Roman road Trier – Cologne

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Detail from the Tabula Peutingeriana (4th century) with the Roman road Trier – Cologne

The Roman road Trier – Cologne is a section of the Via Agrippa , a Roman-era trunk road network that started from Lugdunum ( Lyon ). The route from Augusta Treverorum ( Trier ) to Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium ( Cologne ), the capital of the Roman province Germania inferior , was 66 Roman Leugen (= 147 km). It is preserved in the Itinerarium Antonini , the directory of the Emperor Caracalla (198-217), which was revised in the 3rd century, and on the Tabula Peutingeriana , the Roman world map found in the 16th century with the representation of the Roman road network of the 4th century .

Route

Roman milestone from the 3rd century - found during the construction of the Cologne – Trier railway around 1860

The route of the Roman road is described in the Itinerarium Antonini with seven stations, the distance of which is given in Leugen.
1 Gallic Leuga corresponds to 1.5 milia passuum = approx. 2200 m, whereby 1 mille passuum = 1000 passus = approx. 1480 m

The later Peutinger table shows the same places with the exception of Tolbiacum (Zülpich) and Belgica vicus (cheap), but without the addition of vicus. However, the information differs considerably from that of the Antonine itinerary and is often interpreted as spelling mistakes.

Roman station name Today's name Distance information
Between the places From Trier
Leuga kilometre kilometre
Treveros trier
Beda vicus Bitburg XII 27 27
Ausava vicus Büdesheim XII 27 54
Egorigio vicus Jünkerath VII 16 70
Marcomago vicus Marmagen VIII 18th 88
Tolbiaco vicus Zülpich XII 24 112
Agrippina Cologne XVI 35 147

Recent research and prospecting on a corridor up to 250 m wide along the road have shown that at least every three to four kilometers, in more densely populated areas often only a few hundred meters apart, there are sites of different sizes of Vici directly on the road (Settlements), mansiones (hostels) and mutationes (horse changing stations), stationes beneficiarium (military road posts ) and religious consecration precincts . This applies even more to road crossings , branches and river crossings. This road infrastructure was favored by the Cursus publicus , a kind of state post , introduced by Augustus .

Design and dimensions

Exposed profile of the Römerstraße on Heidenkopf near Dahlem (Eifel)

The structure and dimensions of the road structure of the Roman road Trier – Cologne are not uniform. In the Eifel, the road body mostly consists of three layers, each about 30 cm high, which are covered with a mixture of crushed stones, gravel and sand. The bottom layer - where the appropriate material was available - forms an embroidery made of raised stone slabs or a massive bed made of broken limestone or white sandstones containing quartz. On top of this lies a layer of broken limestone, sand and gray stone, which is often mixed with clay. There is a layer of gravel on top. The entire stone layer is about 100 cm high and arched, partly higher and therefore narrower due to repairs. The upper layers are often washed out or cleared away. Outside the Eifel to Cologne, the stone layers have been replaced by 20–50 cm high gravel layers that have often been preserved underground. Near the city, the street is paved with rough stone slabs. The road body is 4.00 m to 6.00 m wide. Often it is lined with climbs and ditches on the sides, sometimes with summer paths on both sides , resulting in total widths of up to 27 m.

Building history

The road fits into the road network planned and tackled by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa from Lugdunum ( Lyon ). A clue for the dating is the construction of the first Roman Moselle bridge in Trier , which was built in 17 and 16 BC. Is set. Since Agrippa 12 BC Died, the Roman road Trier – Cologne could no longer be completed during the time of his second governorship in Gaul (until 18 BC) but probably still during his lifetime. (→ Via Agrippa )

Research history

The royal Prussian Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt (1786–1845) carried out the first explorations of the course in the years 1828/29. The Prussian General von Veith, who temporarily lived in Mechernich , supplemented this research with his own investigations in the 1880s. Both published their sometimes contradicting findings in the yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland. (1861-1885)

In 1923, the curator of the Provincial Museum Bonn, Joseph Hagen, summarized the findings of the 19th century on this Roman traffic route in the 8th volume of the Explanatory Notes on the Historical Atlas of the Rhineland under the title The Roman Roads of the Rhine Province . Eight years later (1931) a second edition of the work was published, which contains numerous, sometimes serious changes in the findings for the area around the Vicus Marcomagus. Its representation still forms the basis of soil prospection in the area of ​​the Rhenish Roman roads.

literature

  • Friedrich Wilhelm Schmidt, ed. from Ernst Schmidt: Research on the Roman roads etc. in the Rhineland . In: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland 31 (1861), pp. 1-220 (online resource, accessed on March 3, 2012).
  • Carl von Veith: The Roman road from Trier to Cologne. In: Yearbooks of the Society of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland. Issue 83–85, Bonn 1883–85.
  • Hermann Aubin: Historical hand atlas of the Rhine province. Cologne 1926.
  • Joseph Hagen: Römerstraßen der Rheinprovinz (= explanations of the historical atlas of the Rhine province. Volume 8). 2nd Edition. Kurt Schroeder Verlag, Bonn 1931.
  • Charles Marie Ternes: The Romans on the Rhine and Moselle. Stuttgart 1975.
  • Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Hrsg.): Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments , vol. 26: Northeast Eifel foreland. Mainz 1976.
  • Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum Mainz (Ed.): Guide to prehistoric and early historical monuments , Bd. 33 Southwest Eifel. Mainz 1977.
  • Heinz Günter Horn : The Romans in North Rhine-Westphalia. Stuttgart 1987.
  • Michael Rathmann: Investigations on the imperial roads in the western provinces of the Roman Empire . Darmstadt 2003.
  • Heinz Günter Horn : Out and about with the Romans: Agrippastraße. From Cologne to Dahlem in 4 stages. JP Bachem Verlag , Cologne 2014, ISBN 978-3-7616-2782-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Joseph Hagen: The Roman roads of the Rhine province. Bonn 1931, p. 78
  2. ↑ Tabula Peutingeriana. Codex Vindobonensis 324, Austrian National Library, Vienna. Commented by E. Weber. Graz 2004, ISBN 3-201-01793-0
  3. ^ Konrat Ziegler u. a. (Ed.): The little Pauly . Lexicon of antiquity. Munich 1979, column 591
  4. ↑ z. B. Harm-Eckart Beier: Investigation of the design of the Roman road network in the Eifel, Hunsrück and Palatinate areas from the perspective of the road construction engineer. Dissertation, Goslar 1971, p. 41
  5. ^ Harm-Eckart Beier: Investigation of the design of the Roman road network in the Eifel, Hunsrück and Palatinate areas from the perspective of the road construction engineer. Dissertation, Goslar 1971, p. 39
  6. ↑ Jeanne-Nora Andrikopoulou-Strack, Wolfgang Gaitzsch , Klaus Grewe, Susanne Jenter, Cornelius Ulbert: New research on the Roman roads in the Rhineland. In: Thomas Otten, Hansgerd Hellenkemper, Jürgen Kunow, Michael Rind: Fundgeschichten - Archeology in North Rhine-Westphalia. Book accompanying the state exhibition NRW 2010, p. 163 f. (henceforth new research )
  7. ^ Veith: The Roman road from Trier to Cologne . In: Yearbooks of the Association of Friends of Antiquity in the Rhineland , Issue L XXXIX, Bonn 1885, pp. 1–27.
  8. ↑ New research p. 164
  9. ^ Strabo: Geographika. Translation and comments by Albert Forbiger. Wiesbaden 2005. ISBN 3-86539-051-X
  10. ↑ Klaus Grewe : Agrippastraße between Cologne and Trier in: Landschaftsverband Rheinland: Erlebnisraum Römerstraße Köln – Trier , 2007