Search

[German version] I. General In the religious and administrative theory of the land surveyors, the Latin word limes denoted the path marking the boundary between two pieces of land, while in military and political usage (Tac. Ann. 1,50; Frontin. Str. 1,3,10) it meant the border between Roman and non-Roman territory (SHA Hadr. 12). Over recent years, research has led the military connotation of the term limes, which has been used almost exclusively from the 19th cent., to be expanded to comprehend also the historico-geographical and socio-economic fields. Where the limites were origin…

[German version] Coastal people in  Gallia Belgica in modern Picardy, main town was  Samarobriva; participated in the Gallic coalitions against  Caesar of 57 and 52 BC, were finally subjugated in 51 BC (Caes. B Gall. 2,4,9; 7,75,1-3; 8,7,3-4). Their settlement areas between the  Bellovaci in the south and  Morini in the north (Ptol. 2,9,4) encompassed the Somme basin, bordered in the north by the Canche, in the north-east and south-east by the Somme watershed; the Catuslougi [1] documented on the southern border, the Bresle valley, were considered as   pagus of the A. Schön, Franz (Rege…

[German version] Oppidum of the  Bellovaci, mentioned in Caes. B Gall. 2,13, localization uncertain. It is a matter of dispute whether it was a settlement on the same location as -- and preceding -- the capital of the civitas  Caesaromagus, or whether is was a Celtic settlement in a completely different location (Bailleul sur Thérain, Breteuil sur Noye). Schön, Franz (Regensburg)

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: | Gallia/Gaul | Commerce | Legio | Legio | Limes | Limes | Raeti, Raetia Modern Strasbourg, epigraphically first mentioned at the time of Vespasian (CIL XIII 9082). A smaller military installation from the Augustan period was replaced by a legionary fortress following  Varus' defeat in AD 9, where the   legio II was garrisoned until  Claudius' invasion of Britain in AD 43. After use by detachments from other units, recent archaeological research points to A.'s use once again as a permanent garri…

[German version] [1] City of the Bituriges Vivisci in Aquitania The city of the Bituriges Vivisci (Βίτουργες Οὐβίσκοι/ Bítourges Oubískoi) in Aquitania mentioned in Ptol. 2,7,7 (Νουιόμαγος/ Nouiómagos) is generally identified with a Roman vicus near Brion (Saint-Germain-d'Esteuil) in the Médoc between Lesparre and Pauillac ( département of Gironde). This town with an ancient sanctuary of the Medulli had been inhabited from the 3rd cent. BC; urban development is recognisable from the time of Claudius (41-54 AD). It was in this period that the fanum (sanctuary) and the theatre we…

[German version] Civitas, capital of the Morini (Tab. Peut. 2,2;  It. Ant. 376; 378 f.: Tarvenna; Ptol. 2,9,8: Ταρουάννα/ Tarouánna), which developed at a ford across the Leie/Lys from a river island to the northern bank. Archaeological finds remain lacking, since the vieille ville was razed in 1553 at the behest of Charles V; the modern town of Thérouanne (in the département of Pas-de-Calais) is farther to the south. Schön, Franz (Regensburg) Bibliography R. Delmaire, Notes sur l'évolution urbaine de Thérouanne, in: Rev. archéologique de Picardie 1984, 223-228  Id. et al., Le Pa…

[German version] [1] River, present-day R. Maas River, modern name Maas, which rises in Germania superior in the land of the Lingones, on the plateau of Langres (differently Caes. B Gall. 4,10,1: in the Vosges), then flows northwards through Belgica, cuts through the Ardennes shortly before Germania inferior and arrives at the Mare Germanicum in the land of the Batavi. The apparently contradictory information from classical authors, as to whether the M. flowed directly into the sea (Plin. HN. 4,100f.; Ptol. 2,9,3) or via the left arm of the Rhine, the Waal, (Caes. B Gall. 4,10,1: Vacalus; …

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: Batavian Revolt Today's Bitburg, vicus located on a naturally elevated site along the Roman road Augusta Treverorum -- Colonia (It. Ant. 372,4), centre of the Treverian pagus of the Bedenses. Inscriptions indicate that B. sported a lively theatre (CIL XIII 4132; BRGK 40, 1959, 125,8) and activities of   iuniores (CIL XIII 4131). After B.'s destruction around AD 275/6, it was newly built in the 4th cent. as a military fort with oval surrounding walls (two hectares) and was i…

[German version] This item can be found on the following maps: | Gallia/Gaul | Limes | Limes | Rome | Batavian Revolt Capital of the Gallo-Roman civitas of the Remi; modern Reims, on the northern edge of Champagne (Ptol. 2,9,6; 8,5,6); whether it should be identified with the centre of the autonomous Remi (Caes. Gall. 6,44) remains an open question. After sporadic settlement since the end of the Hallstatt period it expanded during La Tène III. In the course of the 1st cent. BC an oppidum arose, c. 90 ha. in area, with a massive earth rampart and ditch and surrounded by a second co…

[German version] [1] Term used in family law Under Roman law of the Republican period, there was a difference between the matrona as the legal wife and the mater familias, the wife who was in the manus of her husband and thus belonged to his family (Gellius 18,6,8-9). This difference disappeared along with the marriage with manus ( Marriage), and since Augustus the terms matrona and mater familias are interchangeable in legal texts. In social terms, the word matrona expresses the public function of an honourably wed wife, which in early times possibly corresponded to the functions of the patr…

[German version] Largest of the Alpine lakes (581 km2), modern Lake Geneva. Documented by Caes. B Gall. 1,2,3; 8,1; 3,1,1; Str. 4,1,11; 6,6; 11; Luc. 1,396; Mela 2,74; 79; Plin. HN 2,224; 3,33; Ptol. 2,10,2; Amm. Marc. 15,11,16. It. Ant. 348,2: lacus Lausonius; Tab. Peut. 3,2: lacus Losanenses. It was the border between Gallia Belgica or Germania superior and Gallia Narbonensis and thus separated the Helvetii in the north from the Allobroges in the south. In Genava harbour installations have been established through dendrochronological methods for the…

[German version] River in Gallia Belgica (Caes. B Gall. 6,33; Plin. HN 4,98; 105; Geogr. Rav. 263,6: Scaldea; Ptol. 2,9,3; 9: Ταβούλλα/ Taboúlla), modern Schelde (in French Escaut). It rises on Mont Saint Martin near Augusta Viromanduorum (modern Saint Quentin in the department of Oise), flows through Camaracum (modern Cambrai) and Turnacum (modern Tournai) and separates the civitates of the Atrebates [1] and the Menapii on its left bank from that of the Nervii on its right bank. In the region near its mouth (Plin. loc. cit.), which was settled by Ge…

[German version] (‘Market on the Mosa’), present-day Mouzon (Dépt. Ardennes); town on the road from Durocortorum to Augusta [6] Treverorum, between the civitates of the Remi and the Treveri on an island between two arms of the Mosa [1]. It was a significant  trading centre especially from the 2nd cent. AD. A fortification dating from Late Antiquity has been archaeologically authenticated. Musmagenses under a magister equitum inter Gallias  are documented (Not. Dign. Occ. 7,105); Merovingian coins mention Mosomo castri. Schön, Franz (Regensburg) Bibliography J.-P. Levant, Mouzon…

[German version] Tribe in Gallia Belgica (Picardy region) south of the Ambiani in the Thérain valley (Ptol. 2,9,4; Str. 4,3,5). Beauvais ( Caesaromagus), once the capital of the civitas, and the surrounding Beauvaisis owe their names to the B. This mightiest tribe of the  Belgae was defeated by Caesar in 57 BC (Caes. B Gall. 2,4,5; 2,13-15). They were hesitant participants in the revolt led by  Vercingetorix in 52 BC (Caes. B Gall. 7,75), but in the following year, they organized resistance against Rome (Caes. B Gall. 8,6…

(Βελγικοί; Belgikoí: Cass. Dio 39,1; 40,42; Βέλγαι; Bélgai: Str. 4,1,1). [German version] A. Origins According to Caesar's division of Gallia into three population groups (Caes. B Gall. 1,1), the B. were the one settling between the Seine, Marne, North Sea and Rhine; their southern spread is not specified. Little can be said with certainty about the origins of the B. At the beginning of the 3rd cent. BC, tribal groups, presumably from Jutland and the Baltic region, invaded this region (Mela 3,36; 57; Amm. Ma…

(Αὐγούστα, Αὐγοῦστα; Augoústa, Augoûsta). [German version] [0] Title First to receive the name A. (‘the Sublime’) was  Livia [2], by the terms of the will of her husband  Augustus (Tac. Ann. 1,8,1; Vell. Pat. 2,75,3; Suet. Aug. 101,2), who at the same time adopted her into the Julian family (thus: Iulia Augusta). Hellenistic influence is disputed (in favour [1], against [2. 140-145]); the name Σεβαστή/ Sebastḗ with the same literal meaning was bestowed on the wives of Roman emperors in the Greek-speaking world independently of any conferring of the name of A…

[German version] Region (Amm. Marc. 17,8,3) in the modern provinces of Noord-Brabant, Antwerpen and Limburg, in the Middle Ages the earldom of Teisterbant. The population (Texuandri: Plin. HN 4,106; ILS 2556; CIL III, 6239; 14214) consisted of different groups, among them Germanic peoples which gathered in the former settlement area of the Eburones. The Salii [1], who settled in T. in Late Antiquity, were defeated in AD 358 by Iulianus [11], but may have remained in the country and made T. the starting point for their expansion in the 4th and 5th cents. Schön, Franz (Regensburg) Bibliograp…

[German version] Wooded mountains in  Gallia; exact location and extent unclear even in antiquity (Str. 4,3,5; Tac. Ann. 3,42). They centred on the modern Eifel and Ardennes, but evidently extended to the north-west over the hills of Artois to the territory of the  Atrebates and  Morini on the English Channel. Schön, Franz (Regensburg)

[German version] (Τοῦγγροι/ Toûngroi). A tribe in Gallia Belgica (It. Ant. 358,15; Ptol. 2,9,9) that had not yet appeared at the time of Caesar's capture of Gallia. At the time, the Germani [2] Cisrhenani were settling between the Scaldis (Schelde) and the Rhenus [2] (Rhine) under the hegemony of the Eburones. After the defeat inflicted upon the latter by Caesar (Caes. B Gall. 6,5; 6,29-34; 8,24 f.), the entire political structure of the Germani Cisrhenani was dissolved in accordance with Roman policy. In the Augustan Period, the civitas of the T. was founded in the western area …

[German version] [1] Roads and bridges, construction of see Roads and bridges, construction of Eder, Walter (Berlin) [German version] [2] Voting bridge The term pons (generally in the plural form of pontes) was also used for the narrow 'voting bridges' in Rome which members of the comitia had to cross on the way to cast their votes. It is argued that the saying Sexagenarios de ponte (deicere) with its incitement to throw sixty-year olds from the bridge (Cic. Rosc. Am. 100; Fest. 452; Macrob. Sat. 1,5,10) stemmed from the demand by younger voters to bar older o…