Germania (Roman province)
Germania (Roman province) was a short-lived province of the Roman Empire created temporarily by Augustus when he unsuccessfully tried to conquer Germania Magna. It lasted from 7 BC until the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in AD 9. The capital was Aliso (modern Haltern).[1]
History
Initially the Romans -with Julius Caesar leadership- conquered the area west of the Rhine river[2], but soon started to conquer the territories to the east, beyond the Rhine.
By 6 AD, all of Germania up to the River Elbe was temporarily pacified by the Romans as well as being occupied by them: Augustus officially created the new province of Germania the next year.[3] Indeed, although it had been started to be occupied militarily since the first years of the reign of Augustus and fully conquered (& administered as military territory with temporary capital Colonia) in 7 BC, it was not made into an official province until the Varus nomination as governor of the new province in 7 AD[4]
Between 10 BC and 6 AD the future emperor Tiberius, his brother Drusus, Lucius Domitius Ahenobarbus, and Germanicus conducted long campaigns in Germania, the area north of the Upper Danube and east of the Rhine, in an attempt at achieving a further major expansion of the Roman Empire together with a shortening of its frontier line. They subdued several Germanic tribes (making also alliance with tribes, like the Semnones, living near the Oder river). In 6 AD, Tiberius declared Germany pacified and Varus was appointed to govern Germania (after he suggested his nomination to Augustus) in the new capital Aliso.
Since Theodor Mommsen, it had been assumed that Roman operations in Greater Germania were initially limited to exploratory expeditions, and small temporary trading stations. This was despite Cassius Dio's reference[5] to the foundation of some cities during the governorship of Varus.
Waldgirmes was one of these places between the Rhine and Elbe, initially established to trade with the Germanic population and to supply Roman troops. Other important settlements/fortifications (together with the capital Aliso) were at Marktbreit, Anreppen, Oberaden, Rödgen and Hedemünden.[6]
In 1985 it was discovered that not far from the Roman fortification of Marktbreit, a civilian settlement of 3000 inhabitants was established (canabae legionis) to support the camp. But it was abandoned, without destruction, around 16 AD: it is the easternmost Roman civilian settlement so far discovered in central Germany.[7]
In 12 BC Nero Claudius Drusus "the elder" crossed the Rhine to establish Roman control. Many of the Germanic tribes were conquered and by 9 BC he had pushed the border of northern Roman Germania to the Albis (Elbe). Drusus died later that year and was replaced by his brother Tiberius. Tiberius fought a number of smaller wars and eventually left Germania in the hands of various legates who had established friendly relations among the Germans. Augustus, satisfied with the accomplishments of both Drusus and Tiberius, pushed to make Germania Magna (between the Rhine and Elbe) a province of the Roman Empire. The Romans, however, had overestimated their position and found the tribes unwilling to accept the offer of provincial status.UNRV
The Roman plan to complete the conquest and incorporate all of "Magna Germania" into the Roman Empire was frustrated when Roman troops were defeated by the German tribesmen in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD. Augustus then ordered Roman withdrawal from the remaining occupied territories of the former Roman province of Germania (completed by AD 16) and established the boundaries of the Roman Empire as the Rhine and the Danube.
Roman fortifications & settlements
In the Roman province of Germania there were at least 3 civilian settlements (the capital "Aliso", Marktbreit and Waldgirmes) and some legionary camps & fortifications. Someone of them recently discovered:
| Area name | Actual name | From | until | Discovered | kind | Comment | Photo/Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anreppen (Roman camp) | Delbrück | from 5 AD | to 9 AD | 1968 | Legionary Camp | near Lippe | 
|
| Beckinghausen | Lünen | from 1 AD | to 9 AD | 1906 | Fort/commercial port | near Lippe | |
| Bentumersiel (Roman camp) | Landkreis Leer | from 12 BC | to 16 AD | 1928 | Camp | near Ems | |
| Aliso (Roman colonia) | Haltern am See | from 7 BC | to 9 AD | 1816 | fortifications & civilian settlement | near Lippe | 
|
| Hedemünden (Roman camp) | Hann. Münden | from 11 BC | to 7 AD | 1998 | near river Werra | ||
| Holsterhausen (Roman camp) | Dorsten | 1952 | legionary Camp | near Lippe | |||
| Kneblinghausen (Roman fort) | Rüthen (section of Kneblinghausen) | Augustus times; and from 83 AD | to 85 AD | 1901 | near river Möhne | ||
| Limburg (Roman camp) | Limburg an der Lahn | from 11 BC | to 7 AD | 2012 | Roman fortification for 3,000 legionaries | near river Lahn | |
| Marktbreit | Marktbreit | from 6 BC | to 9 AD | 1985 | Huge Legionary camp & fort; later civilian settlement | near river Main | |
| Mušov (Roman camp) | Mušov in Moravia | 6 AD | 1926 | Legionary camps for 4 legions | near Carnuntum | 
| |
| Oberaden (Roman camp) | Bergkamen | from 11 BC | to 7 AD | 1905 | Legionary Camp | near river Lippe | 
|
| Oberbrechen (Roman camp) | Oberbrechen (section of Limburg-Weilburg) | from 10 BC | 9 AD | 1999 and (again) 2010 | Roman Fort of nearly 3 has. for 800 legionaries | Zone Assia | 
|
| Olfen (Roman camp) | Olfen | from 11 BC | to 7 AD | 2011 | Legionary camp for one thousand legionaries | near Lippe | |
| Porta Westfalica (Roman camp) | Barkhausen | from 5 AD | to 7 AD | 2008 | legionary camp | near Weser, 100 km east of Kalkriese |
|
| Rödgen (Roman camp) | Bad Nauheim | from 10 BC | to 9 AD | 1960-1966 | Roman Fort of 3.3 has for more than 1,000 legionaries | Zone Assia | |
| Waldgirmes | Lahnau-Dorlar | from 4 BC | to 16 AD | 1990-1997[8] | Roman Fort & later civilian settlement | near river Lahn in Assia | 
|
| Wilkenburg (Roman camp) | Wilkenburg | from 4 AD | to 9 AD | (1992 aerial photo) 2015 archaeological discovery[9] |
Roman camp for 20.000 legionaries, probably under Tiberius | Hannover area | 
|
Agri Decumates
The only areas of the short-lived Roman province of Germania that successively remained inside the Roman empire -after the Augustus order to withdraw west of the Rhine river- were the Agri Decumates.
Even if reconquered temporarily by Germanicus in 14 AD and 2 years later abandoned, under the Flavian emperors Romans took control and settled again the region. They built a road network for military communications and movements, and improved protection from invading German tribes (who used the re-entrant region to penetrate into Roman Gaul provinces). Frontier fortifications (Limes) were constructed along a line running Rheinbrohl—Arnsburg—Inheiden—Schierenhof—Gunzenhausen—Pförring (called Limes Germanicus).
The larger Roman settlements in the Agri Decumates were Sumolecenna (Rottenburg am Neckar), Civitas Aurelia Aquensis (Baden-Baden), Lopodunum (Ladenburg) and Arae Flaviae (Rottweil).
Romans controlled the Agri Decumates region until the mid-3rd century, when the emperor Gallienus (259-260 AD) evacuated it before the invading Alemanni[10] Later the emperor Aurelian (270-275 AD) had the region briefly reoccupied during the Roman resurgence of the late 3rd century under the so-called "military" emperors.
See also
Notes
- ^ Roman Aliso
- ^ in these territories later -in 85 AD- were created the two Roman provinces of Germania inferior and Germania superior
- ^ Carroll, Romans, Celts & Germans: the German provinces of Rome p.40
- ^ Rüger, C. (2004) [1996]. "Germany". In Alan K. Bowman; Edward Champlin; Andrew Lintott (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History: X, The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. - A.D. 69. Vol. 10 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 526–528. ISBN 0-521-26430-8.
- ^ (56,18,2)
- ^ Map of Varus Germany
- ^ Roman Marktbreit
- ^ Waldgirmes on Livius.org;Forum of Waldgirmes; Waldgirmes Archaeology
- ^ In 1992, the archaeological Roman area of Wilkenburg, which was about 30 hectares in size, was discovered in aerial archaeological photos. On the basis of the first archaeological investigations in the year 2015, the Roman camp can be roughly divided into the period between 12 BC and the time of the Varus Battle in 9 AD, when the Romans undertook several attempts at a military occupation of the Germania Magna. Additionally, excavations between Wilkenburg and Harkenbleck, where fragments of Roman clay vessels, parts of bronze adornment, clay fragments of cottage walls and bones were found, showed that there was a Romano-German settlement from the 1st to at least the 2nd century AD.
- ^ L. de Blois, The Policy of the Emperor Gallienus, p. 5, 250
Bibliography
- Carroll, Maureen. Romans, Celts & Germans: the german provinces of Rome. Tempus Series. Publisher Tempus, 2001 ISBN 0752419129
- Zick, Michael. Rom an der Lahn. In: Abenteuer Archäologie 2006, 1, S. 46ff. ISSN 1612-9954 (online)