The inhabitants of Forum Julii , ( Frejus ) are alex with a fish they called wolf .

Pliny the Elder, Natural history, Book XXI

When you dig a grave medieval , you do not expect to discover a fish pond below . Yet what happened to the builder of a building Frejus after archaeologists have completed their preventive excavations have cleared the yard . Instead of the solid base of red sandstone in which he expected to base its building , it found a hole filled with sediment . Recalled Pierre Excoffon , one of the archaeologists of the city of Frejus, then discovered a pool of ten square meters square and five meters deep.

What is it ? As the site lies between the southern ramparts of the ancient city and the northern limit of its harbor , archaeologists have realized that this basin was in ancient times to the close proximity of the sea ( now over a mile ) . The pond , crossed by three arches , was created in one piece , but there is no indication that he was in communication with the sea at the start , so that its primary function remains mysterious . In a second step , the facility was converted into a pond , three channels were carved into the rock to supply water to the sea , then there is a masonry interior compartment occupying one quarter of its surface. The developed portion communicates with the rest of the basin by small cavities in which are inserted grids lead . In one channel , one that remains in the water longer, archaeologists found more than one meter thick fiber Posidonia sea shells and many still stuck to the walls . Since the surrounding water supply, the inner compartment may have functioned like a great filter , while the remaining served as a breeding ground .

Forum Julii was renowned in antiquity for its garumA rotten fish brine nuoc mam close vietnam Pliny the Elder (23-79 ) indicates that thealexA similar product was produced in the region from “wolves ” of the fish we now call mules . Not far from Frejus to Issambres near Sainte Maxime is a breeding trap consists of three sumps in a creek, which could be used to catch the ” cloud of mules ” according to a technique described by Pliny the Elder . Others have been spotted in the region . All these facilities and the port of Frejus demonstrate the economic importance of fisheries and trade in fish products in the Forum Julii opulent I^st century . Curiously, however, at the end of I^st century that the reservoir of the port of Frejus be abandoned and filled with two thirds . Because the sea had already retreated ?