v55_0612 - LIMOGES (LEMOVECAS) Denier ER

LEMOVECAS - LIMOGES (Haute-Vienne)

(7th-8th centuries)

Capital of the Lémovices, the city is at the crossroads of the "via Agrippa" linking Lugdunum (Lyon) to Mediolanum Santonum (Saintes) and the "via Avaricum Tolosa" linking Toulouse to Bourges. From the 3rd century to the end of the 4th century, Augustoritum was gradually abandoned following the troubles and insecurity caused by the Germanic invasions. At the beginning of the 6th century, Augustoritum became Limoges and a second urban center (the future castellum Sanctis-Martialis) emerged around a nearby necropolis, to the northwest, which preserved the tomb of Martial, the first bishop. The Franks take the city. They reinvest it in a brutal way, at the beginning of the 8th century, once the Muslim invasion stopped in Poitiers by Charles Martel. The appointment of the goldsmith Eligius (future Saint Éloi), a local notable, as a close collaborator of the Merovingian king Dagobert, softened the Frankish domination. Source: Wikipedia.org.