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(develop an en: article on Novaesium: the Legionary Camps/Fortresses at Neuss)

Novaesium
Novaesium was the name the Romans used for the successive legionary camps and fortress at what is now the city of Neuss, on the west bank of the the Rhine. The earliest occupations, dating from late 1st century BCE to early 1st century CE, were a succession of earth and timber camps with the legionaries living in tents. In around 43 CE a large legionary fortress was begun, which was progressively fortified with stone walls, gates, and turrets, along with more permenant barracks, officers' quarters and administrative buildings. This shift from temporary to permenant structures is now taken as an emblem of the way Roman military strategy shifted from continual territorial expansion to a de facto defended line, known as the Limes. The fortress was scaled back by the early 2nd century but remained an auxilliary base which helped define and defend the north-eastern limits of the Roman Empire for a further 200 years.

The foundations of the stone fortress were discovered by Constantin Koenen in the late 19th century. When excavated it was the first complete groundplan of a legionary fortress, and came to epitomise the 'playing card' style Claudian era fortress. Further excavations in the 1950s to 1980s revealed progressively more complex precurser camps to the west of Koenen's excavations, leaving a chronology and terminology which remains to some extent unresolved. The whole site was developed for housing as the excavations progressed, limiting the scope for subsequent discovery or clarification. In 2021 the site was included within the Lower Germanic Limes UNESCO World Heritage Site, a series of 102 locations along the Rhine Valley from south of Bonn (Germany) to the North Sea coast (the Netherlands).

Historical writings and events
Novaesium is well attested within classical writings. Tacitus mentions the name in ten different passages of his Histories, describing troop movements, retreats, battles, defections and defeats during the turbulent year of 69 CE. Legio I Germanica had been stationed variously at Cologne, Novaesium and Bonn since 16 BCE and had been caught up in the mutiny of 14 CE. Legio XVI Gallica were stationed in Novaesium from 43 to 70 CE. During 69 CE, the Year of the Four Emperors, in the turmoil following Nero's reign, parts of both legions had marched on Rome in support of Vitellius, and subsequently were both disbanded the following year after their inability to deal with the Revolt of the Batavi.

The Legio XX Valeria Victrix were at Novaesium until they joined Claudius's invasion of Britain in 43 CE and Legio VI Victrix was the legion brought in to Novaesium to replace the two disbanded legions in 69/70, until they were relocated to Xanten some time around the end of the first century, when the legionary fortress was abandoned.

The Antonine Itinerary of around 200 CE gives a firmer basis for locating Novaesium at Neuss, and the map known as the Tabula Peutingeriana from around 300 CE meant it's location was not in doubt. Ammianus Marcellinus's History written in 359, shows that as a settlement Novaesium retained its significance after the legions had left. The site of the fortress was re-used for a much smaller Auxillary fort, probably housing a Cavelry unit (ala) for the next 200 years. The gravestone of a rider from the ala Afrorum veterana was found in Neuss and is dated around 100.

The 'Nivisium castellum' is also mentioned by Gregory of Tours. Around 575 he wrote Book II of his History of the Franks and section 9, quoting a now lost work by Sulpicius Alexander about events in 388, tells of how "Quintinus crossed the Rhine with his army near the stronghold of Neuss, and at his second camp from the river he found dwellings abandoned by their occupants and great villages deserted. For the Franks pretended to be afraid and retired into the more remote tracts, where they built an abattis on the edge of the woods." The Romans were subsequently trapped in the woods and marshes where "the ranks were thrown into disorder and the legions cut in pieces."

Antiquarians and Archaeologists
A variety of Roman artifacts had been found in the town through the 17th and 18th centuries, including two gravestones belonging to the XX and XVI Legions and one placed by a veteran of an auxiliary unit. In 1839 the first Neuss antiquities association was formed by a Prussian medical officer, Dr. Hermann Joseph Jaeger. In 1844 they carried out excavations at Reckburg, discovering a small Roman fort, and in 1845 the Neuss Municipal Museum was begun, to display the growing quantity of finds.

Fresh energy was injected in 1877 when a new generation of enthusiatic archaeologists founded the  'Vereins für Altertumskunde und Geschichte' (Association for Antiquities and History), whose members included Oskar Rautert and the 23 year old Constantin Koenen. After further work at the Reckburg excavations, attention was turned to the location of the legionary fortress, which had been asumed to be beneath the old town centre. Koenen pursued a theory that it was to the south of the town, and in 1886 got permission from the Bonn Provincial Museum to make a test excavation on open ground towards the area where the Rhine is joined by the river Erft. The findings were positive, and over the next 13 years Koenen worked to reveal the whole of the groundplan of the legionary fortress. Although there had been no above-ground indications, it was found that the foundation levels were well-preserved. To reveal the 25 ha site the excavation team had to remove some 50,000 cubic meters/yards of overlying soil using shovels and wheelbarrows. The result was that for the first time, a full groundplan of a Legionary fortress was known, and when the final results were published in 1904 it was something of a sensation as the first Legionary Fortress to be fully revealed.

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