Leuge

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The Leuge (lat. Leuga / leuca ) is an ancient unit of length , which in Roman time with the mile competed and after customary manner computing a half Roman miles was. The Celtic origin of this route measure, which is only widespread in the north-western Roman provinces, is questionable. The Leuge lived on in various “great miles”, especially in the western Mediterranean and Latin America (“ Legua ”) and was used there until the 19th century. Usual sizes were between 2 km and 7 km.

history

Origin and sources

Since the word Leuge is of Celtic origin, it is often assumed that the Leuge itself is also of Celtic origin. However, after a closer examination of the sources, this cannot be confirmed. Mention of the Leuge in ancient literature is available from the 4th century AD at the earliest. Milestone finds are the only archaeological source . Of the 677 numbers recorded in the Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum , 472 are still preserved today, 100 in the relevant area of ​​the Gallic and Germanic provinces. Of these, only 13 were found near the associated Roman road , most of them were abducted, reused or the origin is uncertain .

A tradition of the fixed size of a Gallic measure of the road from the time before the conquest of Gaul by Caesar does not seem credible. This would only be possible with further use in road construction, as it required appropriate measurements. There are also no written sources on pre-Roman road construction. For the road construction program of Agrippa and Claudius in Gaul, only miliaria with mileage counting were used. The fact that the Gallia Narbonensis and the British provinces remained with the mileage also speaks against the Celtic origin .

Leugenstein from Friedberg , today in the Wetterau Museum . It was located 10 leagues (22 km) from Nida .

Introduction of Leuge

The earliest mention of Leuge can be found on a milestone from the Trajan period in Aquitaine . The introduction was initially inconsistent, both chronologically and geographically. The process has so far only been partially clarified, which is due to the lack of sources, and is obviously connected with the administration of the Reichsstraßen. It should be noted that although the inscriptions were usually dedicated to the emperor, the stones were set by the local civitas administrations, who were also responsible for the cura viarum (maintenance of the streets).

While the finds of milestones with denial counting under the emperors Trajan, Hadrian and Antoninus Pius remained individual finds, it appears that Septimius Severus introduced them to the Tres Galliae ( Belgium , Aquitania , Gallia ) and the Germanic provinces. A declaration as a concession to the Gallic communities is incomprehensible, since the emperor was not friendly to the provinces that had supported the counter-emperor Clodius Albinus . Walser and Rathmann have shown convincingly that the introduction could have served economic interests. That would also explain why some communities on the border to Narbonensis like the Colonia Iulia Equestris ( Nyon ) in Upper Germany , the civitas of the Haedu in the Gallia Lugdunensis or some southern civitates of the Aquitania stuck to the mileage count. Instead, with Germania superior and inferior provinces that did not belong to the Celtic core area joined the denial count, which may indicate a proximity to the pes Drusianus , who was also called the foot of the Tungrians .

The difficulties resulting from the introduction also speak against central control. On the important route Massilia - Augustodunum - Lutetia , the number was first after Meilen, from the Segusavii area to Leugen, around Augustodunum after Meilen and north of the Haeduer area finally back to Leugen. The confusion is exacerbated by the fact that the old milestones were left next to the new.

conversion

In its true sense, a league describes the distance that a person can cover in an hour - hence the synonym “way hour” . The inconsistent introduction and possibly also ignorance about the traditional measure of a Gallic league in the Roman imperial period was expressed in considerable deviations between the regionally used league measures. The Leuge was tied to the customary system of measurement in different areas, usually one and a half, two or three miles . Since the miles were always determined differently in different countries and times, there are very large deviations between the various historical leagues. In addition, the word "Leuge", which is little known in German, is usually translated imprecisely with "Meile" in translations from other languages, which in addition to the conversion problems also creates conceptual difficulties.

Roman league and mile

The mile to leuge conversion ratio of 1.5: 1 is backed up by several milestone finds in addition to written sources and is therefore given in all relevant works as 2222 m. Particularly noteworthy are two stones from Mainz-Kastel , of which the older gives the distance to Wiesbaden ( Aquae Mattiacorum ) with six miles, the younger one the same distance with four leagues. Likewise, a stone from the Hadrianic period found near Bingen names the distance from Augusta Treverorum as 72 miles, while the stone found at the same place gives a distance of 48 leagues for Septimius Severus and his sons.

The Roman period leg usually corresponds to a length of (1½ × 1.48 km =) 2.22 km. However, the aerial archaeologist Jacques Dassié found evidence of a Leuge of 2450 m in Aquitaine, the same length determined by Eric Weijters for Roman roads of the 2nd century in the southern Netherlands. The deviation could possibly be due to the use of the pes Drusianus , which is common in some parts of the northwestern provinces , as it corresponds exactly to 7500 Drusian feet . In any case, both deviations and the area-wide measure of 2220 m or 7500 pedes used by Severus should be tricks, i.e. adjustments to existing Roman measures, as they appear to be mathematically too balanced. However, terms such as leuga drusiana or Leuga gallica have not yet established themselves in German-language research.

Lying in later eras

The Roman Leuge has on the Iberian Peninsula to the league developed and was also in the French Lieue and the English League continued. In the German-speaking area it was also compared as a “big” mile to a smaller one. What all modern Leugen have in common is that they - unlike the ancient distance measure that competed with the mile - are represented as an integral multiple of a mile, i.e. divided into several “small” miles (mostly three, four or five). The Portuguese and the different Italian sea Gua, which Christopher Columbus expected, played a major role in seafaring in the Age of Discovery . The French system of measurement developed a metric league in the 19th century , which could be expressed in kilometers . In the Anglo-Saxon system , the league is still in use today as a unit of three miles (of any kind).

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b U. a. Ammianus Marcellinus 16.12.8; Jordanes Get. 192; Isidore of Seville 15.16.1
  2. ↑ Rathmann 2003 p. 116; The inscriptions of the milestones in the relevant area are published in CIL vol. XVII Miliaria imperii Romani. pars II Miliaria provinciarum Narbonensis Galliarum Germaniarum. Edidit Gerold Walser. 1986 ISBN 3-11-004592-3
  3. ↑ Figures from Walser 1981 p. 385f.
  4. ↑ Rathmann 2003 p. 118; Walser 1981 p. 395
  5. ↑ CIL 13.09123 ; Dietwulf Baatz in: D. Baatz / F.-R. Herrmann (Ed.): The Romans in Hessen p. 307.
  6. ↑ CIL 17-02, 00426
  7. ↑ Rathmann 2003 p. 116f. Note 693; Walser 1969 p. 84f.
  8. ↑ See Hygini Gromatici: De Condicionibus Agrorum 11 - [1] Internet source.
  9. ↑ Rathmann 2003 p. 117
  10. ↑ The novel " 20,000 Lieues sous les Mers " by Jules Verne , for example, is called in German "20,000 miles under the sea" instead of "20,000 leagues under the sea".
  11. ↑ a b Rathmann 2003 p. 118 especially note 95; Chevallier 1997 p. 161; Hans Ulrich Nuber : On water and on land. The Roman transport network. In: Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube. Archaeological State Museum Baden-Württemberg, Esslingen 2005, ISBN 3-8062-1945-1 , p. 416; Janine Fries-Knoblauch: The Celts. 3000 years of European culture and history. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-17-015921-6 , p. 133; Thomas Lobüscher in Thomas Fischer : The Roman Provinces. Theiss, Stuttgart 2001 p. 210; Helmut Bender: Roman roads and road stations. Small writings on the knowledge of the Roman occupation history of Southwest Germany 13 (writings of the Limes Museum Aalen), Stuttgart 1975, p. 12; Hans-Joachim Schalles : Leuga. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , Sp. 99f .; Thomas Grünewald: Leuga. In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (RGA). 2nd Edition. Volume 18, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, p. 298f .; Alexander Demandt : The Celts. 7th edition. Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-406-44798-8 (CH Beck Wissen 2101), p. 95; Margot Klee: Lifelines of the Empire. Roads in the Roman Empire. Theiss, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-8062-2307-1 , p. 76f.
  12. ↑ CIL 17-02, 00626 ( from Aquis Mattiacorum milia passuum VI ).
  13. ↑ CIL 17-02, 00627 ( from Aquis leugas IIII ).
  14. ^ AE 1979, 417
  15. ↑ AE 1979, 418
  16. ↑ [2] , [3]
  17. ↑ Together with the Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland (AHN) and the Dutch ARCHIS database Archaeological Finds and Surveys, cf. the map of the Limes in Zuid-Holland ( memento from November 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) and Maten in LEUGA en MP (Milia Passuum) ( memento from November 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  18. ↑ See also Rolf CA Rottländer: Hierarchical structure of the pre-metric units of length. Website pre-metric units of length .
  19. ↑ Rathmann 2003 p. 118
  20. ↑ The existence of a lieue gauloise is also disputed in French-language research, see Chevallier 1997 p. 161, note 12.