The Roman ruins of Nasium, located in Naix-aux-Forges in the Meuse, are the remains of an ancient Gallo-Roman city, the first capital of the Leuca civitas. Founded at the end of the 1st century BC, it developed below the Boviolles oppidum at the confluence of Ornain and Barbour. At its peak, Nasium covered 120 hectares, competing with Metz as one of the main ancient cities of Lorraine. Its gradual decline and subsequent changes in the landscape (circumstances of canals, roads, railways) partially erased its original route.
The agglomeration of Nasium was structured around an orthonormized urban network from the Augustan era, with emblematic monuments such as a fanum (temple) and a forum. Inscriptions in Gallic and Latin, as well as numismatic discoveries, suggest its political and economic importance, notably thanks to the ford on the Ornain. The city would have obtained Latin law under Tiberius, as evidenced by epitaphs and dedications. The excavations revealed an occupation prior to the Conquest, with protohistoric traces near the oppidum, but it was under the Empire that Nasium became a major pole of romanization and commerce, as attested by sigillated ceramics and amphoras.
The remains of Nasium, classified as Historical Monument in 1862, are now scattered between Naix-aux-Forges and Saint-Amand-sur-Ornain. Modern modifications (the Marne Canal on the Rhine in 1847, railway in 1874) altered the site, but archaeological prospecting continued to reveal its extent and organization. The objects discovered, such as stone sculptures of Savonneries or inscriptions, are preserved at the Barrois Museum of Bar-le-Duc. The name Nasium has evolved over the centuries, passing through Nasion (Ptolemy), Nasie (Table of Puisinger), or Birth in the Middle Ages, before becoming Naix-aux-Forges in the 18th century.
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