DILIS
(Senèmes) Bouches-du-Rhône, France.
Commune of Martigues, 5 km S-SW of that city, on the
Mediterranean coast, near the hamlet of Laurons. Dilis
is mentioned in the
Antonine Itinerary. Surface finds include Roman coins and numerous pottery sherds. The
remains of an aqueduct 2 km long with its canal carved
in the rock and lined with concrete had attracted attention to the area, and in 1968 the ruins of a sizable
group of Roman buildings were uncovered.
To the S, on the edge of the paved Roman road along
the coast, is a large hall with a concrete floor. It opens
to the E on an exedra, is surrounded by partially destroyed smaller rooms, and seems to belong to a large
villa. To the N, near the beach, a larger group of buildings includes a bathing establishment; in its SE portion
is a large rectangular edifice, consisting of two courtyards each containing a well, and a series of more or
less similar rooms. Noteworthy are many fragments of
amphorae of the so-called Spanish type, intended for
salted foods, the handles of which often bear the manufacturer's mark (27 different stamps); also sigillated pottery, mostly with hemispherical lips, lightly sigillated
vases of yellow clay for liquids, glass receptacles, two
1st c. lamps, bronze nails, and coins of the 1st-4th
c. The buildings seem to have been constructed at the
beginning of the Empire, then destroyed, perhaps by a
fire, in the 3d c., and restored in the 4th c. with modifications, especially in the area of the baths.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
I. Gilles,
Les voies romaines et massiliennes dans le département des Bouches du Rhône
(1884); “Informations,”
Gallia 27,2 (1969).
A. DUMOULIN
