Luteva
LUTE´VA (Eth. Lutevani: Lodève), in Gallia Narbonensis, is placed by the Table, where the name is written Loteva, on a road from Agatha (Agde) to Segodunum (Rhodez). Pliny (Plin. Nat. 3.5) says, Lutevani qui et Foroneronienses,w hence it has been concluded that he means the Forum Neronis mentioned by Ptolemy as being in the country of the Memini. [CARPENTORACTE] But the name Luteva, the modern name Lodève, and the Itin. seem to determine the position of Luteva; and, if Pliny is right, we must suppose that Luteva was also named Forum Neronis.
[G.L]A town of Narbonese Gaul which for a while bore the name of Forum Neronis (Plin. 3.37), given to it in 45 B.C. by Tiberius Claudius Nero. In the Late Empire, it became the capital of a civitas, then the see of a diocese. The town, at the edge of the plain of Languedoc and at the foot of the Causses, was a way station on the road that ran from Agde to Rodez by way of Cessero (St-Thibéry), Piscenae (Pézenas), and Condatomagus (Millau), and for this reason played a considerable role in the economy of the province. Luteva was an important market for export of the ore of the Cévennes, resin from the Causses, wool produced intensively in the interior and worked especially at Pézenas (Plin. 8.191), and the ceramics of La Graufesenque (near Millau) and Banassac.
The modern town masks the ancient one, which has been localized, however, by some chance discoveries. At the edge of the town, recent exploration has uncovered the large blocks of a structure thought to have been a mausoleum.
BIBLIOGRAPHYCarte archéologique de la Gaule romaine, fasc. X, Hérault (1946) 22, no. 71; “Informations,” Gallia 22 (1964) 491-93I.
G. BARRUOL