ween Lisieux and Caen, proved the
ancient and the modern city to have been placed at the distance of about
three quarters of a mile from each other. Extensive ruins of buildings,
situated in a field, called _Les Tourettes_, were then brought to light;
and among them were dug up various specimens of ancient art. The
researches of more modern times, principally conducted by M. Louis
Dubois, a very able antiquary of Lisieux, have materially added to the
number as well as the value of these discoveries; and the quantity of
Roman coins and medals that have rewarded his researches, would have
left little doubt as to the real site of Neomagus, even if the
circumstance had not within a very few years been established almost
beyond a question, by the detection of a Roman amphitheatre in a state
of great perfection.

Tradition, which there is in this instance no reason to impugn, relates
that the Gallo-Roman capital disappeared during the incursions of the
Saxons, about the middle of the fourth century. In farther confirmation
of such opinion, it is to be observed, that none of the medals dug up
within the ruins, or in their vicinity, bear a later date than the reign
of Constantine; and that, though the city is recorded in the _Itinerary
of Antoninus_, no mention of it is to be found in the curious chart,
known by the name of the _Tabula Peutingeriana_, formed under the reign
of Theodosius the Great; so that it then appears to have been completely
swept away and forgotten.

Modern Lisieux is supposed to have risen at no distant period of time
after the destruction of Neomagus. In the writings of the monkish
historians, it is indifferently called _Lexovium_, _Lexobium_,
_Luxovium__, Lixovium_, and _Lizovium_, names obviously borrowed from
the classical appellation of the tribe, as the French word _Lisieux_ is
clearly derived from them. In the early portion of Norman history,
Lisieux is mentioned as having felt the vengeance of these invaders,
during one of their predatory excursions from the Bessin, about the year
877. It was shortly afterwards sacked by Rollo himself, when that
conqueror, elated with the capture of Bayeux, was on his march to take
possession of the capital of Neustria. But the territory of Lisieux was
still the last part of the duchy which owned Rollo as its lord: it was
not ceded to him by Charles the Simple, till 923, at which time he had
for eleven years been the undisputed sovereign of the rest of Normandy.