Robur (Helvetia)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Roman fortress Robur was built in 374 under Valentinian I near Basel . The contemporary historian Ammianus Marcellinus (late 4th century) mentions it as “ in munimentum aedificanti prope Basiliam, quod appellant accolae Robur ” ('The fortress was built near Basel, which those who live nearby call Robur' ).

According to Franz Ludwig Haller , it was one of those fortresses that were built on the Gallic banks of the Rhine to observe the Alemanni . The exact location is no longer known today.

However, this did not prevent various historians of the 19th century from speculating about the location of this fortress. According to Johannes von Müller , it could have been the " Wartenberg on one of the outermost peaks of the Jura or the square tower in the Hard on the Rhine, of which the ruins were discovered in 1751". Johannes Stumpf had already suspected this. For Franz Ludwig Haller, on the other hand, it could have been a fortress on the Wartenberg or near Rheinfelden : “Various people are looking for this Robur in the ruins of the old Wartenberg Castle, above Muttenz near Basel, Aegidius Tschudi there, although with even less probability, the stone or the Burg zu Rheinfelden for the actual Robur. "

An alternative interpretation that has also been proposed is that Ammianus Marcellinus was misunderstood in that Robur was not the name of the fortress, but the old, originally Celtic name of the city of Basel, which then received the Roman name Basilia . For Franz Ludwig Haller, too, this was the most likely explanation: "The most reliable is probably the opinion, favored by Christian Wurstisen and Christoph Iselin , that this Roman fortress was built on the site of the great cathedral at Basel itself." Robur and Basel would thus describe the same place.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ John F. Drinkwater: The Alamanni and Rome 213-496 , Oxford, 2007. pp. 284-285.
  2. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus 3/30/1; Translation Wikipedia.
  3. ^ Franz Ludwig Haller: Helvetia among the Romans , Volume 1, Suhr, 1811. P. 312. ( limited preview in the Google book search)
  4. ^ Johannes von Müller, The Stories of the Swiss Confederation. First part. Von des Volks Ursprung , Reutlingen, 1824. p. 80, footnote 139. ( limited preview in Google book search)
  5. ^ Franz Kreutter: History of the Imperial and Royal Upper Austrian States . Princely Reichsstift, St. Blasien 1790, 1st part, p. 119
  6. ^ Franz Ludwig Haller: Helvetia under the Romans , Volume 1. Suhr, 1811, p. 312.
  7. ^ Daniel Albert Fechter : Basilia and Robur. In: Franz D. Gerlach, Johann J. Hottinger, Wilhelm Wackernagel : Swiss Museum for Historical Sciences , Volume 3, Frauenfeld, 1839, pp. 134–142. ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  8. ^ Andreas Heusler: Constitutional history of the city of Basel in the Middle Ages , Basel 1860. pp. 1–3. ( limited preview in Google Book search)
  9. ^ Franz Ludwig Haller: Helvetia under the Romans , Volume 1. Suhr, 1811, p. 312.