Search results
Mainz was founded as Castrum Mogontiacum by Roman general Nero Claudius Drusus in the 1st century BC on the northern frontier of the Roman Empire, and became the capital of the Roman province of Germania Superior.
- Early History
- Military Base
- The First Century
- The Second Century
- The Third Century
- Late Antiquity
The first Romans must have reached Mogontiacum in 57 or 56 BCE, during Julius Caesar's Gallic War, in which he made the river Rhine the frontier of the Roman Empire. The people living in the two villages (identified near Bretzenheim and Weisenau) belonged to the La Tène culture, which means that they spoke a Celticlanguage, worshiped Gallic gods, a...
The site of Mainz was of great strategic significance. On the opposite bank, the navigable river Main emptied itself into the Rhine, which made Mainz a perfect base for operations in the east, where a subtribe of the Chatti, the Mattiaci, lived. Xanten controlled access to another river, the Lippe, and it comes as no surprise that the Roman legions...
The civil settlement between the river and the Kästrich fortress has been inhabited ever since, which makes excavation difficult. Important sites like the forum have not yet been found. However, the theater has been identified. The pontoon bridge was replaced in 27 by a more massive one, supported by at least 21 piers. Six years later, the bathhous...
After the war against the Chatti, the Rhine frontier became quiet and the military zone was given the status of a civil province. Because there were still two armies, there two provinces, called Germania Inferior (capital Cologne) and Germania Superior, which had Mainz as seat of the governor. However, the emperor was not successful in finding a go...
The remaining military unit, XXII Primigenia, was to stay in the city for the next three centuries, defending the Rhine against the well-known Chatti and the Alamans, a new tribal federation. So, Mainz still had a military function, and it is not surprising that the emperor Caracalla, who in 213 fought against the Germanic tribal federation of the ...
Order was restored by capable emperors. For example, Constantius Chlorus conducted a war against the Alamans in 292. The city still flourished - there was sufficient capital to rebuild the theater - and was still part of Roman civilization as a whole. The cult of Mithrasand Christianity spread to Mainz too; the first bishop of the city is a man nam...
People also ask
When did the Romans reach Mogontiacum?
Where did Mogontiacum grow up?
When was Mogontiacum founded?
Who defended Moguntiacum during the Batavian rebellion?
Thereafter continual conflict prevailed along it, forcing the Romans to conduct punitive expeditions and fortify Germania Superior. By 12 BC, major bases existed at Xanten (Castra Vetera) and Mainz (Mogontiacum), from which Drusus operated. A system of forts gradually developed around these bases.
XXII Primigenia was first stationed in Mogontiacum in the Roman province of Germania Superior, guarding the Rhine border as part of the limes. Along with the rest of the Germanic army, the legion supported Vitellius in the Year of the Four Emperors (69). During the Batavian rebellion, XXII Primigenia, commanded by Gaius Dillius Vocula, was the ...
NameRankTime FrameSource69-70Tacitus, Histories, IV.25, 33, 56, 57legatusbetween 100 and 105CIL X, 8291legatus? 156-? 159CIL VI, 1435; CIL V, 7775[...] Serenus [5]legatusc. 162AE 1965, 243Legio XXII Primigenia. Map of the Roman empire in AD 125, under emperor Hadrian, showing the Legio XXII Primigenia, stationed on the river Rhine at Moguntiacum (Mainz, Germany), in Germania Superior province, from AD 39 until the 4th centuryThis denarius, struck in 193 under Septimius Severus, celebrates XXII Primigenia, one of the legions ...
After that they were sent to Germania Superior, where they shared the castrum (camp) of Moguntiacum (modern day Mainz) with XIV Gemina.In 89, the legions in Moguntiacum supported their commander, Lucius Antonius Saturninus, in his revolt against emperor Domitian.
In the reign of Domitian, Mogontiacum became the main town of the province Germania Superior and the seat of the governor, a legatus Augusti pr. (pr. with the rank of consul). The center of the civilian settlement was between the legionary camp and the Rhine, under what is today the old town of Mainz.
