Cidamus Castle

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Cidamus Castle
Alternative name Cidamus , Τιδαμήνσιοι , Cydamae
limes Limes Tripolitanus
front Limes line
Dating (occupancy) Septimius Severus (?)
To Philip Arabs (?)
Type Vexillation fort
unit Vexillation of the Legio III Augusta
State of preservation The location has not yet been found.
place Ghadames
Geographical location 30 ° 8 ′ 0.4 "  N , 9 ° 29 ′ 58.2"  E
height 340  m
Backwards Praesidium Si Aioun (north)
The fort (bottom left) as the southernmost outpost of the Limes Tripolitanus

The Cidamus fort was a Roman military camp , which so far has only been identified in writing. The garrison became an important short-term outpost. In particular, she was responsible for securing the trade center located here. The military cohesion with the Limes Tripolitanus in the province of Africa proconsularis took place via the caravan route to the Praesidium Si Aioun in the north . The location of the fort is presumed to be in the area of ​​today's east Libyan border town Ghadames in the municipality of Nalut .

location

The desert town, which was created in prehistoric times in a sandy valley, is around 340 meters above sea level. Several mountains of witnesses rise in the area . To the west, the country borders on the Eastern Sand Sea , part of the Sahara desert . The eastern topography is dominated by the rising plateau of the Hammada al-Hamra , whose table mountains become more and more prominent towards the north. The caravan routes coming from the south were of great importance . They brought a variety of exotic goods and gold to the north, some of which were traded as luxury goods in Rome. But also important staple foods such as rock salt from the Sahara, which Herodotus used as early as the 5th century BC. Reported, were negotiated here.

Research history

The research that is important for the results so far on the military station of Cidamus is closely connected with the excavations carried out by Italian military in the first half of the 20th century. The Italian captain Alessandro Pavoni conducted research in Ghadames from 1913 to 1914, followed by Major Ilo Perugini in the interwar period. Under Captain Giuseppe Bilotti, who carried out investigations from 1935 to 1940, the so-called "Asnam" of Ghadames was again uncovered in 1935.

Building history

A first and at the same time one of the most important battles for supremacy in Tripolitania most likely took place in 18 BC. Under Lucius Cornelius Balbus Minor . As a general, he defeated the Garamanten and Phazanii. His victories also included the conquest of Cidamus, the capital of the Phazanii. These fights and Cidamus were already mentioned by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis historia , which was created in the 1970s of the 1st century AD . In the 2nd century the city is called Τιδαμήνσιοι (Tidamensi) by the geographer Claudius Ptolemy . The late antique historian Prokop reported in the 6th century that the inhabitants of the city had been allies of Rome from ancient times and that their treaties were renewed during the reign of Emperor Justinian I (527-565). As the Roman sources report below, the Garamanten of Mons Ater, to which today's Hammada al-Hamra belongs , lay between the Phazanii and the neighboring ancient Berber people . However, since the historical Fessan also belonged to the territory of the Garamanten, the ancient demarcation should only be viewed as a rough localization. The Roman relationships with the Phazanii were similar to those of the Garamanten and the strong ties between Cidamus and Rome in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD can be documented archaeologically in addition to written records. Roman fine ceramics from the 2nd century could be found within a radius of 1.5 kilometers from today's oasis town. The city's necropolis also gave clear evidence. It stretched over two kilometers to the west along an arterial road and contained the regionally typical Asnam ( idols ). Through them, among other things, the graves could be identified as Roman-Libyan burials. Characteristics typical of the region were also shown by grave inscriptions, some of which show a mixture of conventional Roman information with combinations of Latin letters that are still unidentifiable today.

Decisive for the establishment of a garrison in Cidamus was the already mentioned advantageous geographical location and the logistical key position of the oasis city. Speculations about the size of this garrison are still ongoing. It is possible that the area occupied by the military did not exceed the size of a small fort, although a facility such as the Tisavar small fort could be considered. The occupation will at least have been of a suitable size to secure this important trading post in the Barbaricum for Rome. The archaeologist David J. Mattingly assumed that the fortification of Cidamus was dissolved after a short time - possibly in the course of a renewed strengthening of the northern imperial border - and that the Phazanii returned to their old hegemonic alliance with Rome. As a time for this event, the archaeologist offered the establishment of the Kasr Duib centenary between 244 and 246 AD, which secured the northeastern edge of the Hammada al-Hamra.

Inscriptions

According to the epigraphic evidence known so far, a military installation itself seems to have been built during the reign of the Severi . At that time the Tripolitan Limes was reorganized, which was accompanied by the establishment of a number of new border forts. A clear indication of the presence of a vexillation of the Legio III Augusta is provided by a building inscription that came to light during the excavations carried out at the so-called Asnam in 1935 and was already lost after the Second World War . The names of Emperor Severus Alexander and his mother Iulia Mamaea were erased after their murder in 235 AD in the course of a Damnatio memoriae . Iulia Mamaea is mentioned in the text as mater castrorum . She experienced this elevation presumably around 225 AD, after the death of her mother Julia Maesa , who until then had this title. The missing name of the governor, of whom only the first two letters have survived, is supplemented with Fabius Fabianus . The legate called by his full name Caius Fabius Fabianus Vetilius Lucilianus is guaranteed in this office for the reign of Severus Alexander.

[Imp (eratori)] Caes (ari) M (arco) Aureli [o Severo]
〚[Ale] xandro〛 Pio Fel [ici Aug (usto)]
[et Iuli] ae 〚Mamaeae〛 Aug (ustae) [matri]
[Aug (usti) e] t castrorum sub Fa [bio]
[Fabiano l] eg (ato) Aug (usti) pr (o) pr (aetore) c (larissimo) v (iro) vexi [lla] -
[tio leg (ionis) III Au] g (ustae) P (iae) V (indicis) Severianae per
[...] uum c (enturionem) leg (ionis) eiusdem
[...] fecit

Translation: “To [Emperor] Caesar Marcus Aurelius [Severus] Alexander, the pious, happy, [Augustus, and Julia] Mamaea, mother of Augustus (Augusta) and the military camp. Under Fabius Fabianus, governor with propratory powers, the highly respected man, a division of the 3rd Legion Augusta, the Loyalty, Savior, "the Severi", through [...] uus, Centurion of the Legion, has this [...] built."

The oldest known official inscription from Cidamus was created during the reign of the emperor Septimius Severus , who came from Leptis Magna . Despite their strong fragmentation, the remains allow a more precise dating to the years between 209 and 211 AD. The piece was discovered in 1913. The third "p" in "Imppp" was erased after the Damnatio memoriae of the murdered emperor Geta in 212 AD:

Impp〚p〛 (eratoribus) Ca [es (aribus) ...]
Severo Pio [...]
Parth (ico) max (imo) [...]

A fragmented votive altar that was created during the reign of Emperor Caracalla (211-217) was found in 1948 in a place that could no longer be located. The dating of the officially created inscription results from the naming of the governor of the province of Numidia, Marcus Valerius Senecio. The inscription also gives the name of the city:

[---]
[prae] tendent [es]
[Cy] damis votu [m sol (verunt)]
[li] b (entes) sub Val [erio Sene] cione [leg (ato) Aug (usti)]
[pr (o)] pr (aetore) c (larissimo) [v (iro) ...]

Possible structural evidence

During his visit to Ghadames, Henri Duveyrier (1840-1892), who traveled to Africa, reported on the north-western corner tower that stood out structurally from the association of the city wall. Its masonry consisted of small stones interspersed with a few bricks. Another tower in the neighborhood that had already collapsed showed the same characteristics. Duveyrier also saw Roman columns and capitals in the city, some of which were built into the main mosque as spolia .

literature

  • David J. Mattingly : Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 .
  • Alessandro Pavoni: Note archeologiche sui monumenti antichi di Ghadames. In: Rivista coloniale. 8, 15, 1913. pp. 309-318.
  • Ilo Perugini: Gadames - Monografia del territorio. (edita a cura del Comando RCTC della Tripolitania), Tripoli 1929.

Remarks

  1. ↑ Praesidium Si Aioun 32 ° 1 ′ 46.96 ″  N , 10 ° 18 ′ 34.03 ″  E
  2. ↑ Hans-Christian Schneider: The importance of the Roman roads for trade. In: Munster contributions to ancient trading history. 1, 1, 1982, pp. 85-95; here p. 91.
  3. ^ A b c Joyce Maire Reynolds, John Bryan Ward-Perkins: Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania. British School at Rome, Rome, London 1952. p. 226.
  4. ^ David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 114.
  5. ↑ Pliny: Naturalis historia 5, 35-36; 31, 22.
  6. ↑ Ptolemaeus: Geographia 4, 3, 6.
  7. ^ Procopius: De Aedificis 6, 3.
  8. ^ A b c David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 , p. 122.
  9. ↑ Werner Huss : Kidame. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 6, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01476-2 .
  10. ↑ CIL 8, 2 .
  11. ↑ Michael Mackensen: Crew accommodation and organization of a Severan legion vexillation in the Tripolitan fort Gholaia / Bu Njem (Libya). In: Germania. 86/1 (2008), pp. 271-307; here p. 283.
  12. ^ David J. Mattingly: Farmers and frontiers. Exploiting and defending the countryside of Roman Tripolitania. In: Libyan Studies. 20, 1989. p. 139.
  13. ↑ Robert Saxer: Investigations on the vexillations of the Roman imperial army from Augustus to Diocletian. In: Epigraphische Studien 1. (Supplements to the Bonner Jahrbücher) Böhlau 1967. p. 103.
  14. ↑ CIL 8, 10990 .
  15. ↑ Joyce Maire Reynolds, John Bryan Ward-Perkins: Inscriptions of Roman Tripolitania. British School at Rome, Rome, London 1952, no.907; AE 1952, 96 .
  16. ^ David J. Mattingly: Tripolitania. Taylor & Francis, 2005, ISBN 0-203-48101-1 . P. 154.