Römerbad Broschüre

weiter südlich gelegenen, hochwasserfreien Sporn
ab, auf der die Trasse der Fernstraße und ein ausgedehntes
Gräberfeld liegen. Hier, wie auch im
Norden an der nach Köln führenden Ausfallstraße,
bestattete das Militär ihre verstorbenen Soldaten. //
THE LEGIONARY FORTRESS CASTRA BONNENSIA &
THE FORTRESS’S CIVILIAN SETTLEMENT CANABAE
LEGIONIS
At the beginning of the 1st century AD, during the phase
of establishing and developing defensive positions along
the Lower German Limes, a fort for auxiliary troops was
founded on a plateau above the high-water mark in Bonn’s
modern-day district of Castell. Later, on the same site, the
legionary fortress castra Bonnensia covering an area of
some 28 hectares was constructed. Similar to military camps
in Xanten and Moers-Asberg situated opposite the confluences
with the River Lippe and the Ruhr, the fortress in Bonn
developed opposite the confluence of the River Sieg. Thus,
the forts offered an optimal site for securing the border along
the Rhine between Lower Germany and the so-called Barbaricum
outside the Empire 5. Subsequent building measures
caused the fortress to become one of the largest and
most important military bases 6. For nearly two centuries
the fortification housed at least 7,000 soldiers, as well as
administrative officials, and as a supply-base undertook
tasks for parts of the border region. By AD 455 at the latest
with the fall of the Roman city of Cologne, from which the
Roman province of Lower Germany between the Ahr Valley
and the Dutch North Sea coast had been governed, the military
camp at Bonn lost its importance.
Roughly contemporary with the building activities of the
legionary fortress there developed further south a ‘suburb’
to the fortress, the canabae legionis. The population living
there was mixed, comprising civilians, soldiers’ partners and
children, craftsmen, merchants and innkeepers, who were
all dependent upon the military. The legionary brickworks
to the west and a special military area to the east separated
the suburb from a flood-free spur situated further to
the south, on which the course of the arterial road and an
extensive cemetery lay. Here, as well as in the north on the
road leading to Cologne, the military buried their deceased
comrades. //
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