Lugdunum Batavorum

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Lugdunum Batavorum
Alternative name Brittenburg, Batavodurum, Lugduno
limes Lower Germanic Limes
Dating (occupancy) Hadrianic until around 270/275
Type Cohort fort
unit Cohors I Raetorum civium Romanorum pia fidelis
State of preservation washed away by the North Sea
place Katwijk
Geographical location 52 ° 12 '55 "  N , 4 ° 23' 42"  E Coordinates: 52 ° 12 '55 "  N , 4 ° 23' 42"  E hf
Previous Praetorium Agrippinae (southeast)
Backwards Forum Hadriani (south)
Upstream Flevum (north-northeast)

Lugdunum Batavorum (also: Brittenburg ) is the name of an abandoned Roman fort with a port and a civilian settlement between Noordwijk aan Zee and Katwijk aan Zee, northwest of Leiden in the Netherlands .

location

Lugdunum Batavorum was the westernmost fort of the Lower Germanic Limes . It was located at the point where the Oude Rijn flowed into the North Sea in ancient times . Over the centuries, the place was washed away by the North Sea and covered with sand below sea level. The remnants of the fortifications that may still be present are now in the sea, about 500 m to 2000 m northwest of the coast and could not be precisely localized even with modern archaeological methods.

Ancient sources

lili rere
Lugdunum Batavorum at the western end of the Lower Germanic Limes and the region in Roman times

The Caligula biography of the Roman writer Suetonius describes at one point how Caligula, in order to bring an unsuccessful attempt at a campaign against Britain to an end, had his soldiers on the coast take up position with all ballistae and other artillery and suddenly ordered them to abandon theirs To fill helmets with shells to bring them to Rome as spoils of war in triumph . After the "victory announcement" in this questionable maneuver, Caligula had a large lighthouse built based on the model of Pharos of Alexandria . The events described are said to have taken place in Lugdunum Batavorum.

Boulogne-sur-Mer , mentioned earlier in this context , is probably excluded from the considerations, as there is no evidence of a Roman presence there in the time of Caligula. On the other hand, the fact that the neighboring Praetorium Agrippinae was founded by Caligula in AD 39 and is said to have been dedicated to the emperor's mother speaks for Katwijk . Furthermore, the presence of the emperor in the region is more than likely due to the inscription of a wine barrel of the imperial cellar found in the upstream Fectio from the year 40 AD.

Lugduno on the Tabula Peutingeriana

On the Tabula Peutingeriana , Lugdunum Batavorum - symbolized by two towers - is listed as Lugduno with road connections to Praetorium Agrippinae and Forum Hadriani . In the Itinerarium Antonini it appears as Caput Germaniorum with a distance from ten Leugen to Albaniana ( Alphen aan den Rijn ). The place is also mentioned as Batavodurum in the Geographike Hyphegesis of the ancient polymath Ptolemaeus .

Medieval and modern documents

The ruins are first mentioned in writing as borch te Bretten in 1401 in a poem by Willem van Hildegaersberch (around 1350 to around 1408), a Dutch poet and Sprookspreker at the court of the Count of Holland .

lili rere
The Brittenburg after Abraham Ortelius 1562 and 1581

There are a number of maps from the 16th century as well as a painting by an anonymous artist. Various variants and copies from the work of the Flemish geographer and cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598) dominate the maps .

In 1734 a work by the classical scholar and historian Hendrik Cannegieter (1691-1770) appeared on the so-called Brittenburg .

Observations and attempts at localization

The first historically secured observation of the ruins of Lugdunum Batavorum took place in 1520 after a storm exposed the ruins. Further observations were made at irregular intervals up to the 18th century, in isolated cases up to the beginning of the 20th century (most recently in 1923), as the terrain fell dry in certain weather and tidal conditions, mostly after violent storms. Roman artifacts, mainly stones (tuff blocks and marble), bricks, ceramics and coins were recovered from the residents of Katwijk and the exposed walls were systematically used as a quarry. Attempts to locate the fort area exactly have been made up to the present day. However, neither professional archaeologists using modern research methods nor amateur archaeologists using divers were able to find the ruins again. It is now suspected that the strong waves of the North Sea could possibly have washed away the fort for good.

Epigraphic and other finds

A consecration stone found in the 16th century with the inscription dates from the period between 138 and 161:

" Imp (erator) Caes (ar) / Anto [ninus –––] / Aug (ustus) coh (ors) / Raetoru [m] / P (ia) F (idelis) "

" Imperator Caesar Antoninus Augustus ... the cohort of Raeter (with the nicknames) the pious, the faithful"

Another stone was made around the year 206 and bears the inscription:

" [Imp (erator) Caes (ar) L (ucius) Sept (imius) S] ever (us) Pius Pert (inax) A [ug (ustus)] / [pontifex] max (imus) trib (unicia) pot ( estate) XIII [et] / [Imp (erator) Caes (ar) M (arcus) Aurel (ius) A] ntoninus Pius Au [g (ustus) [pont (ifex)] / [max (imus) trib (unicia) pot (estate) ––– p] er milit (es) leg (ionis) IM (inervia) ef (ecerunt) / [cur (atore) Q (uinto) V] enidio Ru [fo] "

" Emperor Caesar Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus , supreme priest, in possession of the tribunician power for the 13th time , and Emperor Caesar Marcus Aurelius Antoninus Pius Augustus , supreme priest, owner of the tribunician power ... had [this] built by the soldiers of the Legio I Minervia under the responsibility of Quintus Venidius Rufus "

In Kasteel Duivenvoorde in the southern Dutch city ​​of Voorschoten there are two more Roman inscription stones. The front of the larger stone dates to 196/198, the reverse to 103/111. The smaller one can be assigned to the time around 205. At least the second stone could possibly come from Lugdunum Batavorum.

Some of the coins found over the centuries have been identified. The latest dates back to the year 270.

Brick stamps mention the exercitus Germanicus inferior (Lower Germanic Army), the classis Germanica pia fidelis , the legio I Minervia and the legio XXX Ulpia victrix .

A number of the finds from Katwijk and the pictorial representation of the so-called Brittenburg by an anonymous artist of the 16th century can be viewed in the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden and in the collection of the Museum Meermanno . There is a Roman jar in The Hague , which is believed to have come from Lugdunum Batavorum.

Observation, find and source interpretation

Engraving of the Brittenburg by François van Bleyswyck (1725) with a strongly interpretive representation of the floor plans

The floor plan based on contemporary observations on the maps of the geographer Ortelius can only be interpreted with a certain degree of caution. The only undisputed fact is that the almost square building with a separating wall is a double room. Similar findings are known from other Roman military camps. The representation of the semicircular towers, especially the double corner towers, is uncertain. There are semicircular Roman towers, but not until late antiquity , from which there are no finds in Lugdunum Batavorum. Double corner towers, however, are completely atypical. It can therefore be assumed that subjective perceptions - due to the observer's knowledge of the contemporary fortress construction - played a certain role in the graphical implementation of the findings. Also considered was the possibility that it could be a Frankish fortress from the 6th century, which was built on the ancient ruins and whose building materials were composed of secondary Roman stones. In summary, it can be assumed that the walls in the interior were either different buildings or construction phases of different periods of time, or misrepresentations due to subjective perceptions.

By analyzing the found material - especially the found coins, the inscriptions and the ceramics - in the context of the history of this Limes section, the place can be dated to some extent. Lugdunum Batavorum probably existed at the latest from Hadrianic times until the abandonment of the Limes in this region around the years 270/275. The camp was laid out as a cohort fort; the Cohors I Raetorum civium Romanorum pia fidelis is documented by the troops serving there . In addition, the port may have been used as a base by Classis Germanica . The vicus was possibly located southeast of the camp in the area of ​​today's Katwijk districts of Cleijn Duin and Zanderij, where findings and finds from the years 50 to 250 are available. If these findings are directly related to the sightings on and off the coast, it should be a vicus extending at least 1.5 km along the Roman road.

Lugdunum Batavorum - Brittenburg - Leiden: confusion about names

The exact name of the fort and its civil settlement in Roman times can only be determined. In the ancient sources the place is mentioned once only as Batavodurum (Ptolemaeus, 2nd century) and once only as Lugduno ( Tabula Peutingeriana , 4th century). A third source ( Itinerarium Antonini , 3rd century) describes the place with the term Caput Germanorum in the sense of "beginning of Germania". The matter is made even more uncertain by the assumed possible transcription errors of medieval copyists .

There is also uncertainty regarding the equation of Lugdunum Batavorum with the so-called Brittenburg. The term appeared as burcht te Bretten in the Middle Ages and refers to a presumed medieval fortress in the area of Bretten , an old name for the area between Leiden and the North Sea coast. It is completely uncertain whether the sighted ruin - if it actually contained a medieval follow-up building at all - could be these fearful boards .

Seal of the University of Leiden

As part of the 15./16. In a century-old effort by learned humanists to largely Latinize names , the city of Leiden, just ten kilometers inland as the crow flies, southeast of Lugdunum Batavorum, adopted the name Lugdunum Batavorum during the Renaissance . This fact can lead to irritation insofar as a Roman garrison was located in the area of ​​today's Leiden residential district Roomburg , but its name was Matilo . Through the University of Leiden , founded in 1575, which subsequently marked its publications with the place of publication “Lugdunum Batavorum” , this name assignment quickly spread far beyond the borders of the Netherlands and is still effective today. The university bears the name Academia Lugduno Batava in its seal and the local football club Leidens is called LVV Lugdunum . In fact, the name Leiden derives from Leithon (first documented mention 860) in the sense of "watercourse" or "located on the water".

reception

In 2003 the Stichting KunstKlank (German: "Stiftung KunstKlang") performed a play based on the secrets surrounding the so-called Brittenburg.

literature

  • Franz Cramer : Lugudunum 4 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIII, 2, Stuttgart 1927, Sp. 1724.
  • Franz Oelmann : On the problem of the Brittenburg near Katwijk . In: George E. Mylonas (Ed.): Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson on His Seventieth Birthday. Volume 1, Washington University, Saint Louis, Mon. 1951, pp. 451-465.
  • Henk A. Dijkstra, FCJ Ketelaer: Brittenburg. Raadsels rond een verdronken roine (= Fibulareeks. 2). van Dishoeck, Bussum 1965.
  • Julianus Egidius Bogaers : Katwijk-Brittenburg - Lugdunum . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers, Christoph B. Rüger (Ed.): The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , pp. 36-39.
  • Johan HF Bloemers: Het Romeinse kampdorp van de Brittenburg. In: Leids Jaarboekje. 75 (1983) pp. 245-251.
  • Johan HF Bloemers, MD De Weerd: Van Brittenburg naar Lugdunum. Opgravingen in de bouwput van de nieuwe uitwateringssluis in Katwijk. In: PS Anes: De uitwateringssluizen van Katwijk. 1404-1984 . Hoogheemraadschap van Rijnland, Leiden 1984, pp. 41-51. 53.
  • MD De Weerd: Recent excavations near the Brittenburg. A rearrangement of old evidence . In: Christoph Unz (Hrsg.): Studies on the military borders of Rome III. 13th International Limes Congress, Aalen 1983, lectures . Theiss, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-8062-0776-3 , pp. 284-290.
  • Wilfried AM Hessing: The Dutch coastal area. In: Tilmann Bechert , Willem J. H. Willems (Hrsg.): The Roman border between the Moselle and the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , pp. 96-98.
  • Simon Wynia: Caius was here: The emperor Caius' preparations for the invasion of Britannia. New epigraphic evidence. In: H. Sarfatij, WJH Verwers, PJ Woltering (eds.): In Discussion with the Past. Archaeological Studies presented to WA van Es. Amersfoort 1999, pp. 145-147.
  • Michael Erdrich: Lugdunum Batavorum. In: Herbert Jankuhn, Heinrich Beck et al. (Hrsg.): Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd Edition. Volume 19. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , p. 29 f.
  • Dik Parleviet: De Brittenburg voorgoed lost. In: Westerheem. 51, 3 (2002) pp. 115-121.
  • Stichting Geschiedsschrijving Noordwijk: Noordwijk. Aan Zee en op de geest. En nieuwe geschiedenis van Noordwijk. Noordwijk 2011.
  • Tünde Kaszab-Olschewski, Gerald Volker Grimm: Thoughts on Brittenburg , special print from Bonner Jahrbuch 2014 of the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn and the LVR-Office for the preservation of monuments in the Rhineland as well as the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , Volume 214, Verlag Philipp von Zabern, Darmstadt 2015 , ISBN 978-3-8053-5041-9 . Pp. 43–68 (in the yearbook)

Web links

Wiktionary: Lugdunum Batavorum  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Wilfried AM Hessing: The Dutch coastal area. In: Tilmann Bechert , Willem J. H. Willems (Hrsg.): The Roman border between the Moselle and the North Sea coast . Theiss, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-8062-1189-2 , pp. 96-98.
  2. ↑ Sueton, Caligula 46: Postremo quasi perpetraturus War, derecta acie in litore Oceani ac ballistis machinisque dispositis, nemine Gnaro aut opinante quidnam coepturus eat, repente ut conchas put rent galeasque et sinus replerent imperavit, spolia Oceani vocans Capitolio Palatioque debita, et in indicium victoriae altissimam turrem excitavit, ex qua ut Pharo noctibus ad regendos navium cursus ignes emicarent.
  3. ↑ AE 1999, 1100 : C (ai) Cae [s (aris) A] ug (usti) Ger (manici) .
  4. ↑ a b Tabula Peutingeriana, Pars II, Segmentum II , in a reproduction from the 19th century.
  5. ↑ a b Itinerarium Antonini 368, 3–4; Route from Caput Germanorum on the website tabula-peutingeriana.de.
  6. ↑ a b Ptolemaeus, Geographike 2, 8 (online) .
  7. ^ Theo Meder: Sprookspreker in Holland. Leven en werk van Willem van Hildegaersberch (circa 1400) ( Memento from July 15, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). (= Nederlandse Literatuur en Cultuur in de Middeleeuwen , 18). Prometheus, Amsterdam 1991, ISBN 90-5333-036-4 .
  8. ↑ In the late Middle Ages an itinerant traveler or active at princely courts Gedichtrezitator the Middle Dutch language area.
  9. ↑ "… By wat saken, by wat talk Mach dat sijn, staet wel te vraghen: Tis gheschiet by ouden daghen, Dat hoer voerders were coen, Ende alsoe pijnden wel te doen, Dat hem die heren gaven lof ducks sloetel oec daer of, Dat si bewaerden sheren palen, Ende hear gheleide must halen Menich Mensch op ende neder, Denen voert, neither the other. Wairwaert dat si wilden sijn, Optie zee of inden Rijn, Mosten si hoer gheleide setten, Want daer stont een borch te boards , Daer op woonden die onbedwonghen. Ende vanden ouden totten jonghen Is so comen vaste voort, Dat hem die sloetel toebehoert, Want si en first in eren creghen. Daer en mach nyemant segghen tieghen Indians would be openbaer, Hi en wil the right gaen te near the end of the toe save the heat; Want si bleven veel of the jaren Deerste palen vanden lande, at the end of ooc waerden sijt sonder shame ... “
    Complete text on the website of the Alumni Association Vrienden van de Duitse Taal en Cultuur.
  10. ↑ a b Monique Ras-Deege: De zee geeft, de zee neemt . ( Memento of February 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Reproduction of the painting on www.cultuurwijzer.nl.
  11. ↑ a b Marcel PR van den Broecke: Ortelius' Brittenburg . In: Caert Thresoor. Tijdschrift voor Historische Kartographie in Nederland , 32, 2013, 2, ISSN  0167-4994 , pp. 42–46.
  12. ^ Henricus Cannegieter: Dissertatio de Brittenburgo, Matribus Brittis, Britannica Herba, Brittia Procopio Memorata, Britannorumque Antiquissima Per Galliam Et Germaniam Sedibus . Pierre de Hondt, The Hague 1734 ( digitized version ).
  13. ↑ a b c Julianus Egidius Bogaers: Katwijk-Brittenburg - Lugdunum . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers, Christoph B. Rüger (Ed.): The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , pp. 36-39.
  14. ↑ a b Michael Erdrich: Lugdunum Batavorum . In: Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde . 2nd completely revised and greatly expanded edition. Volume 19. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2001, ISBN 3-11-017163-5 , p. 29 f.
  15. ↑ CIL 13, 8827 ( online ).
  16. ↑ CIL 13, 8828 ( online ) = AE 1976, 518 .
  17. ↑ CIL 13, 8824 ; CIL 13, 8823 ( online ).
  18. ↑ CIL 13, 8825 ( online ).
  19. ^ After CIL and Julianus Egidius Bogaers : Leiden-Roomburg - Matilo . In: Julianus Egidius Bogaers, Christoph B. Rüger (Ed.): The Lower Germanic Limes. Materials on its story . Rheinland-Verlag, Cologne 1974, ISBN 3-7927-0194-4 , p. 44 are these inscriptions from Leiden-Roomburg / Matilo.
  20. ↑ In the variations legio I Minervia , legio I Minervia pia fidelis and legio I Minervia Antoniniana .
  21. ↑ Even in modern archeology, it is still true that interpretation begins with graphic documentation.
  22. ↑ Various historical representations of the so-called Brittenburg ( memento from February 23, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the Dutch website brittenburgnet.nl
  23. ^ ET van der Vlist in Rudolf CJ van Maanen (ed.): Leiden. De geschiedenis van een Hollandse stad . Volume 1: Suffering Dead 1574 . Stichting Geschiedschrijving Leiden, Leiden 2002, ISBN 90-806754-1-5 , pp.?; Elisabeth de Bièvre: Sealed architecture. City seals, architecture and urban identity in the Northern Netherlands, 1200-1700. In: Jill A. Franklin, TA Heslop, Christine Stevenson (Eds.): Architecture and Interpretation. Essays for Eric Fernie. Boydell, Woodbridge 2012, ISBN 978-1-84383-781-7 , pp. 323-327.
  24. ↑ De Brittenburg on the official website of the Stichting KunstKlank (Dutch), accessed on February 15, 2014.