Uncategorized

Die spätantike Grenze am Rhein bis Koblenz: Die Kastelle in Tenedo (Zurzach) (German Edition)

Monday, March 18, 2019Monday, March 18, 2019 admin

Nevertheless, the rise of the oppida was partly a result of increasing trade with the Mediterranean and the northward flow of Graeco-Roman ideas. Oppidum is the word that Caesar generally used for describing hillforts, but he also applied it to large settlements with defences that were not on hills, and so it has entered archaeological parlance as a term to describe the pre-Roman towns of the Celtic world. More is known about Bourges ancient Avaricum, capital of the Bituriges , which was 'about the fairest city in all Gaul', according to its inhabitants, so much so, in fact, that they refused to allow it to be burnt as part of Vercingetorix's scorched earth policy during the events of 52 bc see chapter 2.

Caesar besieged Bourges, which held out for a time because the defenders built towers to match the Roman siegeworks, and undermined Roman constructions by means of tunnels. The fortifications of the oppidum show considerable sophistication, and it is also clear from Caesar's account that the town commanded substantial resources: Caesar also refers to a forum, implying that public open spaces existed, and presumably other civic buildings as well.

Bourges and Orleans have been intensively occupied since the Iron Age, and so unfortunately little is known of the archaeology of their oppida. However, there are several other sites where excavations have revealed the extent and complexity of late Iron Age towns. The most famous of these is in southern Germany at Manching. Although this lies just outside the area covered by this volume, it is nevertheless important both as a type- site and as the most completely excavated oppidum to date.

During a gradual expansion it took on the characteristics of an organised settlement - streets lined with wooden buildings, including spacious courtyard houses, evidence for craft specialisation and the buildings in which the crafts were carried out. Long- distance trade is also attested. In the first century bc a massive defensive wall was built, enclosing hectares and arranged so as to leave a substantial open area around the settlement, perhaps for markets or fairs.

Small settlements nearby appear to have been abandoned as Manching grew in size and importance, which accounts in part for the overall impression of the oppidum as an enormous version of one of the smaller settlements. No attempt was made to alleviate the inevitable problems of water supply, drainage or rubbish disposal that such a concentration of population would bring. This contrasts with Graeco-Roman towns, where civic amenities were often a major feature, and it is one of the reasons why Iron Age oppida are usually categorised as proto-towns, rather than urban centres in the generally accepted sense.

Whether properly developed towns would have emerged in Gaul and Germany had the Romans not invaded is a moot point. The history of urbanisation outside the Roman Empire suggests that they probably would have done, but perhaps not so quickly without Roman encouragement. The undefended site originated in the early first century bc continuing until the middle of the century, when the oppidum was constructed.

The undefended site was consequently abandoned. The change in the type of settlement is very likely to have been due to events such as the migration of the neighbouring Helvetii and the military adventures of Ariovistus see chapter 2 , both of which could have affected this strategically important site. It is possible that Basel would have developed as an undefended riverside trading station but for the need to set up fortifications. It is made up of a series of small settlements positioned close to each other. These yielded evidence of industrial production of a type similar to that in Manching and the other defended oppida.

Aulnat resembles a group of villages, collectively having a wide range of facilities and specialisations that justify regarding it as a form of oppidum. The chronology of the site runs from the second century bc or earlier to about 40 bc, when it was abandoned, probably in favour of the nearby defended site of Gergovie. Gergovie a nineteenth-century name has been linked with Caesar's Gergovia, where he suffered a serious reverse; earlier scholars envisaged that the site had been occupied from just before the time of Caesar's conquest in 52 bc, but a date of about bc is now favoured.

Why a hillfort should be constructed after the Roman conquest is not known, unless it is to be connected with one of the sporadic later rebellions that took place. At all events, the undefended low-lying site at Aulnat appears to have been replaced by Gergovie, where an oppidum came into being in the late Iron Age and lasted into the early Roman period.

This sequence is roughly the same as at Levroux, where a little earlier in the Iron Age an open site was replaced by an oppidum about 1. A well- developed rectilinear layout of houses and streets is clearly visible, similar to those at Villeneuve-St Germain and elsewhere. Excavations at Villeneuve have revealed features similar to those found at Manching, especially courtyard buildings and street frontages on a regular street grid.

There is evidence of coin production and other crafts, indicating that the site was probably a trading centre in a more convenient position than the hillfort, where occupation declined in density. Villeneuve did not, in fact, continue for very long, for in about 15 bc the Roman town of Augusta Suessionum modern Soissons had emerged as the regional centre. Fortifications are usually considered to be late in date in northern Gaul, however, and the low-lying oppida can certainly all be placed in the first century bc. Some survived the Roman conquest and either provided the nucleus for Roman towns or, at the least, a population which could be transferred to a nearby new foundation.

This brings us to the thorny subject of the tribes or other groups that occupied the oppida and their surrounding territories. In some cases there is a clear correspondence between known oppida and the tribes mentioned in the ancient literary sources chiefly Caesar's Gallic War. Thus Bibracte modern Mt Beuvray can be regarded as the capital of the powerful tribe of the Aedui in central Gaul, and Vieux-Reims is almost certainly the late Iron Age capital of the Remi.

Discussion of tribal capitals assumes, of course, that Iron Age tribes were sufficiently centralised to have a single capital. Some definitely did have a powerful single government, but others were organised more loosely, often on a federal basis. The Helvetii, for instance, had four subdivisions within their territory in western Switzerland, and the oppida known from this area could have acted as local capitals for these subdivisions. The Veneti, for instance, appear to have had no single centre, which made Caesar's subjugation of the area very difficult, since he was forced to reduce each small fortification in turn.

The last two in this list were nominally within the Roman province from bc, but this seems to have made little practical difference to their development, which is more or less the same as their neighbours conquered by Caesar. One of the main features of the more developed tribes was the existence of an oligarchy, out of which an annual magistrate vergobretos was elected. For the Aedui, which we know best, neither the magistrate nor other members of his family could serve again once he had held office, which effectively prevented the creation of a dynasty.

The tribes and their aris- tocracies had to be large enough to sustain this system, in other words to have enough families to provide independent annual magistrates. We do, in fact, have some figures for tribal populations which confirm this. It is also clear from Caesar's account of the Helvetii that they were organised on a clan system, whose aristocratic leaders could rely on anything up to 10, followers to support them. Dumnorix of the Aedui and Orgetorix of the Helvetii are good examples of such figures, but the best known is Vercingetorix, who made a bid for power in his tribe of the Arverni.

Clearly, the political system of the more developed tribes was vulnerable to conspiracies and putsches, probably because elected magistrates and large centralised tribes were fairly novel ideas for the Gauls, and they had not yet established stable administrative systems. Such instability was ideal as far as Caesar was concerned, since he could exploit the rifts that occured in tribal politics by supporting the generally pro-Roman oligarchies against the anti-Roman aristocrats making bids for individual power.

One of the ways in which the tribal aristocracy maintained its position and status within the tribe was by controlling trade. We read of men such as Dumnorix having the right to collect river tolls in the territory of the Aedui, and at same time we can gain an archaeological glimpse of this trade from the vast quantity of Roman luxury goods that was flooding into the interior of Gaul.

One of the most characteristic imports was wine, and the amphorae in which it was transported are found in great numbers on many sites. We know from literary sources how fond the Gauls were of wine and how Roman merchants operating from Narbonne and other centres exploited the demand by charging large sums for each amphora see chapter 2. This theory is supported by ancient writers on the Celts, who give a glimpse of a society that anthropologists would recognise as a 'big-man system'. Here, gift-giving to followers or clients was a vital part of the way in which leaders sustained themselves in power.

Argentovaria

Thus the need for prestige Roman imports and the growth of trade had the indirect effect of promoting warfare as a means of obtaining one of the key Gaulish exports. These ingredients of the late Iron Age social system - oppida, imports of Roman goods, local coinage and centralised tribes - all emerge at roughly the same time. Almost certainly this is because they were interdependent parts of an important stage in the evolution of Gaulish culture, one in which Rome had a part to play as the provider of luxuries and the recipient of exports. Rome was what is known as a 'core' area, economically dominant and with cultural products that other people wanted to have or to copy.

The Gauls were on the periphery of the core area, culturally vibrant, but with a need to acquire prestige Roman goods as a means of sustaining their social system. Thus they became economically dependent on the Romans.

Navigationsmenü

These people were 'the furthest away from the culture and civilised ways of the Roman province; and the merchants, bringing those things that tend to make men soft, very seldom reach them'. Indeed, some of the Belgic tribes such as the Nervii refused to allow Roman wine and other luxuries into their territory.

All this contrib- uted, in Caesar's opinion, to the reputation of the Belgae as being the fiercest warriors in Gaul. In fact, Caesar paints a picture of three distinct groups in northern Gaul and the Rhineland, where he did much of his fighting. Celtic Gauls occupied the territory west and south of the Seine, taking up most of the vast area that the Romans regarded as Gallia. To the north of the Seine as far as the Rhine and the Channel coast were the Belgic Gauls, which on close reading of Caesar's text seem to fall into two groups: It is a black-and-white contrast, and it has to be questioned whether the images have any truth, and where the Belgae fit into this picture.

Archaeological sources on this matter give some very interesting infor- mation. The Belgae are found to fall between the two cultural groups, in such a way that the south-eastern subdivision is very Gaulish, with oppida, coinage and so on, while the northern area is comparatively impoverished, with few imports of Roman goods, virtually no oppida and a material culture that owes more to German than to Gaulish types.

When the Germans themselves are examined archaeologically Caesar's simple picture becomes more compli- cated. From the archaeological evidence, the cultures of the North German Plain seem to correspond most readily to his portrait of a nomadic, simple life, which in fact Caesar himself confines elsewhere to the tribe of the Suebi rather than all Germans. In Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg it is difficult to see much distinction between the material culture there and that of, say, Helvetia or Sequania, both definite Gaulish territories on the south-west side of the Rhine.

This was for two reasons, explored further in chapter 7: As we might expect, therefore, Gaul and Germany were much more complex in social and political terms than a reading of Caesar would lead one to believe. Gaulish society had many features that made it amenable to Roman influence, and even if the Belgae and the Germans were more resistant to the lure of Mediterranean goods and lifestyle, they too were soon to feel the sharp edge of Roman military might.

Clerc in Massalia Marseille grecque , and M. Treziny eds , Le terrihvre de Marseille grecque The native peoples of southern Gaul are analysed from a historical viewpoint in G. Benoit's Recherches sur VHtllenaaHon du Midi de la Gaule discusses relationships between Greeks and native peoples, which is also the subject of Barry Cunliffe's more wide-ranging study, Greeks, Romans and Barbarians Wells, too, discusses the Mediterranean world's links with the interior in Cultwt Contact and Culture Change Two important discoveries in this respect are the burials at Vix Joffroy and Hochdorf Biel For the fast-changing archaeological developments in the rest of Gaul and Germany, works in English include J.

French archaeology is largely drawn together in conference proceedings, such as O. Richardson's classic work, Hill-Forts of Northern France The best synthesis in English on the early Germans and their archaeology is by M. Todd, The Northern Barbarians. His military reputation was made during an eight-year campaign in Gaul, and he is generally recognised as one of the greatest commanders in Roman history. However, although Caesar's territorial gains and military achievement were immense, as we shall see, it is important to realise that the Roman conquest of Gaul and Germany was a long-drawn-out affair.

It lasted for some years, and was marked by long periods of little activity punctuated by bouts of intensive military campaigning. Caesar's was just one of these campaigns, and it should not be allowed to overshadow the achievement of earlier Republican commanders such as Sextius or Marius, or the Augustan cam- paigns that extended and consolidated Caesar's conquests.

Roman eyes were first focused on Gaul as a military theatre by Hannibal's crossing of the Alps. In bc two Roman envoys arrived in southern Gaul from north-east Spain, where a defeat had been inflicted upon a Roman ally, the city of Saguntum, by Hannibal. Accordingly, the envoys not only had the task of declaring war on Hannibal, which was the reason they had been sent from Rome, but they also had to win over their allies. Amongst these allies was the Greek city of Massalia, a long-time friend of Rome," whose strategic position and influence upon the Gauls ensured that Romans were able to travel across southern Gaul to reach Spain.

Massalia itself remained a steadfast ally throughout the traumatic years of the Punic War, but the envoys found that the Gauls in the region were not so true.

Hannibal's envoys had arrived in the area before the Roman Bronze statuette of a Gaulish woman prisoner, said to have been found in the River Seine. It is not surprising to find the Gauls prepared to back Hannibal, since they realistically assessed the risk they ran if they opposed him, and also they had been given cause to dislike the Romans by recent defeats inflicted on those Gauls who lived in the Po Valley Gallia Cisalpina.

He advanced from Spain with a force of some , men, making first contact with the Romans in southern Gaul - a chance meeting, since the Roman consul Publius Cornelius Scipio, with two legions about 10, men under his command, had been hoping to march into Spain to quell the problems that had arisen from the Saguntum affair. He was clearly too late to carry out this intention, and realised that he might have to face Hannibal in Gaul.

Finally he realised that the Carthaginian army had eluded him and was on its way to Italy, and hurriedly took himself to Rome to warn the Senate, while sending his army on to Spain. For present purposes, however, it is sufficient to know simply that the crossing was successful despite enormous human cost , and that the Carthaginian army was never to return to Gaul. Hannibal's passage across Gaul also had considerable local impact. The fact that he had successfully crossed the Alps, and effectively humiliated a Roman general into the bargain, must have weakened the political standing of Rome in the area.

In addition, the decline of Massalia's influence over the southern Gauls at this period was to store up problems for the future and eventually lead to Rome's direct intervention in the area. The conquest of southern Gaul Rome's domination of the western Mediterranean was assured by the outcome of the Second Punic War, and so when Massalia's interests were threatened in bc it naturally turned to its old ally. Rome had good reasons for wishing to assert itself again in this area, revolving around the need to establish a land route through southern Gaul to Spain.

They had also been fighting for a long time to gain control of the Ligurian coast on the Italian side of the Alps, and by the 1 50s bc had largely succeeded. The intervening region between the Rhone and the Alps was nominally under the control of Massalia, but was in actuality occupied by two hostile groups, the Ligurian tribes in the foothills of the Alps, and the Celtic Salluvii just to the north of Massalia itself.

Living in well-defended small hillforts and with an intimate knowledge of the hilly terrain, the Gaulish Ligurians proved difficult to subdue. He gained two victories, and was able to hand the territory of the Oxybii and Deciatae over to Massalia. However, the Roman troops did not immediately return home,- instead they were garrisoned in the area over the winter and perhaps for longer, just to make sure that the route to Spain was safe. It was the Salluvii that caused Rome to intervene again on behalf of Massalia, and this time the army to stay.

In bc the consul M. Fulvius Flaccus led two legions into southern Gaul following a request for help from the Greek colony. Because of their position just to the north of Massalia, the Salluvii posed a threat not only to the Greeks, but also to the main land route to Spain, since it cut right across their territory.

Fulvius campaigned during , but was soon replaced by his better-known successor, C. Sextius fought on into the following year, and his defeat of the Salluvii has been directly confirmed by the excavations at Entremont, a stronghold dominating the land route in the vicinity of Aix-en-Provence. Roman ballista balls and spearheads have been found in the upper levels of the excavation, followed by an abandonment level corresponding with the dispersal of the population attested in the historical sources.

They had incorporated Greek defensive ideas into the layout of the ramparts, and had probably imitated other Greek military hardware as well. A curious feature of the buildings in the upper part of the hillfort Entremont n is their regimented layout, rather different from the houses elsewhere. Were these a form of barracks for the young warriors of the tribe?

All the archaeological and historical evidence suggests that the Salluvii were a well-ordered, Hellenised tribe with centralised political control and a high level of material culture. Paradoxically, it seems that the Massaliotes had been only too successful in their marketing of Greek culture to the 36 Copyrighted material Interior of the oppidum at Entremont, the site attacked by Sextius in 1 24 bo The inhabitants were subsequently evacuated to a new Roman foundation at nearby Aix-en-Provence Aquae Sextiae.

Salluvii, for in all probability it was the tribe's Hellenisation that gave it sufficient cohesion to be able to break with Massalia and threaten the city. There were other factors, too, connected with the political alliances between the anti-Massalia faction in the tribe and other Celtic tribes in the interior, notably the Arvcrni of the Massif Central and the Allobroges of Savoy. Rome knew of these alliances and the threat that the Arvemi in particular posed to the stability of the region.

Inevitably, they were drawn into conflict with them. In order to protect the route to Spain and watch over the Salluvii, Sextius set up a garrison at a site in the plain below Entremont, near some hot springs. Virtually nothing is known of the first occupation of the s bc, but it is likely that both Roman soldiers and the pro-Roman remnants of the tribe made up the population, a pattern which was to be repeated elsewhere during the conquest of Gaul.

The celebration of triumphs by Fulvius and Sextius had obviously opened the eyes of the extremely competitive Roman senatorial class to the possibility of gaining military glory in Gaul. It was to become one of the new military stamping grounds for ambitious generals during the next seventy years or so, culminating of course in Caesar's famous exploits. Domitius Ahenobarbus took over from Sextius in bc, and almost at once plunged Roman forces into conflict with the Allobroges, ostensibly because they were harbouring an anti-Roman Salluvian leader, and also because they were attacking a tribe yet further north, the Aedui, that was friendly to Rome.

It was probably the first set-piece battle that the Transalpine Gauls had fought against a Roman army, and it was to be the first of many defeats for them. Our sources record 20, Gauls killed and 3, captured, figures which are probably exaggerated, as was normal in pro-Roman historical sources, but which, all the same, give some idea of the scale of the conflict. They were clearly much more successful at ambushing Roman troops while foraging or on the march, or simply at guerrilla warfare. However, for the leaders of the more centralised Gaulish tribes, maintaining their position by gaining victories was probably an important facet in the tribal political climate.

So set-piece battles continued to feature in confrontations with the Romans. There were occasions when the Romans were defeated, but these were almost exclusively when Germans were pitted against them, rather than purely Gaulish armies. The Allobrogan defeat was not a total victory for Domitius, however, as their larger neighbour, the Arverni, continued to pose a threat. More troops were needed, and in bc Q. Fabius Maximus arrived with 30, men.

He scored a notable victory against a combined army of Arverni and Allobroges, of whom some three-quarters out of a total force of up to , men were allegedly killed. The net result of these victories was not a straightforward annexation of territory and its incorporation within the Roman Empire. The Arverni remained beyond the frontier until Caesar's conquest some seventy years later.

On the other hand, the Allobroges now came under Roman juris- diction. Why this was so is difficult for us to understand without more historical sources than actually survive. Possibly the campaigning was limited by the Senate to the land on the east of the Rhone, and it was felt more appropriate to impose a treaty upon the Arverni which left them nominally independent, rather than to take on the onerous obligations of administering the territory directly.

It is very likely that the territory of the Allobroges and the Arverni was regarded as a buffer-zone between the developing Mediterranean coastal region and the interior tribes. Certainly there is little evidence of any rapid Romanis- ation of Allobrogan territory, and they remained more or less as Celtic as their independent neighbours. The exception is their one major settlement, the oppidum of Vienna modern Vienne on the middle Rhone, which became an important trading station on the lucrative route up the valley. In the aftermath of the fighting of bc steps were taken to establish a more permanent hold on the southerly parts of the conquered area.

Domitius set up a proper road from the Rhone and possibly from the Alps to the Pyrenees, complete with milestones, and this was named after him, replacing the old Via Heraclea. At the same time, probably in bc, the colony of Narbo modern Narbonne was established in the flat and marshy coastal land on the western side of the Golfe du Lion. The city was Rome's first overseas citizen colony, and initially must have had a precarious existence, since the population was probably no greater than 1,, and it was very much a pioneering settlement.

However, it was well placed to benefit from trade, being at the point where an important route from the Atlantic came down to the Mediterranean, at the same time crossing the coastal route. Not surprisingly, we find Narbo growing into a major port by the late Republic, with considerable economic development of the hinterland. In fact, south-western Gaul rapidly became as important as the area around Massalia and the lower Rhone Valley which up to this time had dominated Graeco-Roman contacts with the interior. In Roman eyes Narbo was the equivalent of Massalia, filling a gap in the pattern of colonies around Gaul's Mediterranean coast.

The area in which the city was placed was Iberian, and there seems to have been little real opposition to the arrival of the colonists. Strategically the colony provided a vital stabilising link between Roman Spain and the recently conquered regions further east, and also provided a springboard for further advances into the interior of Aquitaine. It was not long before a small Roman presence was established at Tolosa modern Toulouse and merchants started to gain a hold on the trade routes.

At this early date trade and the flag must have gone hand in hand, as was demonstrated by an episode that occurred in bc. An expedition was sent to explore the route to the Atlantic coast, and on its return was surprisingly defeated by a group of German warriors that had migrated into the area.

Order had to be restored, and the experi- enced consul Q. Servilius Caepio swiftly dealt with Tolosa, sacking the native oppidum and carrying off the enormous hoard of sacred gold that had been thrown into a Celtic water sanctuary there. Caepio's actions were later investigated by the Senate in bc. Relative peace was restored in south-western Gaul after this episode, and merchants re-entered the area. Full-scale commercial development got under way, aided by the monopoly on trade that Roman citizens enjoyed.

In the 70s bc a scandal about excessive duties levied on wine sold in the province caused a public furore. This episode is recorded in a speech made by Cicero in defence of the man accused of perpetrating it, M. Fonteius was admittedly governing the area at a time of crisis in neigh- bouring Spain see below , which required him to requisition a great many supplies from the Gauls, who were clearly badly placed to fulfil these sudden demands on their economies.

Merchants were trading Italian wine to the independent Gauls of the interior via Narbo and Tolosa, and at each stage imposts were added, allegedly by Fonteius, so that an amphora of wine was far more expensive than it was in Italy. The Gauls had an insatiable appetite for wine, which they drank undiluted, and they were willing to exchange a slave for an amphora of wine - a fantastic bargain for the Roman merchants, since slaves were in heavy demand in Rome.

Vast numbers of Italian amphorae have been found in south-western Gaul in native oppida such as Vieille-Toulouse and Lagaste, amply confirming the historical sources. This attitude was obviously commonplace in Rome, since Fonteius was acquitted. In view of this and other oppressive measures, it is not surprising that there were revolts by the Gauls at fairly regular intervals during the late second and early first centuries bc.

More serious in Roman eyes, though, was the threat posed by the Germans. A few decades earlier than the events just described the Germanic Cimbri and Teutones had caused consternation in Rome by crushing four Roman armies, three of them in Gaul. The catalogue of disasters reached its climax when Caepio, the man sent to sort out southwestern Gaul in the wake of the previous defeat, himself lost a major battle with the Cimbri and Teutones near Arausio modern Orange in the Rhone Valley. Mallius Maximus combined forces but not strategy, thus compromising the effectiveness of their troops.

These defeats were a severe blow to Roman morale, and for a while it must have seemed that the very existence of the new province was threatened, given that Rome's tribal allies in the area were also wavering in their allegiance. Much of the fighting had been caused by Rome's consistent refusal to allow this, probably because of the effect it would have had on diplomatic links with the Gauls, and because Gallia Transalpina itself was heavily populated anyway.

Salvation for Rome came with the appointment of the energetic reforming general C. Marius in bc. He was an effective leader of the army in Gaul and chose skilled officers to serve with him, such as Sulla and Sertorius. After rallying the wavering allies with a display of military confidence and strength, he decisively defeated the Cimbri and Teutones near Aquae Sextiae in bc. However, it is true to say that these first direct meetings of Roman and German forces showed the impact that German migrations could have on the stability of Gaul and other provinces; this was a problem that was to be fully realised in the much more serious migrations of the later Roman Empire see chapter 8.

Following these events Gallia Transalpina settled down again to a new wave of economic development. Immigrants came from Italy in large numbers, accelerating the process of Romanisation and at the same time creating new problems and tensions amongst the native peoples. Matters were made worse by developments in Spain, where a governor appointed in 83 bc, Q. Sertorius, managed to build a powerful political base for himself by cultivating the loyalty of disaffected immigrants and some of the native tribes.

Pompeius Magnus was the general in command at the time, using Fonteius as his agent for requisitioning supplies. He almost certainly had to campaign extensively in Gaul as well as Spain in order to deal with the growing unrest, since his victory monument placed on one of the passes over the Pyrenees cites the area from the Alps to Spain as well as Spain itself. He must also have granted Roman citizenship widely, if the frequency of Pompeius as a personal name in the area can be taken as a guide.

From the 70s bc southern Gaul emerged more and more as a proper 4 J Copyrighted material Defeated Gauls chained to a victory monument. Sculpted relief on the side of the triumphal arch at Carpentras Carpentorate. Previous tensions died down, except in the relatively undeveloped northern territory of the Allobroges, where there were revolts in 66 and 62 bc. By the time that Caesar arrived in 58 bc southern Gaul was able to provide a secure starting point for his thrust to the north and a valuable source of troops.

Caesar in Gaul The campaigns of Julius Caesar from 58 to 50 bc did more than just consolidate the gains of earlier generals in Gaul. They also pushed the frontiers of the Empire forward north-east as far as the Rhineland, north to the English Channel and beyond, temporarily at least, into Britain itself. Caesar was governor of Gallia Cisalpina and Illyricum from 58 bc, but his command soon extended to Gallia Transalpina.

The Commentaries were probably written each winter, while the troops were in winter quarters, and issued in annual parts to a highly sympathetic Roman public. There is remarkably little to be added from other historical sources, but the very completeness of Caesar's account causes a major problem. Like all autobiographies, it is self-promoting and self-censored, and since there is virtually no other independent source of evidence to check the truth of what Caesar wrote apart from modern topographical and archaeological studies , we are forced to accept what he says.

The Aedui, allies of Rome just to the north of the provincial frontier, sought Roman help to force the Helvetii to stay in their homeland, since the migration route lay straight across Aeduan territory. In fact, by the time Caesar arrived the Aedui had negotiated the migration around their territory to the north, but Caesar nevertheless felt it necessary to force the Helvetii back. Revival came not long after, and in fact the hillfort expanded as never before.

Inhaltsverzeichnis!
The Second Jungle Book.
Sophomore.
Special offers and product promotions?

However, it was eventually abandoned at the time of full-scale Romanisation under the Emperor Augustus. Most of the fortified sites in the area were given up at the same time in favour of undefended settlements in the valleys: In the lower Rhone Valley itself few sites are known because of recent sedimentation and modern settlement, but those that are form a distinct type characterised as an emporion or trading station serving the upland hillforts.

Espeyran is typical, occupying a low headland overlooking the river from the late sixth century bc to the Gallo-Roman period. Initially the buildings were of wood and perishable materials, but soon mud-brick walls on stone foundations were being built, and there is clear evidence for a close link with Massalia in the vast number of imported pottery vessels. In fact, local handmade pottery is distinctly rare, which has led the excavators to suggest that the site was occupied by Greek colonists rather than local people.

Perhaps this is the 'Rhodanousia' mentioned in ancient sources. Aries is thought originally to have been the Greek 20 Copyrighted material The oppidum of Jastres. Its square bastions, of a type derived ultimately from Creek fortification practice, are a feature of many such sites. The coastal hillfort of St Blaise has evidence of early regular planning, perhaps due to Greek influence in the seventh century. After this there was a long period during which Massalia became more influential, culminating in the second century, when there was a radical reconstruction of the entire site.

A Hellenistic-style rampart was built using large square blocks with Greek masons' marks inscribed on them. The main wall had merlons, and there was a fore-wall and projecting square towers, just like the town wall of a Greek city. It is more likely, though, that these developments are an extreme example of late Hell- enisation of a native site rich enough to pay for such elaborate defences, probably on the proceeds from the production of salt from the adjacent lagoons.

Near St Blaise was another remarkable site that also probably owed its existence to the trade in salt and fish: It had ramparts and a densely occupied settlement area dating back to the fifth century bc. Unfortunately, we know nothing of the later history of this site, and so cannot be certain about the extent of Greek influence there. This hostility ultimately led to a siege of the hillfort at about the time of the Roman conquest, probably by the Romans themselves, who were intervening in the area on behalf on their Massaliote allies.

Shortly after- wards the site was abandoned. Entremont, overlooking the town of Aix-en-Provence, is the best-known illustration of such a contradiction; this hillfort capital of the Salluvii, with its Hellenistic-style street grid and defences, was attacked by C. Sextius in bc and the inhabitants were forcibly evacuated see chapter 2. Large numbers of very small hillforts dominate the scene, giving an impression of a decentralised society without a strong tribal hierarchy. Many of the hillforts are in inhospitable scrubland, and are consequently known primarily through aerial photo- graphy.

A typical site is Mt Garou, situated on a hilltop steep enough to have needed hillside terraces for the earliest house structures. The main period of the site dates from the sixth to fifth centuries, during which appreciable numbers of amphorae and Massaliote pots were brought in. Mud-brick construction is also known, and it seems likely that Greek merchants were trading goods and expertise for agricultural produce.

Many sheep and goat bones were found on the site, and since the surrounding countryside is well suited for grazing, it could be that wool, milk and mutton were the main local products. The excavators in fact suggest that over-exploitation of the hillfort's hinterland, due to the demand for produce by the merchants, led to a period of desertion in the fourth century and a reduced occupation later on.

It is surprising indeed to find that some sites remained in occupation, albeit on a modest scale, up to the early Empire, more than a century after the Roman conquest. In some cases, such as the Fort at Taradeau or Roquefavour at Ventabren, the main period of occupation was in the second to first centuries bc, and this has been interpreted as a sort of 'retreat to the hills' by a society intent on preserving its traditional ways. By the early Empire, though, nearly all of the hilltop sites had been abandoned, presumably for the Romanised towns and villages in the valleys, with the radical change in lifestyle that this move implies.

Small settlements were sited on the hills overlooking Massalia itself, some as close as 5 kilometres. This raises the question of the extent of the city's territory, and whether any of the hillforts were under the direct control of the Massaliotes. This may have been an incentive to trade with the surrounding tribes in order to obtain basic products. Gradually the economic power of the city probably led to many local sites being dependent on it for their continued existence, even if they were nominally independent in political terms.

This would account for Caesar's reference to the tribe of the Albici in the hills above Massalia owing allegiance to the city from ancient times. The colony, in fact, lost influence because of this, becoming more like an ordinary Hellenistic Greek city - one dependent on its territory - than a major trading outpost.

.
?
;

Nevertheless, Massalia continued to dominate the immediate region, much to the resentment of the surrounding tribes, who rose against the Greeks in and bc. The hostilities of were directed at two sub-colonies at Antibes ancient Antipolis and Nice ancient Nikaia rather than the city itself, and it may have been attempts at territorial expansion by the colonists that led to the uprising. At another of the sub-colonies along the same stretch of coast, Olbia, near Hyeres, there are traces of centuriation land allotment; see chapter 4 which are possibly of this period.

The fort-like layout of the fourth- to first-century bc site at Olbia, with regimented blocks reminiscent of the interior of a Roman fort, also suggests a surveillance role. This need not constitute a very strong cultural influence, since artefacts may not necessarily be used for their original purposes once in the hands of new users, and native culture remained largely unaltered. The next, much more significant stage was the adoption of Greek techniques of building, agriculture and manufacture; this was taking place from the late fifth century onwards, and earlier in some areas.

Buildings altered in appearance quite radically in some instances, being much more regular and permanent. A characteristic feature was the use of mud-bricks on stone foundations. In some cases rectangular blocks of houses were laid out on the model of Greek colonial town planning, reaching a peak of regularity in the second-century scheme at Nages. Massaliote coins had been minted since the late sixth century bc, but they tended at first to be confined to Greek sites. Early trade with the Celts, therefore, was in terms of barter and exchange, but the volume of trade grew from the fourth century onwards, when Greek coins become fairly common on Celtic sites.

After this coins were used extensively in southern Gaul as a means of exchange, especially bronze issues, which were sufficiently small denomi- nations to be useful in ordinary transactions. Local imitations appeared from the second century, for instance the silver coins of the Volcae Tectosages, which took the coins of the Greek colony of Rhode in Catalonia as their prototype.

The earliest inscription in Gaulish in the south is on a third-century column capital from Montagnac. Most, though, belong to the second and early first centuries, and are very simple indications of ownership scratched onto pottery, or funerary inscriptions on stone stele. Nearly all the known examples are from the lower Rhone Valley, with a sparse scatter of somewhat later examples further north.

This is the third stage in Hellenisation, in which more fundamental changes could occur. Art styles, for instance, especially in sculpture, began to show influence of the Greek world, although the style adopted appears markedly archaic com- pared with contemporary developments in Greece itself. Figures in the round appear from the third century, with a degree of accurate portrayal of human and animal forms: This construction technique, found on many southern Gaulish Iron Age sites, is considered to have been of Greek inspiration.

Ideas of sculptural portrayal, and to a lesser degree temple architecture, certainly caused changes to the largely open-air and non-pictorial native cults see chapter 6 , so that in the material sense at least cults were Hellenised. But the gods and goddesses retained their Celtic names and, presumably, their traditional powers, so to that extent Hellenisation did not affect religious belief.

The same applied to language, which remained Celtic despite the use of Greek and other scripts, and which, as far as we can tell, took very few Greek words into its vocabulary. Indeed, it is unlikely that such changes would ever have taken place in southern Gaul, since Massalia was primarily a trading station rather than an imperialistic power.

Her concern was to sell Greek artefacts and expertise, very successfully to judge from the results, and it was not until the Roman conquest that the new masters were able to transform the south from a Celtic to a Graeco-Roman land. Native society in the late Iron Age in southern Gaul has often been termed Gallo-Grcek, which serves to distinguish it from later Gallo-Roman society.

This was partly because the Celts were philhell- enes and keen to acquire the benefits of Greek civilisation, even if at times they were opposed to Massalia politically. The policy of the Massaliotes was to encourage Celtic interest whenever possible, so that although the city was politically weak on occasions during its history, Gauls still came to the city to learn Greek language and customs and to worship at Greek temples.

Indeed, it did not seem 'that Greece had emigrated to Gaul, but rather that Gaul had been moved to Greece'. Iron Age towns in the interior of Gaul The main thread linking the Hellenised south with the tribes of northern Gaul, and to a lesser extent Germany as well, is the development of some form of urban society. Generally speaking, the hillforts or oppida of the north are best regarded as proto-urban, rather than urban in the sense of a city laid out on lines familiar to Greeks and Romans.

More is known about Bourges ancient Avaricum, capital of the Bituriges , which was 'about the fairest city in all Gaul', according to its inhabitants, so much so, in fact, that they refused to allow it to be burnt as part of Vercingetorix's scorched earth policy during the events of 52 bc see chapter 2. Caesar besieged Bourges, which held out for a time because the defenders built towers to match the Roman siegeworks, and undermined Roman constructions by means of tunnels.

The fortifications of the oppidum show considerable sophistication, and it is also clear from Caesar's account that the town commanded substantial resources: Caesar also refers to a forum, implying that public open spaces existed, and presumably other civic buildings as well. Bourges and Orleans have been intensively occupied since the Iron Age, and so unfortunately little is known of the archaeology of their oppida.

However, there are several other sites where excavations have revealed the extent and complexity of late Iron Age towns. The most famous of these is in southern Germany at Manching. Although this lies just outside the area covered by this volume, it is nevertheless important both as a type- site and as the most completely excavated oppidum to date. During a gradual expansion it took on the characteristics of an organised settlement - streets lined with wooden buildings, including spacious courtyard houses, evidence for craft specialisation and the buildings in which the crafts were carried out.

Long- distance trade is also attested. In the first century bc a massive defensive wall was built, enclosing hectares and arranged so as to leave a substantial open area around the settlement, perhaps for markets or fairs. Small settlements nearby appear to have been abandoned as Manching grew in size and importance, which accounts in part for the overall impression of the oppidum as an enormous version of one of the smaller settlements. No attempt was made to alleviate the inevitable problems of water supply, drainage or rubbish disposal that such a concentration of population would bring.

This contrasts with Graeco-Roman towns, where civic amenities were often a major feature, and it is one of the reasons why Iron Age oppida are usually categorised as proto-towns, rather than urban centres in the generally accepted sense. Whether properly developed towns would have emerged in Gaul and Germany had the Romans not invaded is a moot point. The history of urbanisation outside the Roman Empire suggests that they probably would have done, but perhaps not so quickly without Roman encouragement.

The undefended site originated in the early first century bc continuing until the middle of the century, when the oppidum was constructed.

?
Product details.
King Jesus (Penguin Modern Classics)?
.
;
Planning for Learning through Where I Live!

These yielded evidence of industrial production of a type similar to that in Manching and the other defended oppida. Aulnat resembles a group of villages, collectively having a wide range of facilities and specialisations that justify regarding it as a form of oppidum. The chronology of the site runs from the second century bc or earlier to about 40 bc, when it was abandoned, probably in favour of the nearby defended site of Gergovie.

Gergovie a nineteenth-century name has been linked with Caesar's Gergovia, where he suffered a serious reverse; earlier scholars envisaged that the site had been occupied from just before the time of Caesar's conquest in 52 bc, but a date of about bc is now favoured. Why a hillfort should be constructed after the Roman conquest is not known, unless it is to be connected with one of the sporadic later rebellions that took place.

At all events, the undefended low-lying site at Aulnat appears to have been replaced by Gergovie, where an oppidum came into being in the late Iron Age and lasted into the early Roman period. This sequence is roughly the same as at Levroux, where a little earlier in the Iron Age an open site was replaced by an oppidum about 1. A well- developed rectilinear layout of houses and streets is clearly visible, similar to those at Villeneuve-St Germain and elsewhere.

Excavations at Villeneuve have revealed features similar to those found at Manching, especially courtyard buildings and street frontages on a regular street grid. There is evidence of coin production and other crafts, indicating that the site was probably a trading centre in a more convenient position than the hillfort, where occupation declined in density.

Villeneuve did not, in fact, continue for very long, for in about 15 bc the Roman town of Augusta Suessionum modern Soissons had emerged as the regional centre. Fortifications are usually considered to be late in date in northern Gaul, however, and the low-lying oppida can certainly all be placed in the first century bc.

Some survived the Roman conquest and either provided the nucleus for Roman towns or, at the least, a population which could be transferred to a nearby new foundation. This brings us to the thorny subject of the tribes or other groups that occupied the oppida and their surrounding territories. In some cases there is a clear correspondence between known oppida and the tribes mentioned in the ancient literary sources chiefly Caesar's Gallic War. Thus Bibracte modern Mt Beuvray can be regarded as the capital of the powerful tribe of the Aedui in central Gaul, and Vieux-Reims is almost certainly the late Iron Age capital of the Remi.

Dumnorix of the Aedui and Orgetorix of the Helvetii are good examples of such figures, but the best known is Vercingetorix, who made a bid for power in his tribe of the Arverni. Clearly, the political system of the more developed tribes was vulnerable to conspiracies and putsches, probably because elected magistrates and large centralised tribes were fairly novel ideas for the Gauls, and they had not yet established stable administrative systems.

Such instability was ideal as far as Caesar was concerned, since he could exploit the rifts that occured in tribal politics by supporting the generally pro-Roman oligarchies against the anti-Roman aristocrats making bids for individual power. One of the ways in which the tribal aristocracy maintained its position and status within the tribe was by controlling trade. We read of men such as Dumnorix having the right to collect river tolls in the territory of the Aedui, and at same time we can gain an archaeological glimpse of this trade from the vast quantity of Roman luxury goods that was flooding into the interior of Gaul.

To do this, a leader had to have disposable assets to give away, such as wine, or gold and silver coins which are also an important class of artefact in the late Iron Age. The source of the slaves to be sold to the Roman traders was inter-tribal warfare. Thus the need for prestige Roman imports and the growth of trade had the indirect effect of promoting warfare as a means of obtaining one of the key Gaulish exports. These ingredients of the late Iron Age social system - oppida, imports of Roman goods, local coinage and centralised tribes - all emerge at roughly the same time.

Almost certainly this is because they were interdependent parts of an important stage in the evolution of Gaulish culture, one in which Rome had a part to play as the provider of luxuries and the recipient of exports. Rome was what is known as a 'core' area, economically dominant and with cultural products that other people wanted to have or to copy.

The increasing development of the tribes went hand-in-hand with the deepening influence of Rome, and 'pre-Roman Romanisation' was the result. His comments are very revealing: They have gradually become accustomed to defeat, and having fought and lost so many battles do not even pretend to compete with the Germans in valour', although there was once a time when the Gauls were more warlike than the Germans'. These people were 'the furthest away from the culture and civilised ways of the Roman province; and the merchants, bringing those things that tend to make men soft, very seldom reach them'.

Indeed, some of the Belgic tribes such as the Nervii refused to allow Roman wine and other luxuries into their territory. All this contrib- uted, in Caesar's opinion, to the reputation of the Belgae as being the fiercest warriors in Gaul. In fact, Caesar paints a picture of three distinct groups in northern Gaul and the Rhineland, where he did much of his fighting. Celtic Gauls occupied the territory west and south of the Seine, taking up most of the vast area that the Romans regarded as Gallia. To the north of the Seine as far as the Rhine and the Channel coast were the Belgic Gauls, which on close reading of Caesar's text seem to fall into two groups: It is a black-and-white contrast, and it has to be questioned whether the images have any truth, and where the Belgae fit into this picture.

In contrast with Caesar's portrayal, therefore, of a Gaul separated from a Germany by the Rhine, we have a series of ethnic and archaeological groupings which divide north-south rather than east-west. They are more 'Germanic' in the north and more Gaulish' in the south, but are not parted by the Rhine, which seems not to have been a cultural barrier at all. It probably suited Caesar's purpose at the time to write of the Rhine as a boundary, which it did in fact become after his time. This was for two reasons, explored further in chapter 7: As we might expect, therefore, Gaul and Germany were much more complex in social and political terms than a reading of Caesar would lead one to believe.

Gaulish society had many features that made it amenable to Roman influence, and even if the Belgae and the Germans were more resistant to the lure of Mediterranean goods and lifestyle, they too were soon to feel the sharp edge of Roman military might. Clerc in Massalia Marseille grecque , and M. Treziny eds , Le terrihvre de Marseille grecque The native peoples of southern Gaul are analysed from a historical viewpoint in G.

Benoit's Recherches sur VHtllenaaHon du Midi de la Gaule discusses relationships between Greeks and native peoples, which is also the subject of Barry Cunliffe's more wide-ranging study, Greeks, Romans and Barbarians Wells, too, discusses the Mediterranean world's links with the interior in Cultwt Contact and Culture Change Two important discoveries in this respect are the burials at Vix Joffroy and Hochdorf Biel For the fast-changing archaeological developments in the rest of Gaul and Germany, works in English include J.

However, although Caesar's territorial gains and military achievement were immense, as we shall see, it is important to realise that the Roman conquest of Gaul and Germany was a long-drawn-out affair. It lasted for some years, and was marked by long periods of little activity punctuated by bouts of intensive military campaigning. Caesar's was just one of these campaigns, and it should not be allowed to overshadow the achievement of earlier Republican commanders such as Sextius or Marius, or the Augustan cam- paigns that extended and consolidated Caesar's conquests.

Amongst these allies was the Greek city of Massalia, a long-time friend of Rome," whose strategic position and influence upon the Gauls ensured that Romans were able to travel across southern Gaul to reach Spain. Massalia itself remained a steadfast ally throughout the traumatic years of the Punic War, but the envoys found that the Gauls in the region were not so true. Hannibal's envoys had arrived in the area before the Roman Bronze statuette of a Gaulish woman prisoner, said to have been found in the River Seine. It is not surprising to find the Gauls prepared to back Hannibal, since they realistically assessed the risk they ran if they opposed him, and also they had been given cause to dislike the Romans by recent defeats inflicted on those Gauls who lived in the Po Valley Gallia Cisalpina.

Luckily for Scipio, Hannibal was keen to avoid confronting a Roman army before he reached Italy, and he retreated up the Rhone Valley. At this point in the developing conflict the Romans apparently had no inkling of Hannibal's intention of crossing the Alps into Italy, and reportedly Scipio was 'highly astonished' when he discovered the deserted camp where Hannibal had crossed the Rhone. Finally he realised that the Carthaginian army had eluded him and was on its way to Italy, and hurriedly took himself to Rome to warn the Senate, while sending his army on to Spain.

For present purposes, however, it is sufficient to know simply that the crossing was successful despite enormous human cost , and that the Carthaginian army was never to return to Gaul. Hannibal's passage across Gaul also had considerable local impact. The fact that he had successfully crossed the Alps, and effectively humiliated a Roman general into the bargain, must have weakened the political standing of Rome in the area.

Rome had good reasons for wishing to assert itself again in this area, revolving around the need to establish a land route through southern Gaul to Spain. They had also been fighting for a long time to gain control of the Ligurian coast on the Italian side of the Alps, and by the 1 50s bc had largely succeeded. The intervening region between the Rhone and the Alps was nominally under the control of Massalia, but was in actuality occupied by two hostile groups, the Ligurian tribes in the foothills of the Alps, and the Celtic Salluvii just to the north of Massalia itself. Living in well-defended small hillforts and with an intimate knowledge of the hilly terrain, the Gaulish Ligurians proved difficult to subdue.

He gained two victories, and was able to hand the territory of the Oxybii and Deciatae over to Massalia. However, the Roman troops did not immediately return home,- instead they were garrisoned in the area over the winter and perhaps for longer, just to make sure that the route to Spain was safe. It was the Salluvii that caused Rome to intervene again on behalf of Massalia, and this time the army to stay. In bc the consul M. Fulvius Flaccus led two legions into southern Gaul following a request for help from the Greek colony. Because of their position just to the north of Massalia, the Salluvii posed a threat not only to the Greeks, but also to the main land route to Spain, since it cut right across their territory.

Full text of "Roman Gaul and Germany"

In order to protect the route to Spain and watch over the Salluvii, Sextius set up a garrison at a site in the plain below Entremont, near some hot springs. Virtually nothing is known of the first occupation of the s bc, but it is likely that both Roman soldiers and the pro-Roman remnants of the tribe made up the population, a pattern which was to be repeated elsewhere during the conquest of Gaul. The celebration of triumphs by Fulvius and Sextius had obviously opened the eyes of the extremely competitive Roman senatorial class to the possibility of gaining military glory in Gaul.

It was to become one of the new military stamping grounds for ambitious generals during the next seventy years or so, culminating of course in Caesar's famous exploits. Domitius Ahenobarbus took over from Sextius in bc, and almost at once plunged Roman forces into conflict with the Allobroges, ostensibly because they were harbouring an anti-Roman Salluvian leader, and also because they were attacking a tribe yet further north, the Aedui, that was friendly to Rome.

So set-piece battles continued to feature in confrontations with the Romans. Insgesamt konnten zwei Toranlagen festgestellt werden. Bei der Ausgrabung des Nordtores im Jahr konnte u. Wie die Eckbastionen sprang es ca. Die Durchfahrten waren drei Meter breit. Das Turmfundament zog hier durch und sollte wohl das Fallgitter nach dem Herablassen aufnehmen.

🌟 Free Pdf Downloads Books The Dare The Wedding Collection B01atswqxg Chm

Jahrhunderts ist die Notitia Dignitatum. Jahrhundert aber auch wieder einige Neubauten hinzu. Eine Bebauung in der Tetrarchie oder in der Nachfolgezeit konnte nicht festgestellt werden. Im Laufe des 5. Ihre Ruinen wurden in den nachfolgenden Jahrhunderten u.