(develop an en: article on the Legionary Camps/Fortresses at Neuss)
- possible infoboxes: Castrum
Novaesium | |
---|---|
![]() Ground plan of the stone-built 'Koenenlager' Roman legionary fortress. The plan is from Koenen's excavations of 1887-1900. | |
![]() Novaesium is now within the city of Neuss, on the left bank of the Rhine, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany | |
Type | Multiple legionary camps and fortress |
Founded | 16 BCE or earlier |
Abandoned | 4th century CE |
Attested by | Tacitus, Antonine Itinerary, Tabula Peutingeriana |
Place in the Roman world | |
Province | Germania Inferior |
Limes | Lower Germanic Limes |
Nearby water | Rhine |
Directly connected to | Cologne/Trier and Xanten/the North Sea |
Structure | |
— stone structure — | |
Built during the reign of | Claudius |
Built | mid-1st century |
Size and area | 570 m × 420 m (25 ha) |
Shape | Oblong |
— timber structure — | |
Built during the reign of | Augustus, Tiberius |
Built | 16BCE to 43CE |
Shape | Multiple overlapping polygonal camps of varying sizes |
Construction technique | earth and wood |
Stationed military units | |
— Legions — | |
XX Valeria victrix, XVI Gallica, VI victrix, and others. | |
— Alae — | |
Possibly Afrorum veterana from 100AD | |
Location | |
Coordinates | 51°11′02″N 6°43′19″E / 51.183889°N 6.721944°E |
Place name | Gnadental |
Town | Neuss |
State | North Rhine-Westphalia |
Country | Germany |
Reference | |
UNESCO | List 1631, inscribed in 2021[1] Listed monument BD 04/06[2] |
Site notes | |
Recognition | ![]() |
Discovery year | 1886 |
Condition | Entirely below ground, mostly now built over. |
Excavation dates | 1887-1900, 1953-1980 |
Archaeologists | Constantin Koenen (1854-1929), Gustav Müller (1921-1988), Michael Gechter (1946-2018) |
Website | www.novaesium.de/ (in German) |
Novaesium
editNovaesium was the Roman name for the successive legionary camps alongside the Rhine from the late 1st century BCE to the 4th century CE. Initially built as a succession of earth and timber camps with the legionaries living in tents, in around 43 CE a large legionary fortress was begun, which was progressively fortified with stone walls, gates, and turrets, along with more permenant barracks, officers' quarters and administrative buildings. This shift from temporary to permenant structures is now taken as an emblem of the way Roman military strategy shifted from continual territorial expansion to a de facto defended line, known as the Limes, defining the limits of the Roman Empire.
The foundations of the stone fortress were discovered by Koenen in the late 19th century on the southern edge of what is now the city of Neuss. When excavated it was the first complete groundplan of a legionary fortress, and came to epitomise how a Claudian era fortress would look. Further excavations in the 1950s to 1980s revealed progressively more complex precurser camps to the west of Koenen's excavations, leaving a chronology and terminology which remains to some extent unresolved. The whole site was developed for housing as the excavations progressed, limiting the scope for subsequent discovery or clarification. In 2021 the site was included within the Lower Germanic Limes UNESCO World Heritage Site, a series of 102 locations along the Rhine Valley from south of Bonn (Germany) to the North Sea coast (the Netherlands).
Historical writings and events
editNovaesium is well attested within classical writings, both as a place name and establishing its location. Tacitus mentions it in ten different passages of his Histories, describing troop movements, retreats, battles, defections and defeats during the turbulent year of 69 CE.[3] Legio I Germanica had been stationed variously at Cologne, Novaesium and Bonn since 16 BCE and had been caught up in the mutiny of 14 CE. Legio XVI Gallica were stationed in Novaesium from 43 to 70 CE. During 69 CE, the Year of the Four Emperors, in the turmoil following Nero's reign, parts of both legions had marched on Rome in support of Vitellius, and subsequently were both disbanded the following year after their inability to deal with the Revolt of the Batavi.[4]
The Legio XX Valeria Victrix were at Novaesium until they joined Claudius's invasion of Britain in 43 CE and Legio VI Victrix was the legion brought in to Novaesium to replace the two disbanded legions in 69/70, until they were relocated to Xanten some time around the end of the first century, when the legionary fortress was abandoned.[4]
Novaesium is also named in the Antonine Itinerary of around 200 CE, on the map known as the Tabula Peutingeriana from around 300 CE and in Ammianus Marcellinus's History written in 359,[3] showing that as a settlement it retained its significance after the legions had left. The site of the fortress was re-used for a much smaller Auxillary fort, probably housing a Cavelry unit (ala) for the next 200 years. The gravestone of a rider from the ala Afrorum veterana was found in Neuss and is dated around 100.[4]
The 'Nivisium castellum' is also mentioned by Gregory of Tours.[5] Around 575 he wrote Book II of his History of the Franks and section 9, quoting a now lost work by Sulpicius Alexander about events in 388, tells of how "Quintinus crossed the Rhine with his army near the stronghold of Neuss, and at his second camp from the river he found dwellings abandoned by their occupants and great villages deserted. For the Franks pretended to be afraid and retired into the more remote tracts, where they built an abattis on the edge of the woods."[6] The Romans were subsequently trapped in the woods and marshes where "the ranks were thrown into disorder and the legions cut in pieces."
Antiquarians and Archaeologists
editA variety of Roman artifacts had been found in the town through the 17th and 18th centuries, including two gravestones belonging to the XX and XVI Legions and one placed by a veteran of an auxiliary unit. In 1839 the first Neuss antiquities association was formed by a Prussian medical officer, Dr. Hermann Joseph Jaeger. In 1844 they carried out excavations at Reckburg, discovering a small Roman fort, and in 1845 the Neuss Municipal Museum was begun, to display the growing quantity of finds.[7]
Archaeological discovery and its importance
editKoenen's excavations and the Koenenlager
editMuller and the post-war excavations
editLack of a final overview of the excavations
editTentative chronology of the different camps
editAugustan/Trajanic camps
editClaudian fortress
editCavelry (Ala) occupation
editNovaesium from staging post to frontier
editPresent-day settings for the archaeological sites
editUNESCO World Heritage Site
edit"Archaeological monument 04/06: Römisches Legionslager Novaesium und römisches Auxiliarlager" (PDF). Denkmalliste der Stadt Neuss, Teil B - Bodendenkmäler (List of Monuments of the city of Neuss, Part B, Archaeological monuments). Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "Frontiers of the Roman Empire – The Lower German Limes". UNESCO World Heritage Convention: The List. 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
- ^ "List of archaeological monuments". Neuss.de Archaeology and monument conservation.
- ^ a b "Novaesium, Roman fortress on the Rhine, Neuss, Germany". ToposText. Aikaterini Laskaridis Foundation. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ a b c Franssen, Jürgen (2012). "Legionen und Auxilien". Novaesium, Alias Neuss (in German). Retrieved 26 June 2024. Cite error: The named reference "FranssenLegio" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
- ^ "GREGORII TURONENSIS HISTORIARUM LIBER SECUNDUS (Gregory of Tours: Histories Book 2)". The Latin Library.
- ^ Gregory of Tours (1916) [575]. History of the Franks. Records of Civilization 2. Vol. Book 2 section 9. Translated by Ernest Brehaut (from Fordham University: Internet Medieval Sourcebook ed.). Columbia University Press.
- ^ Franssen, Jürgen (2012). "Forschungsgeschichte (Research History)". Novaesium, Alias Neuss (in German). Retrieved 26 June 2024.