Augusta Treverorum
Augusta Treverorum was a Roman city on the Moselle River, from which modern Trier emerged.
The date of the city's founding is placed between the construction of the first Roman bridge in Trier and the late reign of Augustus. In the Roman Empire, Trier formed the main town of the civitas of the Treverians, where several ten thousand people lived, and belonged to the province of Gallia Belgica. Roman Trier gained particular importance in late antiquity: between the late 3rd and late 4th centuries several rulers, including Constantine the Great, used the city as one of the western imperial residences, sponsoring monumental buildings such as the Trier Imperial Baths and the Basilica of Constantine. With a high five-digit population in 300, Augusta Treverorum, now sometimes called Treveris, was the largest city north of the Alps and thus had the status of a global city.
The Roman buildings, which have survived to the present day, were designated as UNESCO World Heritage Roman Monuments, Cathedral and Church of Our Lady in Trier in 1986.
Location
Unlike almost all other Roman cities in today's Germany, Augusta Treverorum did not belong to one of the two Germanic provinces, but to Gaul. The city is located in a wide bend of the Moselle River, where a wide, flood-free valley plain lies between the river and the surrounding heights of the Hunsrück. Between the confluence of the Saar and the entrance to the entrenched meanders of the Middle and Lower Moselle, the Trier valley width between Konz and Schweich is the largest settlement chamber in the region. The location of the river is not likely to have shifted significantly since the last ice age. The deeply incised stream courses of Olewiger Bach/Altbach, Aulbach and Aveler Bach provided both fresh water and easy access to the surrounding heights. Already since the Paleolithic Age, the area was therefore repeatedly visited by humans.History
Pre- and early Roman times
The earliest settlements on Trier city territory have been proven near the later Roman potteries on the banks of the Pacelli River. These are finds of the Linear Pottery Culture. Already in the pre-Roman Iron Age, the Trier valley may have been largely cleared and settled. Before the first verifiable Roman bridge over the Moselle was built in 17 B.C., there was probably already a ford at the site. In the late Latène period, settlement seems to have been scattered along the right bank of the Moselle. A concentration of settlement features could be found during an area excavation between the Moselle, St. Irminen, Ostallee and Gilbertstraße.The important centers of this time are not assumed to be in such valley settlements. The Treverian tribe, which gave its name to Trier, is tangible in the region mainly through important hilltop settlements, among them the oppidum on the Titelberg in Luxembourg, the Castellberg near Wallendorf, the Hillfort of Otzenhausen or the oppidum on the Martberg. The Treverian tribe was the first to settle in the region.
However, the small settlement was reason enough for a Roman military station to be established above the Trier valley width on the Petrisberg a few years after the Roman conquest of Gaul under Gaius Iulius Caesar. Few finds, among them Arretinian terra sigillata as well as a dendrochronologically dated wooden fragment, point to the time around 30 B.C. A connection with Agrippa's road building measures is suspected, which are mostly attributed to his first governorship in Gaul in the years 39/38 B.C.
Foundation
The city was probably founded in 18/17 BC by Emperor Augustus, which is primarily indicated by the name, but which is documented only in later times. The honor of being called by its name was otherwise only given to Augusta Vindelicum and Augusta Raurica in northern Switzerland in today's German-speaking world. The exact date cannot be determined from the sources and can only be approximated. The following are considered to be fixed historical points:- The reorganization of the Gallic provinces under Augustus, which began in 27 BC with a census and concluded in 12 BC with the foundation of the altar of Roma and Augustus at Lugdunum. Within this period, the foundation of a central place of the Treverians could also be assumed.
- The second governorship of Agrippa in Gaul in 19 BC
- The stay of Augustus in Gaul 16–13 BC.
Early and high imperial period
Augustus' measures in the Gallic provinces included the tripartition of the former Gallia comata into the new provinces Gallia Aquitania, Gallia Lugdunensis and Gallia Belgica, with Trier becoming part of the latter with its capital at Durocortorum Remorum. Trier was the seat of the financial procurator responsible for Belgica and later for both Germanic provinces.While only uncertain information can be given about the settlement at the time of the foundation, the development into a planned colony city is well recognizable in the 1st century. The street network deviates in the northern and southern outskirts more strongly from the regular layout of the insulae, so that for the core area a square foundation city with the width of three insulae results. Near the river, a considerable backfilling was carried out towards the end of the 1st century in order to gain flood-free usable areas. Several pillars of the Moselle bridges were filled up in the process. Also at the western bridgehead of the pile-grate bridge was a triumph arch-like gateway.
File:Weinschiff Neumagen.jpg|thumb|Neumagen wine ship in the Rhineland Regional Museum Trier
File:Engobierte Keramik, Gelduba Grab 5555, Museum Burg Linn.jpg|thumb|Trier saying cup, place of discovery Krefeld-Gellep
The earliest mention of the stone bridge over the Moselle can be found in Tacitus' account of the Batavian Revolt of 69 A.D. Tacitus also mentions that Trier was a colony city. Presumably, similar to Cologne, the city had received this privileged status under Emperor Claudius. As terminus post quem can be seen a milestone from Buzenol from the year 43/44 A.D., which refers to Trier only as Aug, not as colonia. However, unlike Cologne, the founding of the colony here was not connected with the settlement of legion veterans, i.e. Roman citizens. Therefore, there are basically two different views on the nature of the Trier colony status. One interpretation assumes a pure titular colony; unlike in the case of a regular colonia, the title colonia was not connected with a conferral of the civitas Romana to all free inhabitants. Opponents of this thesis have pointed out that there is no evidence for such honorary bestowals, and instead assume a bestowal of the latin rights. It is also unclear whether Tacitus used the designation in a legally precise manner or only as a general characterization.
The legal status of the city dwellers and the tribal community of the Treverians in the imperial period is thus not entirely certain. It is noticeable that, on the one hand, the designation as Treverians continues to be used in inscriptions, which does not allow any conclusion on the civil right. On the other hand, mentions of the city and the tribal community suggest that both could have existed in parallel. Regardless of the legal status of the Treverians and their civitas, the city of Trier as their capital was an integral part of the Romanization. Already in the 40s of the first century, the geographer Pomponius Mela mentions Trier as a flourishing, rich city. The value of this news is, however, controversial, since Mela still follows the tripartite division of Gaul from Caesar's Gallic War and does not mention important cities such as Lugdunum or Cologne.
However, the archaeological evidence testifies that in the 1st century the place took a rapid upswing. Numerous buildings were erected, such as the forum baths at the cattle market around 80 or the amphitheater around 100. In the middle of the second century the thermal baths at the cattle market had already become too small, so that one built over the surface of several Insulae the Barbara Baths. In their time they were considered one of the largest thermal baths in the Roman Empire. Under Marcus Aurelius and Commodus, the city fortifications were built from 170 and with them the north gate, the Porta Nigra, which underlines the importance of the city in the 2nd and 3rd centuries. Possibly, the construction measures are connected with the elevation of the city to the provincial capital of Gallia Belgica. The period when Trier replaced Reims in this function cannot be stated more precisely than before the middle of the 3rd century.
The basis of the city's rise was, in addition to its convenient location on the Moselle and the roads leading into the interior of Gaul, trade and commerce. Trier's terra sigillata manufactories, along with the potteries of Rheinzabern, attained a dominant position in the market in the late 2nd and 3rd centuries. The associated workshops were located mainly southeast of the city on the banks of the Pacelli. Also very popular in the northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire were the so-called Trier Spruchbecher, engobed cups inscribed with toasts. Occasional references to crafts and trades are preserved on stone monuments with which urban elites represented themselves. An indication of the trade is given by the Igel column, grave monument of the cloth merchant family Secundinius, on whose reliefs various activities of cloth production and trade are depicted. Already in Roman times, the cultivation and trade of wine may have played a not insignificant role, to which, among other things, the Neumagen wine ship refers.
In the civil war of the years 193 to 197 troops of Clodius Albinus besieged Trier, which was on the side of his rival Septimius Severus. The city was able to withstand the assault and was finally relieved by an army brought from Mainz, which the city later thanked in a preserved inscription. Both the discovery of a large Trier Gold Hoard from 196/197 and the fact that work on the Porta Nigra was apparently never fully completed are associated with this siege. It can be assumed, however, that the ultimately victorious Severus rewarded the city for its loyalty afterwards, as was customary in such cases. Due to its location in the hinterland, Trier was spared for a long time from the Germanic invasions during the so-called imperial crisis of the 3rd century, which led to the abandonment of the Upper Germanic-Raetian Limes. During this period, a Roman breakaway state - the Gallic Empire - controlled the region, and briefly moved the capital to Cologne; however, in the empire's latter years, and due to security concerns, the Gallic Emperor Tetricus moved the capital to Trier between 271 and 274. Since the city seems to have proven itself as an imperial residence and administrative center in the process, this measure pointed to the future. Soon after the death of Emperor Aurelian in 275, however, the city was initially sacked and partially destroyed by marauding Franks and Alamanni.