Weekly Roams (from Roman France, Germany, and Sardinia)
Roman Trier
Trier, formerly known as Treves and Triers, was founded by the Celts in the late fourth century BC as Treuorum and later conquered by the Romans in 16 BC and renamed Trevorum or Augusta Treverorum, ‘The City of Augustus in the land of the Treveri’. It became the capital of the province of Belgic Gaul, and after the Diocletian Reforms the capital of the prefecture of the Gauls, overseeing much of the Western Roman Empire. In the fourth century AD, it was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire, and the largest north of the Alps, with a population of somewhere between 75,000 – 100,000. From AD 367 it was also the residence of Valentinian the Great, and later Theodosius I until his death in AD 395. In AD 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture to Arles, however Trier continued to be inhabited, though it was never as prosperous as before, though remaining the seat of a governor and continuing to have state factories for the production of ballistae, armour, uniforms for troops, clothing for the civil service, and high quality garments for the court.
The Porta Negra
The Porta Negra is the best-preserved and largest Roman city gate north of the Alps. The name originates in the Middle Ages, due to a darkening of the original colour of its grey sandstone, and the original name remains unknown. Constructed sometime after AD 170, it originally consisted of two four-storied towers projecting as near semicircles on the outer side, and a narrow courtyard separated the two gate openings. However, for reasons unknown, the gate remained incomplete. For example, the stones at the northern (or outer) side of the gate were never abraded, and the protruding stones would have made it quite impossible for the installation of moveable gates. Nonetheless, the case remained in use for several centuries, until the end of the Roman period in Trier, and served as an entrance to the town. It was also originally only one of four gates, one on each side of a roughly rectangular city plan, with the Porta Negra to the north, the Porta Alba, or ‘White Gate’, to the east, the Porta Media, or ‘Middle Gate’, to the south, and the Porta Inclita, or ‘Famous Gate’, to the west, next to the bridge across the Moselle. The gates stood at the ends of the two main roads through Trier, one going north-south and the other east-west. Only the Porta Negraremans, and to its south side stand remains of Roman columns lining the last 100m of this road leading up to it.
Roman Baths
The ruins of three baths lie in Trier, among them the largest remaining Roman baths outside of Rome – the second century Barbara Baths, which was begun by Constantine but completed in about AD 314 – and the fourth century Trier Imperial Baths.
Constantine Basilica, or Aula Palatina
The huge Constantine Basilica, or Aula Palatina, was the 220-foot throne room of the Emperor Constantine. It was built in around AD 310 by Constantine as part of a palace complex, and originally was not a freestanding building but had other smaller ones – a fore hall, vestibule, and service buildings – attached to it, plus it was equipped with a floor-and-wall hypocaust system. The hall itself, measuring 67m (l) x 26m (w) x 33m (h), is the largest extant hall from antiquity!
Roman Bridge
The Roman bridge over the Moselle is the oldest standing bridge in Germany, with nine pillars dating from the second century AD!
Elsewhere
There was an amphitheatre in Triers, built shortly before AD 100, a stadium, and a circus was constructed in the first half of the second century. Constantine also added a mint, the principal mint of the Roman West.
No trip to Triers is complete without a visit to the ‘Roman Restaurant’, Zum Domstein, which serves dishes from Marcus Gavius Apicius’ De Re Coquinaria. During construction works in its basement, an upright column was found, which turned out to be the south-western pillar of the basilica, and many other artefacts, many of which are now featured in the restaurant, including tiling, hypocausts, glass from between AD 150 and AD 350, cookware, amphorae, and food remains and bones in pots!
