Calo (castle)

Calo
Alternative name	Calone
limes	Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy)	unsecured
Type	Alenkastell
place	Baerl - Halen (presumed)
	Template: Infobox Limeskastell / Maintenance / Untraceable
Previous	Alpen-Drüpt fort (north)
Subsequently	Asciburgium (south-southeast)

Calo (also: Calone ) was an Alenkastell , which is listed in the Itinerarium Antonini , a directory of the most important Roman imperial roads, probably created in the 3rd century AD. It belonged to the Lower Germanic Limes and was located on the Lower Rhine between the present-day cities of Krefeld and Xanten , probably in the far northwest of the present-day city of Duisburg .

location

Assumed location of the Calo camp in the course of the Lower Germanic Limes

Halen on a section of the map of the County of Moers, engraved by Johannes Mercator in 1591

According to the current state of research is to Calo If the Rhine by relocations dialed Kirchdorf Halen (documented by 900: Halon ) northeast of Moers have found. The place was on the left bank of the Rhine on a ledge of the lower terrace, which was about 30 m above sea level. NN. the river valley clearly towered above it. In 10./11. In the 19th century, Halon was still used as a place name. Halen began to decline around 1500, and on Mercator's map of the county of Moers from 1591, the Halen church, right on the river, is already half ruined. Halen was then finally destroyed by the Rhine around 1600.

Ancient sources

Calo is mentioned twice in the Antonini Itinerary . The details for the journey north are:

Gelduba	leugas VIIII ala
Calone	leugas VIIII ala
Veteris	leugas XXI castra leg. XXX Ulpia

And for the opposite direction, i.e. from north to south:

Veteribus	mp ${\ displaystyle \ infty}$
Calone	mp XVIII
Novesiae	mp XVIII

That means, the distance between Gelduba (Krefeld-Gellep) and Calo is 9 Leugen (= 20 km) and from Calo to Vetera (Xanten-Birten) also 9 Leugen (= 20 km). For the way south, the distance between Calo and Novaesium (Neuss) is given as 18 Roman miles (= 27 km). The distance between Vetera and Calo cannot be seen in this direction.

Research history

Calo on a section of the map "Belgii Veteris" by Abraham Ortelius (1594)

The attempts to localize the camp are manifold. Peter Bertius (1565–1629) was apparently the first who tried to equate Calo with today's places. Strangely enough, he did this in two different places. On the one hand with Cleue ( Kleve ) and on the other hand with Gellern (this probably means Geldern). Apparently Bertius had interpreted the distance information as legion numbers and was therefore not tied to the distances in the itinerary. Abraham Ortelius seems to have done this too, as Belgii Veteris Calo is indicated on his card with the addition of LEGIO IX . This deficiency was recognized later, however, and so in the following time the localizations mainly concentrated on the area between Rheinberg and Duisburg- Kaldenhausen , whereby even up to the most recent localization (Halen), the distance information from the Antonini itinerary does not match in all points.

literature

Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Clive Bridger, Karl-Josef Gilles (Hrsg.): Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces . Archaeopress, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-86054-887-2 , pp. 13-22 (BAR International Series 704).

swell

Otto Cuntz (Ed.): Itineraria Romana . Volume 1. Itineraria Antonini Augusti et Burdigalense . Teubner, Leipzig 1929; Reprint Teubner, Stuttgart 1990, ISBN 3-519-04273-8 , p. 36 u. 56 ( excerpt from Google Books ).

Remarks

↑ Cosmograph of Louis XIII. Published several cartographic works that were edited in Amsterdam. The best known of these are the Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri , published in several editions .

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Otto Cuntz: Itineraria Romana , Leipzig 1929 (reprint Stuttgart 1990), p. 36 u. 56.
↑ Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, pp. 13–22.
↑ Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, p. 16.
↑ Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, p. 18.
^ Peter Bertius: Commentariorum Rerum Germanicarum libri tres , Amsterdam 1616, p. 135 ( online ).
↑ Peter Bertius: Commentariorum Rerum Germanicarum libri tres , Amsterdam 1616, p. 130 ( online ).

[5] Cosmograph of Louis XIII. Published several cartographic works that were edited in Amsterdam. The best known of these are the Tabularum geographicarum contractarum libri , published in several editions .

[Cuntz_Itineraria-1] Otto Cuntz: Itineraria Romana , Leipzig 1929 (reprint Stuttgart 1990), p. 36 u. 56.

[2] Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, pp. 13–22.

[3] Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, p. 16.

[4] Ursula Maier-Weber: CALO. For the localization and afterlife of a late antique fort on the Lower Rhine that has been lost . In: Late Roman fortifications in the Rhine and Danube provinces , BAR International Series 704, 1998, p. 18.

[6] Peter Bertius: Commentariorum Rerum Germanicarum libri tres , Amsterdam 1616, p. 135 ( online ).

[7] Peter Bertius: Commentariorum Rerum Germanicarum libri tres , Amsterdam 1616, p. 130 ( online ).