Issoudun, therefore, according to the researches of this antiquary,
like other cities of France whose ancient or modern autonym ends in
"Dun" ("dunum") bears in its very name the certificate of an
autochthonous existence. The word "Dun," the appanage of all dignity
consecrated by Druidical worship, proves a religious and military
settlement of the Celts. Beneath the Dun of the Gauls must have lain
the Roman temple to Isis. From that comes, according to Chaumon, the
name of the city, Issous-Dun,--"Is" being the abbreviation of "Isis."
Richard Coeur-de-lion undoubtedly built the famous tower (in which he
coined money) above the basilica of the fifth century,--the third
monument of the third religion of this ancient town. He used the
church as a necessary foundation, or stay, for the raising of the
rampart; and he preserved it by covering it with feudal fortifications
as with a mantle. Issoudun was at that time the seat of the ephemeral
power of the Routiers and the Cottereaux, adventurers and free-lancers,
whom Henry II. sent against his son Richard, at the time of his
rebellion as Comte de Poitou.
The history of Aquitaine, which was not written by the Benedictines,
will probably never be written, because there are no longer
Benedictines: thus we are not able to light up these archaeological
tenebrae in the history of our manners and customs on every occasion
of their appearance. There is another testimony to the ancient
importance of Issoudun in the conversion into a canal of the
Tournemine, a little stream raised several feet above the level of the
Theols which surrounds the town.
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