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Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Nathan Ross - 05-08-2014
Does anyone have any accurate information, or even better a map or plans, of the course of the Roman road(s) along the middle Rhine - between Cologne and Mainz, approximately?
All I've been able to find is the somewhat detailed wikipedia page, which claims that two roads followed the course of the modern Autobahns 61 and 9 - the latter running along the western bank of the river itself. Would this be the major transport route between the two settlements? How close to the river was the road?
Any suggestions for further research much appreciated!
- Nathan
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Flavivs Aetivs - 05-08-2014
http://orbis.stanford.edu/
High Res Images of the Tabula Peutingeriana:
http://www.euratlas.net/cartogra/peutinger/
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Nathan Ross - 05-08-2014
Thanks - I was really after something more detailed though. The general route itself and the stations along the way are well known, but I was wondering whether there's anything more specific known about the alignment of road and river, for example, and the distance between them, or whether the major road crossed the higher ground rather than following the riverbank itself.
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Eleatic Guest - 05-08-2014
Taken from a display board in the Historisches Museum der Pfalz in Speyer in 2008.
You can see two roads in the Rhine basin between Rheinzabern and Worms, one easterly which connects the forts and garrisons along the Rhine, and another one at the foot of the Pfalz hills.
The museum has two more boards illustrating the settlement situation in the 2nd-3rd century AD and in "late Roman" Palatinate, but the road system remained unchanged according to them.
[attachment=9812]001.JPG[/attachment]
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Nathan Ross - 05-08-2014
Excellent! Thanks Stefan - that shows the relationship between the two roads, and the link roads that connect them, very well.
Does anyone have anything similar showing the arrangement of the road along the Rhine narrows, between Koblenz and Bingen? I would assume that in this area, particularly around Boppard, the road must have run very close to the riverbank.
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Eleatic Guest - 05-08-2014
Quote:Does anyone have anything similar showing the arrangement of the road along the Rhine narrows, between Koblenz and Bingen? I would assume that in this area, particularly around Boppard, the road must have run very close to the riverbank.
Yes, it does. I know this for a fact because I have been going by train many times up the Rhine from Koblenz over Bingen to Mainz. Topography dictates that the road runs parallel to the Rhine. At many places the space is hardly enough to squeeze in the railroad line and the road.
The narrowest point is the famous http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loreley.
It is only at the height of Bingen that the Rhine valley broadens to some extent. There, the local tributary is crossed by the oldest extant medieval German bridge (now heavily restored) a few hundred meters above its mouth into the Rhine. The inference is obviously that this road must have been very old and important enough early on to warrant the construction of a solid bridge.
In fact, up until the 1990s IIRC the main train line connecting Frankfurt with Cologne ran through the Middle Rhine valley, passing Boppard which, like the other towns, is nestled between the Rhine bank and the adjacent ridge.
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Eleatic Guest - 05-09-2014
View across the river from Boppard. The right third is the opposite, eastern bank, in 2008. The ship is going downstream, the Rhine makes a sharp turn to the right so that the other two thirds of the background actually depict the western, Roman bank, which almost immediately climbs up from the waterline:
[attachment=9814]0230Boppard.JPG[/attachment]
Stichted photo of remains of the Roman wall in Boppard (which lies on the western, left bank). In the background you can see how close the Rhine hills are:
[attachment=9815]0012bBoppardPano.jpg[/attachment]
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Nathan Ross - 05-09-2014
Thanks again, Stefan! I was looking at a map of the 'Rhine gorge' recently, and wondered how the Romans could have run a road right the way along it, around all the bends and loops. More wonders of ancient engineering, I expect...
It does make me wonder, looking at those photos, whether the Romans might have shared the taste of 19th century Germans for the natural beauties of the area? Less of a liking for the sublime, perhaps... :-)
Roman Roads on the Middle Rhine - Eleatic Guest - 05-09-2014
There is an interesting detail concerning the map above. You know, the recent "barbarian hoard" was found close to the Roman road between Germersheim and Rheinzabern, at the spot where the treeless zone reaches the road. Presumably, people travelling on the road were in a hurry to bury the treasure closeby.