Noviodunum (Switzerland)

Noviodunum or Colonia Iulia Equestris was a Roman era settlement in what is now Nyon in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

The original functions of the Colonia were to provide land for veterans and military bases in conquered territory.

Noviodunum was part of a loose network of settlements that radiated out from Lugdunum (modern Lyon, France) and helped to control the Rhone Valley.

A monumental center, housing everything needed for the economic, religious and social life of the colony, was established.

At its east end was a two-story basilica, whose ground floor was divided, by a centrally located row of wooden columns, into two naves.

A market building (macellum) with a central courtyard around which were the sales rooms, and the baths (tepidarium with geometric shapes and mosaics) were renovated.

Some villa suburbana stood in the west of the village, while the artisan and merchant quarter, presumably, developed in the southwest.

A 10 km (6.2 mi) long aqueduct, which ran from the Divonne area to the colony, provided the water supply.

[1] After a long period of peace and prosperity, signs of crisis and general insecurity were increasing in the early 3rd c As a result of Alamanni invasions of 259 or 260 AD, the forum and the public buildings in the city were razed.

These include the large necropolis at Clémenty which has tombs from the 5th to 8th centuries, the stone box graves in the Grand-Rue, near an early medieval building with apses, and the mention of a Civitas Equestrium in the Notitia Gallic around 400 AD.

The center of the Roman city was on an elevated plateau between the Asse and Cossy rivers, at the same point as the later medieval castle and old town of Nyon.

The easily defended hill dominated the lake on which human settlements date back the Neolithic era.

[1] The Colonia, which was located along roads with Lyon, the capital of the Gauls, Aventicum, Augusta Raurica, Valais and Italy and connected by waterways to the Mediterranean and the Rhine was benefited from trade across the Western Roman Empire.

Imports included: luxury tableware or products from the Mediterranean, such as amphorae of wine, oil, or fish sauce.

One example of this form of Romanization, the villa of Commugny with its peristyle, baths, mosaics and high quality wall paintings was built in the years between 35 and 45 AD.