Aelium Cetium
Aelium Cetium was a Roman city on the site of the old town of today's St. Pölten in Austria. It began to emerge at the end of the 1st century AD, was officially named a city in 122 and existed until around 450. Aelium Cetium was not a military, but a civil city and the supply and administrative center of the northeast of the Roman province of Noricum .
The Roman city was abandoned around 450 and then fell into disrepair during a centuries-long period of settlement. It was not until the 8th century that the Hippolytus monastery was built in the northeast of Aelium Cetium , from which today's St. Pölten began.
Surname
The name is likely to have something to do with the Celtic ketion opos , the wooded foothills of the Eastern Alps. The Latin mons cetium (forest mountain) was the name of a Wienerwald massif , the ancient city was surrounded by forest.
location
Aelium Cetium was located at the point where the main Roman road from Ovilava ( Wels ) to Vindobona ( Vienna ) crossed the Tragisamus river (today: Traisen ). It was not a direct border town, but the border of the Roman Empire (the Limes along the Danube ) was only a day's march north. The presumed purpose of the Roman foundation was to supply the six auxiliary troop camps nearby , which secured the border against the Teutons , with food and other supplies. Military equipment was also manufactured in the Aelium Cetiums blacksmiths' workshop, where troops were never stationed.
Research history, building remains and what was found
The beginnings of the occupation with a then still unknown Roman city in the area of St. Pölten go back to the 17th century and were supported by priests of the St. Pölten monastery. In the 18th century, Raimund Duellius and Albert Maderna point to finds of Roman coins and inscriptions. Since around 1800, non-ecclesiastical citizens also seem to have been interested in the Roman city, although there were also texts whose authors exceeded their goal in their representations and assumptions. Between 1850 and 1900, a number of Roman graves, inscriptions, a Weihaltar to Neptune, coins and other smaller finds were made in the course of construction work and in 1885 a first depiction of the Roman in St. Pölten appeared.
The first excavations began in 1988. The archaeologists who worked on it include above all Peter Scherrer and Ronald Risy. The city of St. Pölten offers a themed trail, excavation finds can be found in St. Pölten in the city museum, in the diocesan museum and in individual display cases.
history
Before the Roman settlement, there were numerous settlement areas in the whole of today's urban area. A direct predecessor settlement of Aelium Cetiums at the same location certainly did not exist, so it is a new establishment. According to Roman law , Aelium Cetium was probably elevated to a city ( municipium ) in the year 121 or 122. This date is assumed because the emperor Hadrian was on an inspection tour of the entire province of Noricum at that time, possibly including the cities Carnuntum , Ovilava and Vindobona were granted city rights.
Traces of a wildfire at almost all excavation sites suggest that the city may have been destroyed. It dates this fire to the year 170, in the Rome area Aelium Cetiums war with the German tribe of the Marcomanni led (see: Marcomannic wars ). Another widespread destruction may have taken place around 240, followed by a general decline in settlement activity; possibly a flood disaster also occurred around 275. It was not until the beginning of the 4th century that more new buildings were built and the city experienced an economic boom, which only lasted until around 400. From the beginning of the 5th century things went downhill, excavated grave fields show that the Roman city was getting smaller and smaller and should have been inhabited until around 450. It was the time of the Great Migration and the Romans withdrew to Italy.
Settlement was interrupted for at least 300 years; the later St. Pölten was uninhabited during this time in contrast to nearby places like Pottenbrunn or Unterradlberg . There is still some uncertainty about the beginning of the medieval re-establishment of St. Pölten directly above the remains of the abandoned Roman town. What is certain is that it falls into the 9th century. What is disputed today is the exact date and whether the medieval settlement history of St. Pölten begins - as previously assumed - with the foundation of the monastery of St. Hippolytus , or whether the Treisma settlement, which may have already been founded, can be identified with St. Pölten.
map
Aelium Cetium is almost the same area under the medieval town center of St. Pölten and, with an area of 25 ha, corresponded to the area of St. Pölten in the High Middle Ages. Like many cities founded by the Romans, it had an exactly square ground plan (with a side length of 500 m, i.e. 25 hectares), which was criss-crossed by exactly parallel east-west streets ( decumani ) and right-angled north-south streets ( cardines ) ( see: Hippodamian scheme ). The built-up area between the streets was called insulae (islands) by the Romans . In the case of Aelium Cetium, these were uniformly about 66 m wide and between 55 and 95 m long. The streets were on average 6 m wide and consisted of gravel roads with uncovered drainage ditches running along them. In the east of the city there was presumably an edge of land that might have separated the city from the flood plain of the Traisen. Some Roman streets can still be seen in today's cityscape. The Wiener Strasse / Heßstrasse runs exactly the same as the main decumanus (the decumanus maximus ) Aelium Cetiums. The Kremser Gasse / Schreinergasse corresponds to the main cardo (the cardo maximus ). The main square of the Roman city ( forum ) was located at the intersection of these two main streets, between today's Kremser Gasse and Herrenplatz, where the medieval market square St. Pölten was later also located. South of the forum was the temple area (area sacra) with the main temple Aelium Cetiums. Fortification in the form of moats can be assumed around the city.
Buildings and finds
The oldest buildings are made of wood (see: Half-timbered house ), they were probably built by the veterans who settled here. Stone was not used to build anything until after the city was destroyed in 170. Initially, the individual houses differed in size and construction, and it was only since the imperial era that there were closed insulae , which were now also surrounded by walls. In general, the stone buildings are poorly preserved, which is due to the fact that in later phases of urban development the Roman houses were removed and the stones were used for new buildings. From the 2nd century onwards, half-timbered constructions were built on about 1 m high, brick plinths. These houses had an upper floor. In a few houses, individual heated rooms, floor mosaics, colored wall paintings and stucco were found . Basically, the floors in the living rooms consisted of a stable terrazzo, in adjoining rooms and porticos made of clay. Simple earth cellars and walled allotment garden areas were found in the courtyards.
- Workplaces
A few workshops or work yards for blacksmiths (smelting ovens) and potters (pottery ovens) were found, as well as a farm on the outskirts, as well as buildings for textile and grocery dealers and a ceramics depot for pottery dealers. The club houses of the blacksmiths and the municipal fire brigade (collegium fabrum) as well as a business wing with porticus and three shops (see: Taberna ) were also discovered.
- Therme and Antentempel
In the northeast, a complex of buildings was found that was possibly a public thermal bath . Attached to it was an antenna temple open to the east with an anteroom and cella. One suspects a cult of oriental deities here, including a snake vessel.
- Single finds
In the area of the forum, inscriptions and a Neptune altar by a governor (around 270) were found, and numerous everyday objects throughout the city.
Offices
Since they appear on inscriptions, we know of several administrative offices usual for the Roman provinces and municipalities , namely those of the duumvir iure dicundo , the aedilis , the quaestor , as well as the ordo decurionum as well as the priesthood of the flamen .
literature
- Sonja Jilek, Peter Scherrer , Elisabeth Trinkl: Life in Aelium Cetium. Living and working in St. Pölten, Rome . Special and changing exhibitions of the Lower Austrian State Library, Volume 26, 2005
- Ronald Risy, Peter Scherrer, Elisabeth Trinkl: The ancient Aelium Cetium. Stadtarchäologie in St. Pölten , In: Forum Archaeologiae , Volume 34 / III, 2005
- Ronald Risy: Aelium Cetium - St. Pölten. For the high mediaeval town formation on Roman ruins . In: Between Roman settlement and medieval city. Archaeological aspects of the question of continuity. Contributions to Medieval Archeology in Austria, Volume 17, 2001, pp. 169–178.
- Ronald Risy: Municipium Aelium Cetium. 20 years of urban archeology 1988–2008 , dissertation Vienna 2009
- Peter Scherrer: Aelium Cetium - St. Pölten. A contribution of urban archeology to the Roman heritage in medieval urban development . In: Chr. Rohr (Ed.): From the origin of the cities. Anniversary publication for the 1200th return of the first mention of Linz . 1999, pp. 43-60.
- Peter Scherrer: Cetium . In: M. Šašel Kos, P. Scherrer (eds.): The Autonomous Towns in Noricum and Pannonia - The autonomous towns in Noricum and Pannonia: Noricum . Situla 40, 2002, pp. 213-244.
- Peter Scherrer: Systematic Urban Archeology. Case study Aelium Cetium . In: M. Németh (Ed.): The Roman Town in a Modern City. Proceedings of the International Colloquium held on the occasion of the 100th Anniversary of the Aquincum Museum 1994 Budapest . Aquincum Nostrum II, 1998, pp. 29-34
- Peter Scherrer (Ed.): State capital St. Pölten. Archaeological building blocks. 1991 (special publications of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Volume 22) (with detailed bibliography)
- Peter Scherrer (Ed.): State capital St. Pölten. Archaeological building blocks II. 1994 (special publications of the Austrian Archaeological Institute. Volume 23)
- Hansjörg Ubl: The sculptures of the urban area of Aelium Cetium . (Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani, Austria I 6) 1979
Web links
- Aelium Cetium diagnosis plan
- Aelium Cetium on the homepage of the Roman-Germanic Central Museum
- City Museum St. Pölten
Individual evidence
- ↑ Raimund Duellius: Excerptorum genealogico-Historicorum libri duo , Leipzig 1725 ULB Dusseldorf .
- ↑ Christoph Müller von Prankenheim, Albert von Maderna: Historia Canoniae Sand-Hippolytanae , Trattner, Vienna 1779.