The name was first mentioned in 12 BC, when it was a Roman military outpost established by Nero Claudius Drusus.

Its name was first mentioned in 12 BC but "Argentorate" is the toponym of the Gaulish settlement that preceded it before being latinised, though it is not known by how long.

Early in the 5th century the Alemanni appear to have crossed the Rhine, conquered, and then settled what is today Alsace and a large part of Switzerland.

[7] Many Roman artifacts have also been found along the road that led to the camp, the current Route des Romains in the suburb of Koenigshoffen,[8] such as the stele of Caius Largennius.

[9] Among the most outstanding finds in Koenigshoffen were the fragments of a grand Mithraeum that had been shattered by early Christians in the 4th century (found in 1911–12 by Robert Forrer, Hatt's predecessor at the head of the Musée archéologique).