Donausüdstrasse
The Roman military and trunk road along and near the southern bank of the Danube , which historians call Donausüdstraße (via iuxta Danuvium) , rarely misunderstood as Donaustraße , was initially up to around the year 45 from Brigobannis ( Hüfingen Fort ) near the origin of this river in a north-easterly direction Weltenburg built. About 50 years later it was taken to behind Belgrade and from there to Constantinople. Essentially, only the western section of the southern Danube road within the Roman province of Raetia is reported here.
meaning
In its westernmost and oldest section, the Donausüdstraße was reinforced from west to east with the Roman forts of Hüfingen ( Brigobannis ), Tuttlingen , Ennetach , Emerkingen , Riißissen , Unterkirchberg , Burlafingen , Nersingen and Günzburg (Guntia). Initially, the road was mainly used for the military security of the Rhaetian section of the northern border of the empire (Tiberian-Claudian Danube line). It was probably designed and built by Brigobannis under the responsibility of pioneers from the 21st Legion Rapax ( Legio XXI Rapax ) stationed in Windisch ( Vindonissa ) . The troops required to secure the border were stationed at least until 80 AD, partly in the new forts along the Danube , partly occupied by auxiliary troops, and partly with legionaries in the Windisch legionary camp in the west. Augsburg did not house a legionary camp during the first century AD. The upper Danube (Latin Danuvius ) marked from 15 BC. BC to about 95 AD the Rhaetian section of the border line between the Roman Empire and the then unoccupied Germania ( Germania magna ). The relatively narrow, straight and weatherproof Donausüdstraße with a width of about five meters was consistently designed for the limited military task of securing and monitoring the northern border of Raetia and the empire from the beginning of the Danube to Weltenburg from Windisch. The route of the new road optimized walking distances through the extensive and straight-line cutting of river curves, avoided floodplains and, for reasons of visibility, preferably followed the apex of flat, elongated elevations. It made no concessions to the transport needs of the settlements that already existed at that time. For example, instead of approaching Augsburg, which was growing dynamically at the time, east of Günzburg, it kept its northeastern course at an average distance of two to five kilometers from the Danube. As a result, it was not suitable, for example, as a towpath for a function that is probably not undesirable for trade . The provisional eastern end of the new road at Weltenburg made military sense, because because of the approximately six kilometers long Danube breakthrough, the Weltenburg Narrow , which began to the east of Weltenburg , was no longer with Weltenburg to the confluence of the Inn (Aenus), the eastern border of Rhaetia Larger river crossings by Teutons from the north are to be expected. In terms of trade and transport policy, the end of the street in Weltenburg did not make sense, because from the confluence of the Via Claudia into the Donausüdstraße north of Augsburg, a blind street directed eastwards was created that was useless for commercial and civil traffic.
Only after the construction of a connecting road between Tuttlingen and Strasbourg ( Argentoratum ), the Kinzigtalstrasse , around the year 75 under Emperor Vespasian , the western section of the Donausüdstrasse attained an outstanding transport and military importance by the end of the 1st century. It connected Augsburg, which was growing in political and economic importance and later the capital of Rhaetia, with Mainz, the capital and the military center of the Roman province of Upper Germany . Since Augsburg had no legionary camp of its own until around 175, this section of the Donausüdstrasse, which established the shortest connection from Augsburg to the legionary camps of Strasbourg and Mainz on the Rheintalstrasse , was of strategic importance. All the more so since Windisch was dissolved as a legionary camp around this time. With the relocation of the border ( Limes ) between Raetia and Germania Magna towards the end of the 1st century from the upper Danube north to the Swabian Alb and the Neckar region (Nicarus) and the construction of a much shorter connecting road from Augsburg to Mainz with the route Augsburg - Günzburg - Cannstatt - Ladenburg - Mainz, the western section of the Donausüdstraße lost its military, strategic and commercial importance. From then on it was little more than a local connecting road. The same applied to the section running east of Günzburg, which had been continued to Regensburg ( Castra Regina ), which at that time did not exist as a city , but which had little traffic due to the new direct connections between Augsburg and Günzburg. At the beginning of the second century, under Emperor Trajan, new significant sections of the Danube South Road east of Raetia were developed as a strategic supply line in logistical preparation for the Dacian Wars up to the Trajan's Bridge at Drobeta Turnu Severin (Drobeta) in Romania (see also Tabula Traiana ). At the same time, the Danube was systematically developed as a waterway from Rississen to Belgrade.
In the second third of the third century, under the pressure of the Germans invading from the north and due to the lack of troops, the Romans took the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes in the eastern section of Rhaetia (east of the Iller) back south to the Danube in a relatively orderly manner. To the west of the Iller, the defense of the western part of Raetia down to Lake Constance and the Upper Rhine was de facto abandoned. According to a more recent hypothesis (see Limesfall ), frequent flood disasters, which can be traced back to radical deforestation of the riparian forests in the river valleys, may have contributed to the shifting of the border to the south.
The new Danube border ( Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes ), expanded from around 280 onwards , ran from east to west between Regensburg and the mouth of the Iller , i.e. that is, to just west of Neu-Ulm. There the Limes turned south. From here the Iller (Hilaria) to Kempten ( Cambodunum ) formed the new border. From there the new Danube-Iller-Rhine-Limes led a piece over open landscapes and along the Argen to Lake Constance (Lacus Brigantinus). He then followed the southern shores of Lake Constance and the Upper Rhine to Basel (Basilia) and then turned north following the Rhine (Rhenus).
The north-western part of Raetia (today's Württemberg Upper Swabia, the Black Forest (Abnoba montes) and the Dekumatenland (Agri decumates) between the Upper Rhine and the now abandoned part of the Limes that runs from north to south) was systematically cleared by the Romans. As a result, the western part of the Donausüdstraße from Hüfingen at the eastern foot of the Black Forest to the Unterkirchberg fort on the Iller and the Kinzigtalstraße from Tuttlingen to Strasbourg were at least Roman protected roads from the middle of the third century. The same was true for the northern section of the road between Günzburg and Ladenburg. The east-west traffic from Augsburg to Mainz therefore shifted back to Allgäustraße . The Donausüdstraße was then for about 250 years in the north-eastern part of the remainder, which had formed its own province as Raetia secunda with the capital Augsburg since the imperial reform of Emperor Diocletian , on the east bank of the Iller to the south to Allgäustraße near Kempten and so in the direction of Bregenz ( Brigantium ) diverted. The traffic from Augsburg to Mainz, to the northern Rhine provinces and Gaul was completely taken over by the Allgäustraße, which is almost ten meters wide, and its western extension. The traffic was now led from Bregenz via the more easily defended southern shore of Lake Constance, the Upper Rhine and via Basel to Mainz. The journey from Augsburg to Mainz ( Mogontiacum ) over the knee of the Rhine near Basel was again 250 kilometers longer. Just as long as it was 200 years ago.
history
15 BC The northern border of the Roman Empire was moved from the southern foot of the Alps to the Danube on the orders of Emperor Augustus , which was moved by the Romans in the upper reaches based on their Celtic name "Danuvius" and as a coherent river with their Greek name " Ister " or "Hister" was called. The emperor's two step-sons, Drusus and Tiberius , were commissioned to undertake the final conquest, which went down in history as the Alpine campaign . Drusus drew 15 BC. BC with his army over the Brenner and Reschenpass to the area of Garmisch-Partenkirchen . Tiberius, the later emperor, reached over the central alpine passes, such as. B. the Septimerpass , and the High Rhine Valley Lake Constance ( Lacus Brigantinus ), where he set up his headquarters on one of the islands. Tiberius is said to have visited the sources of the Danube on this occasion (cf. Hüfingen Castle ). The two victorious armies (see Tropaeum Alpium ) united on the Lech ( Licus ) south of Augsburg ( Augusta Vindelicorum ). The Alpine campaign initially served to secure a large area in Northern Italy, which had been repeatedly attacked by Celts attacking from the Alps. The occupation of Vindeliciens certainly also served to prepare and secure the flanks of the long-term unsuccessful conquest campaigns of the Romans into the Magna Germania region, which were immediately followed from the left bank of the Rhine.
From then on, the upper Danube formed the relatively calm, natural northern border of the Roman Empire in the section of the emerging, largely depopulated Roman province of Raetia to the "Free Germania" (Magna Germania) not occupied by the Romans. A military road (Latin via militaris ) from Hüfingen ( Brigobannis ) near the source of the Danube (caput Danuvii) to Weltenburg was built south of the “wet border” around the middle of the first century AD , and mostly at intervals of a day's march, i.e. from approx 35 km, fortified with forts . In the first 50 years of its existence, the street was also part of the shortest connection between the militarily important legionary camp Mogontiacum / Mainz and Augsburg, which gained political and economic importance in the first century AD, despite an initially cumbersome route over the knee of the Rhine near Basel after 170 was completely dependent on Mainz for military purposes. The Donausüdstrasse was therefore of paramount strategic importance from 45 to 95. Around the year 75, on the orders of Emperor Vespasian, a variant of the Donausüdstraße from Tuttlingen through the Kinzig valley to Strasbourg was built, which decisively shortened the route to Mainz.
It was only under Domitian , the last Flavier emperor , in the late eighties of the first century that the strategic road connection Augsburg - Mainz began to be relocated further north, away from Donausüdstrasse. A new, direct route from Augsburg to Mainz was built via Günzburg (Guntia), an important Roman Danube crossing, and Cannstatt in the Neckar Valley. The duration of the march was shortened by four to five days on this roughly 160 kilometers shorter route. To protect the new route, which ran further north, the imperial border also had to be advanced from the upper Danube north to the Swabian Alb and into what is now Franconia . Around 90 AD, Gunzenhausen fort, the northernmost point of this relocation, was reached. Emperor Trajan (98–117 AD) elevated Augsburg to the capital of the Roman province of Raetia. Emperor Antoninus Pius (138–161) completed the Upper Germanic-Rhaetian Limes , which secured this new imperial border, which was definitive in this section until the middle of the third century.
Road network
In the context of securing the Roman northern border, the Danube South Road was of great importance in the second half of the first century. It not only improved the local border security, but also initially served as a connection between the Roman province of Raetia, which was taking shape, with its western neighbor, the province of Upper Germany ( Germania superior ). Significantly, the road was initially only expanded to the east to Weltenburg and not to the border with the Roman province of Noricum , i.e. to Passau at the mouth of the Inn. This ensured that this road and with it the control of the northern border of Raetia was exclusively under the command in Mainz and not in the closer Noricum. With the military road first a strategic east-west axis along the former northern border of the Roman Empire was created, not directly but with the province of Noricum, which as a future provincial capital profiling Augsburg and Italy by the north-south axis Via Claudia connected was. This road connection allowed troops to be moved quickly, mainly from the west. The Via Claudia, coming from Italy from the south, ended at Fort Mertingen (Submuntorium) south of Mertingen in a T-shape in the Donausüdstraße. In 74 AD, the western part of the Danube south road was expanded from Tuttlingen by the legio VIII Augusta under the command of Gnaeus Pinarius Cornelius Clemens through the Kinzig valley to Strasbourg (Argentoratum) to the northwest. With the so-called Kinzig valley variant, a connection from Augsburg to Mainz was created that was about 260 km shorter. In the years before the construction of the Donausüdstrasse and the Kinzigtalspange, the route from Augsburg to Mainz led on the Allgäustrasse via Bregenz (Brigantium) and Basel (Basilia) down the Rhine to Mainz. Already in the year 46 the construction of the Donausüdstraße had shortened this route by a few, days, even before the construction of the Kinzigtalspange. Before the construction of the Kinzigtalspange, i.e. between the years 46 and 74, the Augsburg – Mainz route led either as before via the Allgäustraße to Basel or from the westernmost point of the Donausüdstraße near Hüfingen to the south to the Upper Rhine and from there westwards over the Rhine bend near Basel north towards Mainz.
The western part of the Donausüdstraße seen from Günzburg (Guntia) ran a few kilometers south of the Danube almost dead straight southwest to the solitary mountain Bussen . This summit, which is visible from afar in the gentle hilly landscape (often wrongly regarded as the highest mountain in Upper Swabia), served the builders as a marker. The road crosses the southern flat foothills of this mountain. To the west of the bus, the road met the Danube again and led from there through the Danube valley to the source of the Danube (Caput Danubii) and the Hüfingen fort, at the eastern foot of the Black Forest. Approximately at the border between the Roman provinces of Raetia and Upper Germany, it led into an older Roman road that led from Brigobanis south to the Upper Rhine and to Windisch ( Vindonissa ). The builders who planned and built the Donaustraße from Windisch around the middle of the first century wanted the new road exclusively as a fast connection from Vindonissa to the new Danube forts on the Rhaetian Danube border. A new purpose was pursued with the expansion of the Kinzigtalspange, the shortened connection from Fort Tuttlingen via Rottweil ( Arae Flaviae ) through the Kinzig valley to Strasbourg in the years 73-74 AD. It was about shortening the distance between Augsburg and the Upper Germanic legionary camps Strasbourg and Mainz. Consequently, Vindonissa was abandoned as a legion camp. With the construction of the Kinzigtalspange, the Dekumatenland was annexed and the northern Rhaetian border was moved north from the Danube for the first time. Due to the new short connection to Strasbourg and Mainz, the Donausüdstrasse attained its greatest military and commercial importance for the next 25 years. It was now the clearest and by far the shortest and best developed connection between Raetien and Mainz. As a result, representative stone buildings were erected for the first time in several of the Danube castles between Tuttlingen and Günzburg, which had previously consisted of wooden log huts. This new importance of the Donausüdstraße came to an end when Emperor Trajan created an even more direct, even shorter connection further north from Augsburg via Günzburg and Cannstatt to Mainz around 97 AD.
Konrad Miller , the old master of Roman research in Upper Swabia, was only able to report incomplete information on the course of Roman military roads in Upper Swabia. In 1891, together with the geometer Denzel, he examined twenty-one places on Südstrasse. They found a 4.7 to 5.5 m wide, sloping road with road ditches on both sides. The suitcase, winter-proof road body consisted of a 20–40 cm thick layer of stone over which local gravel was located. The Romans called a road constructed in this way, in this case unpaved, “via glareata” or “glarea strata”. The gauge of Roman road wagons, as is known from the tracks of the Alpine crossings carved into the stone, was 105–115 centimeters as standard. On the comparatively narrow Donausüdstraße, however, two carts that met each other were able to pass each other with a lane width of around five meters without time-consuming evasive maneuvers. Outside the localities, the road lay in the middle of a 14 to 21 m wide, carefully cut and mown strip of meadow, which, in good weather, allowed marching in rows of six and eight. From the experience z. B. the lost Varus Battle the Romans had learned that compact, i.e. H. Marching units that were not drawn out increased the security of the troops during raids in wooded areas. In 1986 the Donausüdstraße near Neu-Ulm and in 1990 near Unterfahlheim was cut and examined for the last time. A reliable assessment of the age of the cut road sections turned out to be difficult because the road was still used and repaired in various sections after the Romans left in the 3rd and 5th centuries. As early as the year 800, Charlemagne systematically restored a large number of the run-down Roman roads in his empire. The fact that a number of churches along its route were first mentioned in a document around the year 800 (cf. Riississen , Bussen ) speaks for the fact that Donausüdstraße was also one of the roads that were restored at that time .
The Donausüdstraße is often marked in current maps (or in the previously common measuring table sheets ) as "Roman or Heerstraße". Roads that are still in use today (e.g. in Rississen ) and dirt roads often run along their route in sections. If the Donausüdstraße were still continuously passable or drivable today, it would still be the shortest, most straightforward and lowest incline connection between Regensburg and Donaueschingen .
literature
- Margot Klee : The early Roman fort Unterkirchberg . In: Museum Ulm (Hrsg.): Römer an Donau and Iller. New research and findings . Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 30-41.
- Rainer Kreutle: Roman streets in the Ulm area . In: Museum Ulm (Hrsg.): Römer an Donau and Iller. New research and findings . Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1996, pp. 117-123.
- H. Schmid, Hans Eberhardt: Considerations on the course of early Roman military roads in Upper Swabia . In: LDA Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Archeology in the area around the Heuneburg . Stuttgart 1999, pp. 97-102.
Web links
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ According to the inscription CIL 3, 5755 : viam iuxta amnem Danuvium fieri iussit .
- ↑ Itinerarium Antonini
- ↑ Werner Zanier : The Roman Alpine Campaign on the Septimer 15 BC. Chr. In: Akademie Aktuell. Journal of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. No. 3/2006, Munich 2006, ISSN 1436-753X , pp. 28-31 ( PDF ).
- ↑ Strabo 7,1,5, p. 292.
- ^ H. Schmid, H. Eberhardt: Considerations on the course of early Roman military roads in Upper Swabia . In: LDA Baden-Württemberg (Hrsg.): Archeology in the area around the Heuneburg . Stuttgart 1999, p. 97.
- ↑ Rainer Kreutle: Roman roads in the Ulm region . In: Museum Ulm (Hrsg.): Römer an Donau and Iller. New research and findings . Thorbecke, Stuttgart 1996, p. 120.