Vetera

along the course of the Lower Germanic Limes Vetera (also Vetera Castra; sometimes in older literature, on maps, and colloquially also Castra Vetera) was the name of the location of two successive Roman legionary camps in the province of Germania Inferior near present-day Xanten on the Lower Rhine. The legionary camps of Vetera were part of the Lower Germanic Limes and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Research and scholarly literature distinguish between the older fort site Vetera I (13/12 BCE to 70 CE) and the younger fort site Vetera II (71 to at least the 3rd century). These sites were located approximately one Roman mile (mille passus = just under 1500 m) apart. Vetera was one of the most significant garrisons on the northern flank of the Roman Empire. In its early days, it was an essential deployment base for the Romans' expansion efforts on the right bank of the Rhine. Vetera I is currently situated on undeveloped land in the urban area of Xanten, while Vetera II is located up to ten metres below the surface of a quarry pond.

along the course of the Lower Germanic Limes]] Vetera (also Vetera Castra; sometimes in older literature, on maps, and colloquially also Castra Vetera) was the name of the location of two successive Roman legionary camps in the province of Germania Inferior near present-day Xanten on the Lower Rhine. The legionary camps of Vetera were part of the Lower Germanic Limes and were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021. Research and scholarly literature distinguish between the older fort site Vetera I (13/12 BCE to 70 CE) and the younger fort site Vetera II (71 to at least the 3rd century). These sites were located approximately one Roman mile (mille passus = just under 1500 m) apart. Vetera was one of the most significant garrisons on the northern flank of the Roman Empire. In its early days, it was an essential deployment base for the Romans' expansion efforts on the right bank of the Rhine. Vetera I is currently situated on undeveloped land in the urban area of Xanten, while Vetera II is located up to ten metres below the surface of a quarry pond. File:Germania 14 Germanico.jpg|Military operations in the year 14 File:Germania 15 Germanico.jpg|Campaigns of the year 15 File:Germania 16 Germanico.jpg|Operations of the year 16 In 16 CE, after unsuccessful and expensive campaigns, Tiberius terminated the risky offensive and ordered Germanicus to return to Rome. Following this, the Lower Rhine became a defensive border, resulting in relative peace in Vetera for over fifty years. During the time of Claudius, the road network connecting the military camps in the Rhineland was expanded. However, this peaceful situation changed with the Revolt of the Batavi and other events of 69-70, which were to shake the entire empire. The stone bears the inscription: M(ARCO) CAELIO T(ITI) F(ILIO) LEM(ONIA TRIBV) BON(ONIA) [I] O(RDINI) LEG(IONIS) XIIX ANN(ORVM) LIII S(EMISSIS) [CE]CIDIT BELLO VARIANO OSSA [LIB(ERTORVM) I]NFERRE LICEBIT P(VBLIVS) CAELIVS T(ITI) F(ILIVS) LEM(ONIA TRIBV) FRATER FECIT Translated: "To Marcus Caelius, son of Titus, from the tribus Lemonia, from Bononia, centurion 1st order of the 18th legion, 53 years and a half old. He died in the war of Varus. The bones of the freedmen may be buried here. Publius Caelius, son of Titus, from the tribus Lemonia, his brother, made [this tombstone].". This gravestone is believed to be part of a cenotaph, as Germanicus is said to have buried the fallen of the Varian defeat at the site of the event only six years later. It was discovered in the early 1620s, but its exact location is unknown. It likely originates from the burial grounds adjacent to the legionary camp, specifically from the Augustan burial ground on top of the Fürstenberg. Following the Clades Variana, which led to the complete annihilation of three legions and their auxiliary units, Legio V Alaudae and Legio XXI Rapax were dispatched to Vetera to replace the lost legions. They are recorded from 14 CE, when they participated in the mutiny of the legions stationed in Germania and Pannonia upon Tiberius' ascension to power. Under the command of Aulus Caecina Severus, the legions participated in the Germanicus campaigns from the base of operations at Vetera between 14 and 16. However, due to a fundamental change in Germanic policy under Tiberius in 17, the garrison at Vetera assumed a more defensive role. The camp of the two legions was fortified in two phases, with a three-metre-wide wall made of wood and soil and a double ditch. No information is available about the inner buildings. After Nero, Galba became the emperor, but his unpopular personnel decisions antagonised the Lower Germanic army. As a result, they proclaimed Vitellius as the emperor in January 69. To assert his claim to the throne in Rome, Vitellius marched to Italy with a large army in two columns. This army included approximately 4000 legionaries of Legio V from Vetera, and eight auxiliary cohorts of the Batavi. The other three Lower Rhine legions provided an additional 6000 legionaries. Approximately 70,000 men were withdrawn from the western provinces and army districts in total, which left the border defences severely exposed. File:INC-2951-a Ауреус. Гальба. Ок. 68—69 гг. (аверс).png|Galba File:Gold Aureus of Otho.jpg|Otho File:Vitellius, aureus, AD 69, RIC I 72 (obverse).jpg|Vitellius File:Gold Aureus of Vespasian, Rome (MANTIS).jpg|Vespasian Following Vitellius' initial successes against Galba and his immediate successor Otho, the eight Batavian cohorts (comprising around 4,000 men) were ordered back to the Germanic border. They took up quarters at Mogontiacum in the summer of 69. Around the same time, Vespasian was acclaimed emperor in opposition to Vitellius in the provinces of Aegyptus, Syria, and Iudaea, as well as by the Danubian legions, in the eastern part of the empire. His troops subsequently marched towards Rome. When Vitellius carried out military campaigns in the territories of the Batavi and Cananefates to strengthen his forces for the forthcoming clashes with Vespasian, the Batavi and Cananefates rose up together with the Frisians. They were led by Iulius Civilis, a Batavi nobleman and commander of a cohort. At first, Civilis skilfully managed to create the impression that he was intervening in the civil war on Vespasian's side against Vitellius. The Vitellian punitive expedition ended disastrously when the Batavi auxiliaries turned on them in mid-battle and the Ubii and Treveri fled. The remaining members of the expeditionary force barely managed to escape to Vetera. (69/70 CE). The area of the revolt is illuminated, including the location of the fort of Vetera]] The rebellion gained momentum when the eight Batavi cohorts stationed in Mogontiacum marched north at the end of summer or the beginning of autumn in 69 and joined forces with Civilis' troops. Civilis swore them into Vespasian and also called on the remaining parts of the 5th and 15th legions stationed in Vetera to join Vespasian's cause. However, the garrison of Vetera remained loyal to Vitellius. The camp's walls and ramparts were reinforced, but there were insufficient provisions to withstand a prolonged siege. Following an unsuccessful initial attack, Civilis' troops, who had gained control of both banks of the Rhine and the Roman river fleet, decided to lay siege to the camp in an attempt to starve out the defenders. A relief army comprising soldiers from Legio XXII Primigenia, under the command of Gaius Dillius Vocula, marched from the south and joined forces with Legio XVI Gallica in Novaesium. However, they did not advance any further into the area around Vetera and instead established a camp near Gelduba. Meanwhile, the army of Civilis continued to expand with reinforcements from almost all regions of Germania. They began to devastate the territories of the Morini, Menapii, Ubii and Treveri, which included the entire Rhineland down to the Moselle and across to the North Sea coast. The siege ring around Vetera was further reinforced, and the attempts to storm it resumed. The garrison's loss provided some relief and ended the attempts at conquest. However, a successful breakout was out of the question. It was around this time that the second battle of Bedriacum in northern Italy between Vespasian and Vitellius was decided in Vespasian's favour. News of this, and of Vespasian's request that Civilis cease fighting, probably reached the Lower Rhine in early November of that year. It was ignored by Civilis, who instead sent some of his troops against Vocula and continued the siege of Vetera. Vocula defeated the troops sent against him and marched on Vetera to relieve it. There, the battle raged back and forth until it was finally decided in favour of the Romans when the fort's garrison fell. Vetera was freed from encirclement, but the supply situation remained precarious, the rebels continued to dominate the surrounding area, and Vocula failed to pursue the defeated Civilis troops. Just as Vocula had withdrawn another 1000 men from the Vetera garrison to secure supplies, Civilis encircled the camp again in late December 69. Vocula retreated to Novaesium, pursued by Civilis, who captured Gelduba and whose cavalry advanced to Novaesium. In the following months, the main events of the war shifted deeper into the south of the Rhineland, where a number of Gaulish peoples, including the Treveri, now joined the Vitellian legions in revolt against Vespasian's rule. The remaining troops in the legionary camp at Vetera, parts of Legio XV Primigenia, Legio V Alaudae and possibly Legio XVI Gallica, surrendered in March 70, having exhausted their supplies. Vetera was released for plunder; the legionaries were allowed to leave freely after swearing an oath to the "Imperium Galliarum", the Gaulish Empire of Civilis. However, five miles south of Vetera they were ambushed and massacred by Teutons. A few managed to escape back to Vetera, where they perished in the fires set by the rebels as they plundered the city. This is the end of the story of this Claudian-Neronian legionary camp. In the same year, at the end of July or the beginning of August 70 CE, the Roman troops won one of the decisive battles in the suppression of the Batavi uprising at the "Battle of Vetera", in front of the gates of the destroyed fort. GENIO SIGNIF(erorum) LEG(ionis) XXX V(lpia) V(ictrix) P(ublius) AELIVS SEVE RINVS T(estamento) P(oni) I(vssit) Translated: "Publius Aelius Severinus had this statuette erected to the genius of the standard-bearers of the 30th legion, the Ulpian, the victorious." This was a direct reference to the Legio XXX Ulpia Victrix. On the initiative of the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn, divers were used for the first time in the museum's history for archaeological surveys during the excavation of the Bislicher Insel. The first dives were carried out in 1955 under extremely difficult visibility conditions in the murky waters, followed by others in 1957 and 1958. The walls of the sunken legionary camp could be identified under water, sometimes more by touch than by sight. The extensive finds made it possible to determine the troops stationed at Vetera II (brick stamps of the VI, XXII and XXX legions) and the duration of the occupation of the camp. It began immediately after the end of the Revolt of the Batavi and lasted until the second half of the 3rd century. The last datable find was a sestertius of Postumus from 260, which is why for a long time the end of the camp was thought to be linked to a Frankish invasion around 260 or 275. However, it is also possible that the camp continued beyond this date, possibly until the 4th century. Given the relatively small scale of the archaeological investigations at the camp site and the relatively small quantity of finds, the lack of objects from this period is not an argument against it. All other legionary camps on the Rhine and Danube frontiers have since been shown to have survived the Germanic invasions of the 3rd century and to have continued to exist into Late Antiquity. In addition, the 4th-century historian Ammianus Marcellinus mentions a settlement called Tricensimae, probably derived from the Latin ordinal number (tricesima, "the thirtieth") of the legion. This is often identified with a fortified settlement of late antiquity on the site of Colonia Ulpia Traiana (see Tricensimae); however, some researchers suggest that it was the surviving camp of Vetera II. The destruction of the Colonia Ulpia Traiana itself around the year 275, which had been assumed, is now considered unprovable. Vetera II, like all legionary camps, had a camp suburb known as the Canabae legionis. The approximate extent of the suburb was determined by mapping surface finds and it surrounded the camp to the west and south. Michael Gechter: Die Militärgeschichte am Niederrhein von Caesar bis Tiberius. Eine Skizze. In: Thomas Grünewald, Sandra Seibel (eds.): Kontinuität und Diskontinuität. Die Germania Inferior am Beginn und am Ende der römischen Herrschaft, Beiträge des deutsch-niederländischen Kolloquiums in der Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, 27. bis 30. Juni 2001 (= Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde. Ergänzungsband 35). de Gruyter, Berlin 2003, pp. 147–159. Michael Gechter: Early Roman military installations and Ubian settlements in the Lower Rhine. In: T. Blagg, M. Millett (eds.): The early Roman empire in the West. 2. ed. Oxford Books 2002, , pp. 97–102. Norbert Hanel: Zum antiken Namen der Legionslager auf dem Fürstenberg bei Xanten: Vetera castra. In: Xantener Berichte. Band 5, Rheinland Verlag, Köln 1994, , pp. 263–265 (PDF). Norbert Hanel: Vetera I. Die Funde aus den römischen Lagern auf dem Fürstenberg bei Xanten. (= Rheinische Ausgrabungen. 35). Rheinland-Verlag, Köln 1995; Habelt, Bonn 1995, . Norbert Hanel: Die Militärlager von Vetera I und ihre Lagersiedlungen. In: Martin Müller, Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten und sein Umland in römischer Zeit. Zabern, Mainz 2008, , pp. 93–107. Hermann Hinz: Xanten zur Römerzeit. Th. Gesthuysen, Xanten 1960, W. Renckhoff, Duisburg-Ruhrort 1963, Th. Gesthuysen, Xanten 1967, Dombuchhandlung, Xanten 1971, 1973, 1976 (6. ed). Hermann Hinz: Ein frührömisches Gräberfeld auf dem Kirchhügel in Birten, Kreis Moers. In: Rheinische Ausgrabungen. 12. Rheinland-Verlag, Bonn 1973, pp. 24–83. Hans Lehner: Vetera bei Xanten. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1936 Hans Lehner: Vetera. Die Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen des Bonner Provinzialmuseums bis 1929. De Gruyter, Berlin/Leipzig 1930 (Digitalisation). Hans Lehner: Das Römerlager Vetera bei Xanten. Ein Führer durch die Ausgrabungen des Bonner Provinzialmuseums. Röhrscheid, Bonn 1926. Philipp Houben: Denkmaeler von Castra Vetera und Colonia Traiana in Ph. Houben’s Antiquarium zu Xanten. Xanten/Wesel 1839. Jürgen Kunow: Die Militärgeschichte Niedergermaniens. In: Heinz Günter Horn (ed.): Die Römer in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Lizenzausgabe der Auflage von 1987. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, , pp. 27–109. Julia Obladen-Kauder: Spurensuche in Xanten. Ein archäologischer Wanderführer. Rheinischer Verein für Denkmalpflege und Landschaftsschutz, Köln 2005, . Harald von Petrikovits: Die Legionsfestung Vetera II. In: Bonner Jahrbücher. 159, 1959, pp. 89–133. Harald von Petrikovits: Fortifications in the North-Western Roman Empire from the Third to the Fifth Centuries A. D. In: The Journal of Roman Studies. 61, 1971, pp. 178–218. Harald von Petrikovits: Vetera. In: Paulys Realencyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft (RE). Band VIII A,2, Stuttgart 1958, pp. 1801–1834. Christoph B. Rüger: Alpen. Römisches Übungs- und Marschlager. In: Heinz Günter Horn (eds.): Die Römer in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Lizenzausgabe der Auflage von 1987. Nikol, Hamburg 2002, , pp. 332–334. Dirk Schmitz: Das Lager Vetera II und seine Legionen. In: Martin Müller, Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten und sein Umland in römischer Zeit. Zabern, Mainz 2008, , pp. 141–170. Dirk Schmitz: Der Bataveraufstand im Kontext des römischen Bürgerkrieges 68–70 n. Chr. In: Martin Müller, Hans-Joachim Schalles, Norbert Zieling (eds.): Colonia Ulpia Traiana. Xanten und sein Umland in römischer Zeit. Zabern, Mainz 2008, , pp. 117–140 Hans Schönberger: The Roman Frontier in Germany. An Archaeological Survey. In: The Journal of Roman Studies. v 59, 1969, pp. 144–197. Hans Schönberger: Die römischen Truppenlager der frühen und mittleren Kaiserzeit zwischen Nordsee und Inn. In: Bericht der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission. 66, 1985, pp. 321–495.

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