DlSCOrERlES IX BESJXCOX. 1.39 



actually in progress in many streets of the town, for the 

 formation of new sewers. The depth of the cuttings has 

 not been so great as could, in the interests of archaeology, 

 have been desired ; they have generally penetrated only 

 to the 4th-century layer : that is, to the same level as the 

 debris of the first Gallo-Roman villa destroyed by the 

 Emperor Constantine, the veritable barbarian of those 

 days, whose wish it was to raze systematically all the 

 dwellings on the left bank of the Rhine to a distance 

 of forty leagues, and to convert Sequania into a desert. 

 This 4th-century ground is characterized by a layer of 

 debris which rests on the admirable paved road so well 

 preserved, and immediately beneath the middle-age strata. 

 From the day of commencing this work, the labourers 

 have been asked to collect carefully all rusty fragments 

 denoting the presence of iron, and to note the level. As 

 since the Gallo-Roman times, and even the Celtic period, 

 the Grand-Rue of Besanc^on and the Rue Battant have 

 not ceased to be the lines of thoroughfare, the strata, de- 

 posited, it might be said, century after century, have each 

 in their turn rendered testimony to the manner in which 

 animals have been shod during, perhaps, eighteen cen- 

 turies. Indeed, in the Rue Battant, the roadway has been 

 cut down to the living rock, which is here found grooved 

 by ruts, and lies at least two metres' beneath the great 

 layer of Roman tiles, cinders, and antique remains by 

 which we at Besanqon recognize the ruins of the 4th cen- 

 tury. But everywhere is found, with differences in details 

 only, the horse-shoe as at present known The fol- 

 lowing are the most notable characteristics of these shoes : 



' The metre is equivalent to nearly 39I inches. 



