Abstract
Ancient historians vary in their assessment of the extent to which the Roman state intervened in the organization and management of long-distance trade networks. While there is no longer any question today of centralized administration of the economy by the imperial power and its provincial representatives, it is commonly accepted that its financial and military aspects were the prerogative of the Emperor. Because of the political and strategic stakes involved, the latter justified the establishment of tax and annunciation services, the existence of which is well established by imperial-period texts and epigraphy. In archaeological terms, this meant the regular transport of massive quantities of foodstuffs, raw materials and manufactured goods, supported by infrastructures commensurate with the volumes transported (roads, ports, warehouses, etc.), which, in the absence of inscriptions, can rarely be attributed to the public or private domain.
Military stewardship (annona militaris) is an exception, since by its very nature it implies a tangible presence of the army, clearly distinguished from the civilian sphere by architecture or the discovery of militaria. As far as the Late Antiquity is concerned, there is a broad consensus on the existence of supply networks woven throughout Gaul, Germania and Brittany. As for the two centuries of relative peace that separated the reigns of Augustus and Commodus, on the other hand, it is often argued that there was no justification for this, as the role was entirely delegated to the individual initiative of private negotiators ; the occasional or more or less regular supply of certain categories of goods (currency, armaments, grain) did not necessarily require major infrastructures, built and managed by the public authorities.
This paper is not intended to settle the debate, but rather to highlight the contribution of archaeological data and, more specifically, field discoveries to the clarification of this issue. In contrast to the numerous works already devoted to the merchandise and warehouses unearthed in the military camps and towns of the Limes, we will focus on two sites which, by virtue of their location and history, were at the heart of these supply networks : namely, the colonies of Lyon/Lugdunum and Vienne/Vienna in the middle Rhone valley, two bridgeheads founded in the aftermath of the Gallic War at the interface of the Narbonnaise and Lyonnaise provinces. Their privileged links with Rome and imperial power explain the central role they played in the civil and military economy of Gaul and Germania from the 1st century AD onwards.
