Allgäustraße
Allgäustraße is the modern name for an above-average wide (9.5 meters) Roman road in the Roman province of Raetia ( Raetia ), which led from Augsburg ( Augusta Vindelicorum ) in a south-westerly direction via Kempten (Allgäu) ( Cambodunum ) to Bregenz ( Brigantium ). From there it had a connection to Chur ( Curia Raetorum ) and along Lake Constance ( Brigantinus Lacus ) to Upper Germany ( Germania superior ) andGaul ( Gallia ). From Chur there was a connection to Como ( Comum ) in Italy via the Septimer Pass . The Latin name of this street has not been preserved, nor is its course recorded in either the Tabula Peutingeriana or the Itinerarium Antonini . The term "Allgäustraße" is used here after the model of Gerold Walser .
history
The Romans have always attached great importance to good road connections. Therefore, in addition to the Via Claudia Augusta as the main route from Augsburg to Italy, they soon built a second route further west across the Alps to Northern Italy. Today this route is called Allgäustraße on its section between Augsburg and Bregenz. Later, the Via Raetia was added as the third major connection from Augsburg to Italy . This eastern and newer variant was suitable for vehicles throughout and led over the Brenner Pass .
In Bregenz, the Allgäustraße not only had a connection via Chur and the Septimer Pass to Italy, but also to the west via the traffic routes along Lake Constance and the High Rhine. This made it an important connecting road between Augsburg and the province of Upper Germany with its capital Mainz ( Mogontiacum ). The Roman province of Raetia and thus also its most important cities Augsburg, Kempten (Allgäu) and Chur was more closely linked to the western neighboring province of Germania superior than to Norikum ( Noricum ) east of the Inn ( Aenus ). From the beginning (15 BC) Raetien was subordinate to the Upper Germanic military command in Mainz, in fact even when it had its own legion stationed in Augsburg from 180 AD . A small indication of Raetia's tendency to the west is the fact, which has only recently become known, that Raetia belonged to the Gallic Empire under the counter-emperor Postumus in the middle of the third century, albeit for a short time . This affiliation was probably because the western counter-emperor promised more protection from the invasions of the Teutons than the emperor in Rome. This had withdrawn troops from the border to Germania magna in order to fight the Persian Sassanid Empire , and thus delivered Raetia almost defenseless to the robber gangs of Alemanni from Germania magna.
The Allgäustraße and its extension to the west had to pass their first major military test in the wake of the Four Emperor's Year (68/69 AD). Kaiser Vespasian laid on it and the bit north approximately parallel Donausüdstraße large troop units from Noricum and Raetien forced marches forced over the Rheinknie at Basel to the Lower Rhine to the uprising of the Bataver cohorts knock. At the latest on this occasion it became clear how time-consuming the detour from Augsburg via the bend in the Rhine near Basel to Mainz and Trier ( Augusta Treverorum ) was, because the Roman troops who had taken this route only reached Trier when the Batavian uprising was successful without their participation had been knocked down. Because of this bad experience, Vespasian ordered the construction of a new north-west connection from the Donausüdstraße near Tuttlingen through the Kinzig valley to Strasbourg ( Argentoratum ) without hesitation . The new Kinzigtalstrasse, this shorter, strategic connection from Augsburg to Mainz and the Lower Rhine, was still too long for the military. Only a few years later, still in Flavian times, at the request of the strategists, the construction of an elaborate, completely new, even more northerly, almost straight line connection between the two provincial capitals Augsburg and Mainz was tackled. It led via Günzburg ( Guntia ), Cannstatt and Ladenburg ( Lopodunum ) directly to Mainz. Compared to the route via the Kinzigtalstraße, this route was about 150 km or six days' walk shorter. Not least to protect the new short road connection, the imperial border was moved from the Upper Danube to the north and from the Upper Rhine to the east. This new border ( Limes ), today called Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes , was initially just a militarily monitored border line, the monitoring and later defense mechanisms of which were continuously expanded and perfected over time. Due to the new road, Allgäustraße lost a large part of its previous importance after 95, as did the western section of Donausüdstraße. This loss of importance resulted from the decline in military and civil traffic on this road from Augsburg to Mainz and the Lower Rhine. This loss did not affect the importance of the road to the local economy and to trade with Gaul and Italy. There were factories in Raetia that took great advantage of the existence of this road in the 2nd century as well. These included B. the pottery industry in Schwabmünchen ( Rapis ).
However, Allgäustraße only regained its original importance 150 years later, after the abandonment of the Limes area, the so-called Limesfall , around the middle of the third century - and with it the loss of the Agri decumates and the north-western part of Raetia, today's Upper Swabia and the Black Forest - the newer, more direct and further north running traffic routes from Augsburg to the north-west failed. After the imperial border on the Danube-Iller-Rhine-Limes was withdrawn in the second half of the third century, the north-eastern Restraetia that remained to the Romans was that since Emperor Diocletian with the capital Augsburg under the name Raetia II ( Raetia secunda ) next to Raetia prima formed its own province with the seat of the governor ( praeses ) in Chur and which only included today's Upper Bavaria , today's Bavarian Swabia and parts of Tyrol , much smaller than the area conquered 270 years earlier by the adoptive sons of Emperor Augustus .
Completely unintentionally, from the third century onwards, the well-developed Allgäustraße offered the Teutons , who invaded more and more frequently from the north from Germania magna , whom the Romans were to call Alamanni a few years later , excellent conditions on their raids to quickly and deeply into the south of Rhaetia and further on To advance to Italy. From there, laden with booty, they returned quickly and often unmolested to their far less developed, much poorer areas north of the Danube. As a result of the devastating effect of these raids on the Rhaetian population and due to the extremely thin troop situation in Raetia and Roman Germania, the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes, the border to Germania Magna, had to do a relatively orderly operation around the middle of the third century, but de facto to be finally abandoned. The imperial border was withdrawn without relinquishing the legal Roman territorial claims to the south to the Danube and to the west to the Rhine to an easier to defend natural border line along rivers and lakes. The new imperial border led from Regensburg ( Castra Regina ) along the Danube to the west to the area of today's Ulm. There she swiveled south and followed the Iller ( Hilaria ). From Bregenz, Lake Constance and the Upper Rhine in the direction of Basel and then the Rhine to the north formed the new border. Due to the relocation of the border, the shorter road connections from Augsburg to Strasbourg and Mainz that had previously been used were interrupted. In any case, they were no longer available as Roman roads with the usual excellent infrastructure (military protection, horse changing stations, hostels, road maintenance services, etc.). The traffic from Augsburg to the south and north-west was therefore again largely handled via the Allgäustraße and its extension south of Lake Constance to the west. The new Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes and its hinterland were secured by small fortifications and deployed military units. The now again important traffic route of the Allgäustraße was reinforced with a chain of watchtowers. A small fort ( Burgus ), probably with the name Rostrum Nemaviae , was built on the Goldberg near Türkheim , for example .
swell
The Allgäustraße can be found both in the Tabula Peutingeriana and in the Itinerarium Antonini . In the area between Kempten (Allgäu) and Lake Constance , the Peutinger map does not clearly distinguish the Allgäustraße and the road from Epfach to Bregenz . Otherwise, distance information and location information are often not very reliable. The milestones are not particularly meaningful, especially since most of them are only known from old copies and have since disappeared.
course
While the Via Claudia left the Rhaetian capital Augsburg to the south-east via today's Haunstetten , the Allgäustraße ran via Göggingen . From the main gate ( Porta praetoria ) of the garrison camp near the point where today Äusser Pfaffengässchen and Karmelitengasse meet, it ran, initially together with the road to Günzburg ( Guntia ), parallel to Jesuitengasse / Kohlergasse to the west gate of the city and straight on towards Frölichstraße / main station . Here she turned to the southwest in the direction of Göggingen. Branches and burial places are documented at various locations; sculptures were found near the Gögginger Bridge. It continued over the current Gögginger Straße and Römerweg to Inningen and Bobingen , where the remains of prehistoric settlements have been found everywhere. Because of the risk of flooding near the raging Wertach , the road had to avoid the river bank. It moved east of the Wertach towards Allgäu and led over the fertile high terrace towards Lech ( Licus ). Today it essentially follows State Road 2035; In the localities, however, this almost always turns to the southwest in order to get to the newer settlements built on the river. Then it swings back in the old direction. The Roman road does not follow these turns, it always runs straight ahead.
Between Kempten and Bregenz, the Roman road runs a few kilometers south of the only part of the DIRL that is not secured by a river border . It is in many places through archaeological findings from the road itself (near Buchenberg, Wengen, Maierhöfen, Grünenbach, Röthenbach, Heimenkirch, Opfenbach), as well as through the associated burgi (watch stations at Ahegg, Schwarzerd, Heimenkirch, Meckatz, Mellatz, Sigmarszell, Hörbranz) proven. Today, near Kleinweiler, there is a replica of a Roman milestone from there. At the place Klamm bei Buchenberg the road overcame the highest point (921 m, on the watershed Danube / Rhine) in a ravine. The course of the road there is still a few hundred meters with clear wheel tracks in the rock.
Further stations are Schwabmünchen , Goldberg near Türkheim , Schlingen near Bad Wörishofen , Kaufbeuren , Kempten (Allgäu) ( Cambodunum ), Großholzleute near Isny im Allgäu , Bregenz , Altenstadt near Feldkirch , Maienfeld , Chur , Andeer on the Hinterrhein, Splügenpass (or alternatively Julierpass or Septimer , Chiavenna (Clavenna)), Como (Comum), Milan (Mediolanum).
literature
The older literature on the street is collected by: Friedrich Wagner: Bibliography of Bavarian Pre- and Early History 1884–1959. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1964 (Bibliographies of the Commission for Bavarian State History 6) No. 3376–3387. References to the road can be found in most descriptions of the province of Raetia, but mostly without a detailed explanation. The most systematic is still:
- Gerold Walser : The Roman roads and milestones in Raetia . Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart 1983 (Small writings on the knowledge of the Roman occupation history of Southwest Germany, No. 29).
To the fortifications
- Ludwig Ohlenroth: Roman Burgi on the road Augsburg - Kempten - Bregenz . - In: Reports of the Roman-Germanic Commission 29 (1940), pp. 122–156.
Illustrations, plans and photos
- plans
- On the course in Augsburg: Gunther Gottlieb (ed.): History of the city of Augsburg from Roman times to the present . Theiss, Stuttgart 1984. ISBN 3-8062-0283-4 . P. 42 (on the medieval town plan), p. 44 (city center)
- On the route to Bregenz: Wolfgang Czysz in Wolfgang Czysz (among others): The Romans in Bavaria . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995. ISBN 3-8062-1058-6 . P. 195 (Severan renewals)
- Braasch, Otto: Archaeological aerial photos of early streets and graves on Lech and Wertach. In: Josef Bellot (et al., Ed.): Research on Roman provincial archeology in Bavarian Swabia . Histor. Association for Swabia, Augsburg 1985 (Swabian historical sources and research; 14), pp. 117-146. P. 145: Large format map of the area south of Augsburg (roads, water pipes, water catchment area)
- Erwin Keller (Red.): The Romans in Swabia . Anniversary exhibition 2000 years Augsburg, organized by the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments and the City of Augsburg, Zeughaus, 23 May – 3. November 1985. Lipp [in Komm.], Munich 1985. ISBN 3-87490-901-8 (workbooks of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation; 27), p. 10 (plate II): Roman roads and milestones, cities and villages in the middle Imperial Era in Western Council
- Aerial photos:
- Braasch p. 124/25: Plan and photo of a view near Bad Wörishofen. Above the ground, the road is no longer preserved in the ground relief, material pits are visible in sections, while there are no references to road ditches.
- Erwin Keller (Red.): The Romans in Swabia . P. 144 (Plate VIII): Felsgeleise bei Buchenberg, Lkr. Oberallgäu.
Individual evidence
- ↑ p. 10, not necessarily meant technically - drawing p. 11.
- ↑ Martin Kemkes : From the Rhine to the Limes and back again. The "Occupation History of Southwest Germany . In: Imperium Romanum - Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube . Large state exhibition Baden-Württemberg 2005. Theiss, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1945-1 , pp. 44–53. Five large colored maps to the individual expansion stages or to the dismantling 260/270 AD
- ↑ Walser p. 31 f .; 37
- ↑ Walser, Steine No. 19–31, pp. 58 and 74–79. The milestones have now been compiled in CIL XVII, nos. 4.33–4.48 with a map of the Via ex Italia per Brigantiam Augustam in folio format on p. 16.
- ↑ Milestone No. 47 has been erected again between the districts; it is only 92 cm high, cut in half vertically and its surface is badly damaged
