Augusta Treverorum (Latin for "City of Augustus in the Land of the Treveri") 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 (18/17 BC) and the late reign of Augustus († 14 AD). 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.Hartwig Löhr: Die älteste Besiedlung der Trierer Talweite von der Altsteinzeit bis zur Hallstattzeit. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 9. 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.Hartwig Löhr: Die älteste Besiedlung der Trierer Talweite von der Altsteinzeit bis zur Hallstattzeit. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 12, Kat.-Nr. 4 u. 12. 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.Alfred Haffner: Die Trierer Talweite in der Latènezeit. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 16. 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.Heinz Cüppers (Hrsg.): Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz, S. 578; Alfred Haffner: Die Trierer Talweite in der Latènezeit. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, pp. 16–19.
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 (oppida), among them the oppidum on the Titelberg in Luxembourg, the Castellberg near Wallendorf, the Hillfort of Otzenhausen or the oppidum on the Martberg.Heinz Heinen: Trier und das Trevererland in römischer Zeit. 2. Auflage. Spee, Trier 1993, p. 9f. 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.Heinz Heinen: Augustus und die Anfänge des römischen Trier. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 38, Kat.-Nr. 41 u. 42. 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.Heinz Heinen: Augustus und die Anfänge des römischen Trier. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 36, unbestimmt zwischen erster und zweiter Statthalterschaft etwa Otto Roller: Wirtschaft und Verkehr. In: H. Cüppers (Hrsg.): Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz. Hamburg 2002, p. 261; Raymond Chevallier: Les Voies Romaines. Picard, Paris 1997, p. 209f. Gesichert ist die Zuweisung an Agrippa aufgrund Strabon 4, 1, 2.
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 (Augsburg) and Augusta Raurica (Augst) 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 (ara Romae et Augusti) at Lugdunum (Lyon). Within this period, the foundation of a central place of the Treverians could also be assumed.Heinz Heinen: Augustus und die Anfänge des römischen Trier. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 41. The second governorship of Agrippa in Gaul in 19 BCHeinz Cüppers (Hrsg.): Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz. p. 579. The stay of Augustus in Gaul 16–13 BC.Velleius Paterculus 2, 97 (lat. Originaltext bei thelatinlibrary.com); Sueton: Augustus 23; Heinz Cüppers (Hrsg.): Die Römer in Rheinland-Pfalz. S. 579.
This period can be significantly limited by archaeological finds. In the first place, the foundation piles of the first Roman wooden bridge over the Moselle are to be mentioned here. They prove that in the context of the road construction measures of this time the bridge was built in the years 18/17 B.C.Heinz Heinen: Augustus und die Anfänge des römischen Trier. In: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Trier – Augustusstadt der Treverer. 2. Auflage. Mainz 1984, p. 40, Kat.-Nr. 43; Mechthild Neyses-Eiden: in: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Fundstücke: von der Urgeschichte bis zur Neuzeit. Theiss, Stuttgart 2009, , p. 50f. (Schriftenreihe des Rheinischen Landesmuseums 36). Fragments of a monumental inscription for the Augustus grandsons Lucius and Gaius Caesar, who died in the years 2 and 4 A.D.,; Lothar Schwinden in: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier (Hrsg.): Fundstücke: von der Urgeschichte bis zur Neuzeit. Theiss, Stuttgart 2009, p. 52f. (= Schriftenreihe des Rheinischen Landesmuseums 36). show that at the latest at the end of the reign of Augustus certain urban structures were present, since such an inscription is only conceivable at public places with the function of a central place. An evaluation of the early Roman finds from the city area has shown that a large-scale settlement cannot be expected before the late Augustan period (Haltern horizon). This coincides with the abandonment of the settlement on the Titelberg, so that here possibly a transfer of the administrative tribal center of the Treverians is present. Similar building programs can be traced throughout Gallia Belgica and neighboring regions on the Rhine and Danube in this period.Jennifer Morscheiser-Niebergall: Die Anfänge Triers im Kontext augusteischer Urbanisierungspolitik nördlich der Alpen. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2009, , p. 132f. (= Philippika, Marburger altertumskundliche Abhandlungen 30).
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 (Reims). Trier was the seat of the financial procurator responsible for Belgica and later for both Germanic provinces (procurator provinciae Belgicae et utriusque Germaniae).Tilmann Bechert u. a. (Hrsg.): Orbis Provinciarum. Die Provinzen des römischen Reiches. Einführung und Überblick. Mainz 1999, p. 125.
While only uncertain information can be given about the settlement at the time of the foundation,Edith Mary Wightman: Der Meilenstein von Buzenol, eine Inschrift aus Mainz und die Rechtstellung des römischen Trier. In: Trierer Zeitschrift 39, 1976, p. 66; dieselbe: Roman Trier and the Treveri. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1970, p. 40f. 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.
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, Historiae 4, 77 (lat. Originaltext bei thelatinlibrary.com). Tacitus also mentions that Trier was a colony city (colonia Trevirorum).Tacitus, Historiae 4, 72 (lat. Originaltext bei thelatinlibrary.com). Presumably, similar to Cologne, the city had received this privileged status under Emperor Claudius.Edith Mary Wightman: Roman Trier and the Treveri. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1970, S. 40 u. 42; Franz Schön: Augusta Treverorum. In: Der Neue Pauly (DNP). Band 2, Metzler, Stuttgart 1997, , p. 286. 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(usta), not as colonia.Edith Mary Wightman: Roman Trier and the Treveri. Rupert Hart-Davis, London 1970, p. 40; zum Stein siehe Edith Mary Wightman: Der Meilenstein von Buzenol, eine Inschrift aus Mainz und die Rechtstellung des römischen Trier. In: Trierer Zeitschrift 39, 1976; H. Finke: Neue Inschriften. In: Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 17, 1927, pp. 1–107 und 198–231, Nr. 320; CIL 17, 2, 549. 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.Heinz Heinen: Trier und das Trevererland in römischer Zeit. 2. Auflage. Spee, Trier 1993, pp. 61–63. It is also unclear whether Tacitus used the designation in a legally precise manner or only as a general characterization.