Arae Flaviae

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Arae Flaviae was the Latin name of a Roman city ( Municipium ), located on a Neckar crossing in the eastern foothills of the Black Forest in the province of Germania superior (Upper Germany). The ancient settlement is the forerunner of today 's city of Rottweil in Baden-Württemberg, which dates back to the Hohenstaufen era .

Surname

Arae Flaviae translates as Altars of the Flavians . The city was founded under Emperor Vespasian (69–79 AD) from the Flavian dynasty . The name suggests that a regional center of the imperial cult of the Flavian dynasty should arise here.

history

The melting pot of an ancient counterfeiter
Court record of August 4, 186 AD on a trial before Marcus Iuventius Caesianus, the legionary legate of Legio VIII Augusta at the time , in Arae Flaviae (copy)

Rottweil is now the oldest city in Baden-Württemberg. In Roman times it was the capital of a civitas and - as far as known - was the only Roman city in what is today Baden-Württemberg to have the privileged legal status of a municipality . This usually meant, among other things, that every member of the city council received the coveted Roman citizenship . With an area of ​​approx. 18 hectares, Arae Flaviae was one of the largest Roman settlements in the Dekumatland , albeit small in comparison with Roman cities such as Cologne or Mainz ; representative buildings shaped the cityscape.

It was not until 1950 that the ancient Arae Flaviae , whose name has been passed down from the so-called Peutinger tablet ( Tabula Peutingeriana ) and from Claudius Ptolemaeus , was almost certainly identified with Rottweil by an unusual find of inscriptions: the words were on the wooden plaque of a Roman court diploma acto municipio Aris - in German: "exhibited in the city of Arae" - decipherable. The tablet, dated August 4th, 186 AD, was found during an excavation in a Roman well under the house at Flavierstrasse 1 in Rottweil's old town.

Origin and location

The settlement was a well 73 n. Chr. By the Romans in the course of the construction of the Roman Kinzigtalstraße based military camp (Fort III) from wood and earth on the right side of the Neckar advance. The crew had to monitor an important crossroads, as two important military roads met here. Emperor Vespasian's aim was to shorten the routes between the Rhine and Danube troops after the experience of the Four Emperor's Year . The north-south connection was formed by the Neckar-Alb-Aare Roman road from the Windisch legionary camp via Tenedo and Hüfingen to Rottweil and on to Rottenburg . The west-east axis begins at the Strasbourg legionary camp , led over the fort near Offenburg , through the Kinzig valley to the Waldmössingen fort and finally to Rottweil. The end point in the east is in Augsburg . Immediately south of Fort III, two more wood-earth camps (Fort IV and V) were found. Also known are the legionary camp Kastell I on the left bank of the Neckar, which was occupied for about ten years with at least parts of the Legio XI Claudia from Vindonissa (maybe even with the entire legion), as well as the most recent facility, Kastell II a / b, which was expanded in stone in its second phase of development and perhaps served as a supply base. In the spring of 1980, further Roman fortification trenches were visible to the southeast of Fort I and II, which could indicate a sixth military camp in Rottweil.

The Legio XI was withdrawn again around 86 under Domitian ; It was apparently replaced by two auxiliary troops stationed in Fort II, which had space for around 1,000 men. In 101 these troops were withdrawn too; according to today's knowledge, the Roman military presence in Rottweil ended; Parts of the buildings were subsequently dismantled and installed in civilian buildings by Arae Flaviae .

Urban development

Almost simultaneously with the construction of the fort, a vicus developed at the junction , the civil camp village in which the families of soldiers, traders and craftsmen, innkeepers and other tradesmen lived, who benefited from both the stationed military and long-distance trade. In addition to large building complexes of up to 80 m in length along the main streets, on which there were also several temples, the archaeologists of the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Monument Preservation, who have been working regularly since 1967, uncovered craft businesses with lime kilns, iron smelters, pottery and other trades. Presumably as early as 75 AD, but at the latest during the reign of Emperor Trajan (98-117), the elevation of the settlement to the Municipium Arae Flaviae took place.

From then on, the Roman settlement was grouped around two main streets connected by several alleys, on the one hand still the trunk road, on the other hand a parallel boulevard later to the west of it, on which several representative buildings were located, including a basilica and the forum. In the east, across a third parallel street, there was a temple district. There was probably a Roman theater in the city as well. In the city center, most of the stone houses were built, as was customary in the Mediterranean area, but on the outskirts the half-timbered construction typical of the northwestern provinces dominated.

Arae Flaviae , as the name makes clear, was apparently originally intended by the Romans to be the central location of the newly conquered area between the Rhine and the Danube; But after just a few years, when Vespasian's son Domitian moved his troops further north around 85 AD, the settlement lost its preferred strategic position and therefore (regardless of the size of the public buildings erected when it was founded) ultimately remained a small town. In the early 2nd century, the forts on the left side of the Neckar were abandoned and the area built over.

Temple district and fire burial ground

On the southern edge of the ancient city, a larger temple district was excavated. a. belong three Gallo-Roman temple temples. Also on the southern edge, the large cremation cemetery was uncovered, in which the archaeologists systematically dug.

Decline

In the first half of the 3rd century the place was fortified; this is likely to be related to the increasingly unstable military situation since around 230. After the Roman troops had left the region around 260 AD (" Limesfall "), Arae Flaviae also went under; presumably, however, a significantly reduced settlement continued to exist for some time.

Important buildings in the city

"Villa A"

At the end of the 19th century, the so-called "Villa A" was discovered in the south of the former Hochmauren estate, the size and strikingly symmetrical floor plan of which could indicate a representative public building.

Building complex "Villa C"

A building unit consisting of three large stone buildings measuring 46 x 54 m in total forms the northern edge of the city. This includes the so-called "Villa C" with a small bathroom and a large, elongated magazine building. The interpretation of this system ranges from a public street station to a representative private residence.

Great thermal baths (bath 3)

Thermal baths at Nikolausfeld. View from the southernmost large heating chamber to the north

In 1967, central parts of a bathing facility in the "Nikolausfeld" corridor to the left of the Neckar were excavated, the preserved foundations of which can be viewed today at the southeast corner of the municipal cemetery. It concerns the fort bath of the legionary camp (fort I) and the subsequent fort II, whereby the thermal baths - unlike usual - were located within the fort area. In addition, they are not parallel to the axes of the forts, which may be due to the orientation towards the position of the sun. The (possibly missing) convertible halls and outbuildings could not be verified, as the square suffered severe damage due to overbuilding in the early Middle Ages. The thermal baths were of the series system type and aligned precisely on a north-south axis. You entered the bathroom from the north. To the left and right of the front, dominated by a cold water bath ( frigidarium ) in the middle, there were two oblong, rectangular dressing rooms ( apodyterium ), which flanked the building along the length of the frigidarium. The cold bath had a small apse at each of its two northern corners. A smaller additional cold water basin was connected in the middle of the northern inner facade. At the southern end of the eastern apodyterium, visitors were able to visit a small round sweat bath ( sudatorium ) that had its own lighting point. On the opposite side, in the southwest corner of the second undressing room, the excavators can only see a short wall, built in a west-east direction, which ended at the south-east corner of a small, almost square, heated room, the function of which is questionable. This space was not preserved during the conservation. Following the cold bath, the leaf bath ( tepidarium ) and then the warm water bath ( caldarium ) followed in the leading room of the building to the south . The hypocaust heating in the tepidarium received its warmth from this bath . In the area of ​​the caldarium there were two opposite heated apses to the west and east. Three boiler rooms were responsible for heating this area. Two were on the west and east side of the thermal baths, following the apsidia. The third, large one, with two heating outlets, took up the entire south side of the bathing complex.

Mosaics

The Municipium Arae Flaviae is known nationwide for its two mosaics , the Sol and Orpheus mosaics. They are of high quality and were probably made not by local artists but by specialists from outside - a sign of the relative prosperity of the small settlement. The mosaics are now exhibited together with many other Roman finds in the Dominican Museum in Rottweil .

literature

Older literature

  • Peter Goessler : The Roman Rottweil mainly due to the excavations in autumn 1906 . Stuttgart 1907.
  • Maximilian Him : Ara, Arae 10: Arae Flaviae . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume II, 1, Stuttgart 1895, Col. 340.
  • Contributions to the history of this city by the Rottweiler Association for the Exploration of Antiquities / Annual Report of the Rottweiler Archaeological Association:
    • Roman antiquities in the area around Rottweil am Neckar. Stuttgart 1835.
    • Friedrich von Alberti : Roman antiquities in the area around Rottweil am Neckar . Stuttgart: 1833-1837. Annual report of the Archaeological Association of Rottweil.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AE 1956, 90 .
  2. See Klaus Kortüm: Cities and small-town settlements . In: Archäologisches Landesmuseum Baden-Württemberg (Ed.): Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube . Stuttgart 2005, pp. 154-164.