their mountain lands, and the counts of Champagne for several towns and manors also became their feudatories, so that they counted among their vassals not only dukes but even kings.

It is therefore not at all astonishing that the Bishop of Langres should have obtained from Charles the Bald the right of coinage and that this privilege should have been confirmed by Charles the Fat. Finally, even though things have changed a good deal, these prelates, since Philip the Fair, have had the honor of being dukes and peers of France. The bishop of Langres has remained the suffragan of the archbishop of Lyon. His diocese, which includes the town of Tonnerre, is made up of 145 benefices under six archbishops.

Let us turn to the antiquity of the town of Langres, which is of greater interest to us than the bishopric. In 1670, 1671, or 1672 when work was being done in order to build covered ways on the counterscarp, thirty-six interesting fragments were found, consisting of statues, pyramids, pedestals, vases, sarcophagi, urns, and other Roman antiquities, all of which were sent to Colbert.

Since then excavations nearby have yielded a quantity of ancient medals in gold, silver, and bronze, several vases and sacrificial tools, such as a copper knife used to skin the victims, another called a secespita , used to cut their throats, a caldron for the entrails, two dishes to collect the blood, two ceremonial basins, a handle of an aspergillum used to sprinkle lustral water, a covered box for incense, three small silver spoons to take it with, two wedges, and a piece of yellow amber, used then as now for the making of perfume.

Finally in the course of the last two centuries there have been found in Langres and its vicinity several ancient inscriptions, bas-reliefs, statues, fragments of columns, ruins of buildings, and other monuments which illustrate the history of the town. Among those that still exist, some are embedded in the walls that serve as ramparts for the town; others can be seen in private gardens and nearby villages. Some are even considered by certain families as the palladium of their houses.

Since it has been the fate of most of these pieces to be carried away from their native land, if I may say so, in order to increase the collections assembled by interested foreigners, the magistrates of the town of Langres have for a long time prevented such losses by recording in public registers not only the time and circumstances of all the discoveries but have also added drawings of bas-reliefs and statues as well as copies of the inscriptions that have been unearthed. Such a project should be imitated in all the towns of Europe which can boast such antiquities or which can derive some advantage from such monuments.

Gruter, Reynesius the Jesuit, Father Vignier, and Gautherot in his history of the town of Langres, which he has called L'Anastase de Langres tirée du tombeau de son antiquité , [2] have as a matter of fact collected several inscriptions of the town, but neither their reading nor their reporting have always been precise, and especially Gautherot's researches have been as badly assimilated as they have been unwise.

The Royal Academy of Letters of Paris [3] has explained some of the inscriptions we are speaking of in the fifth volume of its history. They base this on faithful copies provided by the bishop of Langres. One can only wish that the explanation had extended to a greater number of monuments of this city.

In fact, one of these inscriptions tells us that there had been a Roman colony in this town; another confirms what Caesar says about the worship of Pluto by the Gauls and of their habit of counting by nights rather than days; another informs us that for a long time there was a public theater in the town and therefore regular performances; a fourth makes it known to us that the Julii had great land holdings in Langres and vicinity; a fifth vouches for the fact that this town, capital of the peoples of Celtic Gaul called Lingoni, was the point of departure of many paved roads built like causeways leading to Lyon, Toul, Besançon, and from there to the Alps. Such monuments are worthy of consideration. But a word must be said of the location of Langres.

The town is situated on a high mountain near the Marne at the border of the two Burgundies, 14 leagues northwest of Dijon, 25 southeast of Troyes, 40 southeast of Reims, 63 northeast of Paris. According to Cassin, the longitude is 22° 51′3″ and latitude 47° 51′.

Julius Sabinus, well known for his revolt against Vespasian and even more for the beauty, courage, tenderness, faithfulness, and the conjugal love of his wife Epponina, was a native of Langres. One should read in the compilations of the Academy of Inscriptions, Volume IX, [4] the equally strange and touching adventures of this illustrious lady and her husband. Secousse derived the whole story from Tacitus and Plutarch; it is one of the most beautiful passages of the history of the Gauls because of the virtue it shows as well as the peculiarity of events. This story was set down by the two ancient authors whom we have mentioned, shortly after the tragic death of Sabinus and Epponina. Tacitus recorded it in his history, Book IV, No. 55, and Plutarch in his In amator , p. 770. [5] Their faithful testimony can leave no doubt even about those circumstances that appear most extraordinary.

Modern Langres has been the birthplace of several very famous men of letters and fortunately not all have died. I shall mention only one from the last century, M. Barbier d'Aucourt, [6] for he was one of the best members the French Academy ever had.

Barbier d'Aucourt (Jean) was born to a poor family who could give him no help in his studies. But his genius and his diligence helped. He is known for his misfortunes, for his defense of Le Brun, falsely accused of having killed the woman Mazel whose servant he was, and for his Sentiments de Cléanthe sur les entretiens d'Ariste et d'Eugène , a lively, ingenious, delicate, and solid critique. Father Bouhours tried to have it suppressed and his attempts increased the editions. Barbier d'Aucourt was the friend of the gentlemen of Port Royal and composed several pieces against the Jesuits, whom he hated. He died very poor in 1694, in his 53rd year. My consolation, he said to delegates from the Academy, who had come to visit him during his last illness and who were saddened to see him in such poor surroundings, my consolation, he repeated, and my very great consolation is that I leave no heirs to my misery.

Notes

1. [For a discussion of Diderot's historical articles in the Encyclopédie , see Nelly N. Schargo, History in the Encyclopédie (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947), Appendix B, pp. 238–242.]

2. [J. Gruter, Th. Reinesius, D. Gautherot, Vignier, all men who wrote about Latin inscriptions in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.]

3. [See footnote 4, below.]

4. [The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Letters was originally founded by Colbert to compose inscriptions for the statues and commemorative medals of Louis XIV. From 1717 on it began to publish compilations on archeological and historical inscriptions. The story referred to here is actually in Vol. VI, p. 670, of the collection (Michaud, Dictionnaire de Biographie Universelle , "Julius Sabinus").]

5. [Tacitus, Histories IV. 55 and 67. Plutarch, Moralia , "Amatorius" 25.]

6. [Usual spelling, Barbier d'Aucour.]