Fossa Drusiana
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Fossa Drusiana , German: Drusus Canal , is the traditional name of a Roman canal (or several canals) that the general Drusus used at the beginning of the Drusus campaigns in free Germania from the year 12 BC. . BC had to create.
Ancient lore
The historiographic sources that mark the Drusus Canal are as follows:
Suetonius , Claudius 2-4:
“This Drusus had a command as quaestor and praetor in the Rhaetian, then in the Germanic War; In this function he was the first Roman general to sail across the northern ocean and build canals on the other side of the Rhine; He actively pursued this work, it was a huge undertaking. These channels still carry his name up to our time. "
Tacitus , Annals II / 8:
“Caesar ( Germanicus ) had sent the provisions ahead, distributed the legions and allies on the ships and entered the canal named after Drusus, praying to his father that he would please him, since he was now taking the same risk stand by their side, graciously and graciously with their role model and the memory of their measures and buildings. "
Modern research
The exact location of the canal is not known. It was assumed that the canal connected the Rhine at Castra Herculis ( Arnheim or Westervoort ) with the IJssel near Doesburg and is now known as the Gelderse IJssel . However, recent research seems to show that the section of the IJssel between Arnhem and Doesburg was not built until the early Middle Ages . The Utrechtsche Vecht between Traiectum ( Utrecht ) and Lacus Flevo is also a possible part of the Fossa Drusiana . According to a more recent theory, a second canal is assumed, which led from Lacus Flevo to the Wadden Sea . In fact, a connection between Lacus Flevo and the Wadden Sea was established for the first time around the turn of the century . Furthermore, it is considered today that the Lange Renne was formerly part of this canal system. A connection from the Lange Renne to the Oude IJssel , the historic upper reaches of the IJssel, which flows into it at Doesburg, has not yet been proven.
With the help of the canal system built by Drusus, a continuous waterway from the Rhine to the Wadden Sea and then to the North Sea was created so that the Roman Rhine fleet could reach the North Sea and thus threaten the Germanic tribes resident there from the sea. The Roman army was also able to receive logistical support from the mouths of the Ems , Weser and Elbe .
Drusus Dam
Drusus also had a Drusus dam built, which perhaps at the Carvium camp (proven 1938) between Herwen and Aerdt near today's Pannerden , between Kleve and Arnheim, was supposed to direct the Rhine water northward into the Old Rhine - and not south-west into the Waal . Tacitus writes Hist. V. 19: quin et diruit (Civilis) molem a Druso Germanico factam ; and on. XIII. 53: Ilse (Paullinus Pompeius) inchoatum ante tres et sexaginta annos a Druso aggerem coercendo Rheno graduated .
The Emmerich senior teacher Andreas Dederich (1869) identified the dam with the dike in front of cattle against the Old Rhine, which was also a military road from the main camp in Nijmegen. The Dutch provincial archaeologist Jan Hendrik Holwerda (1926) believed the old Linge river bed to be the site of the dam. Identification is difficult because the river system at this point has changed significantly several times.
See also
Web links
- Jonah Lendering: Fossa Drusiana . In: Livius.org (English)
literature
- Andreas Dederich: The campaigns of Drusus and Tiberius in the northwestern Germania , Schwann, Cologne-Neuss 1869
- Jan Hendrik Holwerda: The Romans in Holland , XV. Report of the Roman-Germanic Commission of the German Archaeological Institute, 1926