Roman Rhine Valley Road

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The Roman Rhine Valley Road was one of the most important Roman roads in the north of the Roman Empire . It connected Italy along the Upper Rhine with the Roman provinces Germania superior and Germania inferior and the legions stationed there on the Rhine .

history

Representation in the Tabula Peutingeriana (arrow pointing to Mainz).

The Rhine Valley Road is one of the earliest Roman roads in the region. The oldest Roman road that led to the Rhine was the connection built by Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa during his governorship in Gaul from Lyon (Lugdunum) via Metz (Divodurum) and Trier ( Augusta Treverorum ) to Cologne ( Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium ) . As a strategically important and shortest connection to Italy, the Rheintalstrasse is likely soon after this, at the latest with the beginning of the Germanic campaigns of Emperor Augustus around 15 BC. Have been built.

With the end of the campaigns and the establishment of the Rhine as a border, the road connected the most important Roman troop locations, including several legionary camps. The connection to the legions on the Danube was significantly extended by the route along the Upper Rhine, so that the Romans soon also occupied parts of the right of the Rhine. Gnaeus Pinarius Cornelius Clemens therefore had the Kinzigtalstraße built in AD 74 , which reached the Rheintalstraße near Strasbourg . At least since then, a route on the right bank of the Rhine from Mainz via Groß-Gerau and Heidelberg had existed . This is usually referred to as the right Rhine Valley Road, which is why the route described here is also called the Left Rhine Valley Road.

In AD 69, the year of the Four Emperors, and in the subsequent Batavian uprising , the Rhine Valley Road was one of the most important marching routes for Vitellius' army to Italy and for the Vespasian troops to the north. The conquest of the Dekumatland and the advance into areas on the right bank of the Rhine with the establishment of the Upper German-Rhaetian Limes meant that the road lost part of its military character. Auxiliary troops that were previously stationed in the vicinity of the legions or in smaller garrison types were relocated to the Limes. Places that were previously dominated by the military, such as Speyer (Noviomagus) , Worms ( Borbetomagus ) or Bingen am Rhein ( Bingium ) , became civilian settlements and administrative offices. The legionary brickworks in Rheinzabern ( Tabernae ) were also given up around 80 AD. The two rear legion camps in Mainz ( Mogontiacum , Legio XXII Primigenia ) and Strasbourg ( Argentorate , Legio VIII Augusta ) remained in existence during the longest epoch of the Middle Imperial Period .

With the emergence of the civil suburbs, the street retained its importance as a central traffic axis. In the time of Emperor Caracalla it is mentioned in the itinerary Itinerarium Antonini . It is also listed as one of the most important routes in the Tabula Peutingeriana . In late antiquity , when the Rhine became the imperial border again, many troops stationed by the Limitanei are mentioned in the Notitia dignitatum at the stage stations of the road .

Southwest Germany at the beginning of the 3rd century with civil settlements and Roman roads.

course

The road reached the Rhine near Augst ( Augusta Raurica ) from Milan via the Great St. Bernhard , Avenches and Solothurn . Here the Neckar-Alb-Donau-Strasse branched off towards Rottweil ( Arae Flaviae ) and the Alpennordstrasse to Windisch AG ( Vindonissa ) and Pfyn (ad fines) , while the Rheintalstrasse turned west. Another early connection opened near Basel, running from Lyon via Chalon-sur-Saône and Besançon . The Rhine Valley Road reached Strasbourg via Kembs and Biesheim . It led north of Strasbourg to Seltz , before reaching today's Germany for the first time near Berg . It led to Mainz via Rheinzabern (Tabernae) , Speyer ( Noviomagus ) , Worms ( Borbetomagus ) and Nierstein . On the Middle Rhine, the Ausoniusstrasse branched off to Trier near Bingen .

With the intermediate stations Boppard ( Boudobriga ) , Koblenz ( Confluentes ) , Andernach ( Antunnacum ) , Remagen ( Rigomagus ) she reached Bonn ( Bonna ) and Cologne in the Germania inferior. Here the Rhine formed the border as the Lower Germanic Limes , which is why it is often referred to as the "Limes Road". In Cologne the Via Belgica branched off as an extension of the decumanus maximus , and it continued via Neuss ( Novaesium ) , Xanten ( Colonia Ulpia Traiana ) and Nijmegen ( Ulpia Noviomagus Batavorum ) to the North Sea .

Route description of the section to Mainz in the Itinerarium Antonini

text modern place distance
Item a Mediolano per Alpes Penninas Mogontiacum mpm CCCCXVIIII sic from Milan over the Poeninian Alps to Mainz Total distance 419 milia passuum monetalis
Novaria mpm XXXIII Novara 34 miles
Vercellas mpm XVI Vercelli 16 miles
Eporedia mpm XXXIII Ivrea 33 miles
Vitricio mpm XXI Verrès 21 miles
Augusta praetoria mpm XXV Aosta 25 miles
Summo Pennino mpm XXV Great St. Bernhard 25 miles
Octoduro mpm XXV Martigny 25 miles
Tarnaias mpm XII Massongex 12 miles
Penne locos mpm XIII ? 13 miles
Vibisco mpm VIIII Vevey 9 miles
Bromago mpm VIIII Oron-la-Ville 9 miles
Minnodunum mpm VI Moudon 6 miles
Aventiculum Helvetiorum mpm XIIII Avenches 14 miles
Petinesca mpm XIII Hours BE 13 miles
Salodurum mpm X Solothurn 10 miles
Augusta Rauracum mpm XXII Augst 22 miles
Cambete mpm XII Kembs 12 miles
Stabulis mpm VI ? 6 miles
Argentovaria mpm XVIII Biesheim 18 miles
Helvetum mpm XVI ? 16 miles
Argentorato mpm XII Strasbourg 12 miles
Saletione mpm VII Seltz 7 miles
Tabernis mpm XIII Rheinzabern 13 miles
Noviomago mpm XI Speyer 11 miles
Borbitomago mpm XIIII Worms 19 miles
Bauconica mpm XIII Nierstein 13 miles
Mogontiacum mpm XI. Mainz 11 miles

Archaeological sources

Copy of one of the Hagenbacher Leugensteine ​​in the Terra Sigillata Museum Rheinzabern.

In addition to the written ones, there are also archaeological sources on the course of the road. Some well-preserved sections can be found in the Bienwald in Rhineland-Palatinate, while they are mostly barely noticeable on plowed areas in the Rhine Valley. During excavation cuts, the gravel road surface was mostly found to be over six meters wide. However, this does not include unpaved areas for avoidance and pedestrians. That there must have been such a thing is u. a. This is clear from the fact that the road ditches are not directly, but rather at a considerable distance from the road.

The course of the road is also documented by numerous finds of milestone and Leugen stones. The discovery of six successive stones in 1936 west of Hagenbach , on which five inscriptions were still preserved, is outstanding . It was the original location of the stones, which were set up 16 leagues away from Speyer. The 13-Leugen stone set up at Jockgrim was also found . In addition to these stones erected by the Civitas der Nemeter with the main town in Speyer, there are some finds on the road north of Speyer. Fragments of two Leugen stones from the 8th Leuge were discovered in a well at a street station near Mutterstadt . The stones of the second and fifth leagues were used in the late antique fortress Altrip .

Route on the right bank of the Rhine

Even before the establishment of the Upper German Limes and after its abandonment, a route on the right bank of the Rhine to the Mainz legion camp was used by the Romans. It followed from Dangstetten in the Upper Rhine via Riegel am Kaiserstuhl to Offenburg (connection to the Kinzigtalstrasse). A road station was discovered on this section near Friesenheim . To the north it ran via Heidelberg - Ladenburg ( Lopodunum ) - Gernsheim and Groß-Gerau to Mainz. Numerous milestones and Leugen stones are also known from this road. There are four stones from Sinzheim / Steinbach, five from Ladenburg and eight stones from Heidelberg. There is also a stone from Bühl .

In Ladenburg, the street formed the main axis of the suburb of Neckarsueben , whose civitas had most of the stones placed along this route. A consecration for the street gods Biviae, Triviae, Quadruviae is known from Groß-Gerau, where a road branched off to Dieburg and into the front Odenwald .

literature

  • Helmut Bender : Roman roads and road stations. Stuttgart 1975 (Small writings on the knowledge of the Roman occupation history of Southwest Germany 13).
  • Helmut Bernhard : Roman road. Lines between Neulauterburg and Worms. In: Heinz Cüppers (Hrsg.): The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Licensed edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2002, pp. 541–544.
  • Raymond Chevallier: Les Voies Romaines. Picard, Paris 1997 ISBN 2-7084-0526-8 , pp. 229-234.
  • 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 , pp. 410-419.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto Roller : Economy and traffic. In: H. Cüppers (Ed.): The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Hamburg 2002, p. 261.
  2. ↑ Inscription discovery CIL 13, 9082 , Hans Ulrich Nuber: On water and on land. The Roman transport network. In: Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube. Esslingen 2005, pp. 413 and 416.
  3. ↑ a b Itinerarium Antonini 350–355.
  4. ↑ Notitia dignitatum occ. XLI.
  5. ^ Hans Ulrich Nuber: On water and on land. The Roman transport network. In: Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube. Esslingen 2005, p. 416; Section through the street in the settlement area of ​​Rheinzabern: Fridolin Reutti: New archaeological research in the Roman Rheinzabern. Ed .: Verein Terra Sigillata-Museum Rheinzabern eV, Rheinzabern 1984, pp. 7–9.
  6. ↑ CIL 17-02, 605 ; CIL 17-02, 606 ; CIL 17-02, 607 ; CIL 17-02, 608 ; CIL 17-02, 609 .
  7. ↑ CIL 13, 9096 .
  8. ↑ Helmut Bernhard in: H. Cüppers (Ed.): The Romans in Rhineland-Palatinate. Hamburg 2002, p. 488f.
  9. ↑ CIL 13, 9095 ; CIL 13.9094 ; CIL 13.9093 ; CIL 13, 9092 .
  10. ^ Hans Ulrich Nuber: On water and on land. The Roman transport network. In: Imperium Romanum. Rome's provinces on the Neckar, Rhine and Danube. Esslingen 2005, p. 416; Sinzheim: CIL 13, 09117 , CIL 13, 09117 , CIL 13, 09118 , CIL 13, 09119 Ladenburg: CIL 13, 9099 , CIL 13, 9100 , CIL 13, 09101 , CIL 13, 9102 , CIL 13, 9103 ; Heidelberg: CIL 13, 9104 , CIL 13, 9105 , CIL 13, 9106 , CIL 13, 9107 , CIL 13, 9108 , CIL 13, 9109 , CIL 13, 9110 , CIL 13, 9111 ; Bühl: CIL 13, 09120 .
  11. ^ Marion Mattern: Roman stone monuments from Hesse south of the Main and from the Bavarian part of the Main Limes (= Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Germany. Vol. 2.13). Verlag des Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseums, Mainz, on commission from Habelt, Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-88467-091-3 , p. 174; Helmut Castritius , Manfred Clauss , Leo Hefner: The Roman stone inscriptions of the Odenwald (RSO). Contributions to the investigation of the Odenwald 2 , 1977, pp. 237-308. No. 53; Egon Schallmayer in: Dietwulf Baatz / Fritz-Rudolf Herrmann (ed.): The Romans in Hessen. Licensed edition of the 1989 edition, Nikol, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-933203-58-9 , p. 322f.