Today’s book is Lost Cities 50 Discoveries in World Archaeology edited by Paul G. Bahn. This is a bit about Entremont, a city in France from the second century BC that was overrun by...well, whom do you expect in second century Europe?
Entremont resisted the first campaign, of 125 BC, but was not able to withstand the assault by the forces under the control of C. Sextius Calvinus in 123 BC. A devastating catapult bombardment left the city littered with stone balls. The piles of clay slingstones, iron daggers, arrows, and javelins tell of a spirited but ultimately fruitless defence against the Roman attackers who entered the town on the road from the north-east, where many iron spearheads, pilae, were later discovered. Entremont was ransacked. Pottery dolia were smashed in the streets. Coin hoards, hidden away in small houses before the battle, were pillaged – only a few survived for archaeologists to discover: stashes of Massilian obols and Greek drachmas. The Saluvian king and his princes fled to safety in the land of Allobriges to the north. With the exception of some 900 Roman sympathizers and collaborators, the inhabitants of Entremont were deported. Entremont was abandoned, returning to rural obscurity.
Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.
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