Castra Alteium
[1]: X.IV.4, XI.XXXI.5 The town of Alzey is located in German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate on the western edge of the northern part of the Upper-Rhine Valley (Oberrheinischen Tiefebene) on the left side of the Rhine, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from it.
It is surrounded by the northern part of the Alzey hill country, which is adjoined to the north by the Rheinhessisches Hügelland and to the west by the Nordpfälzer Bergland.
The Roman civilian settlement was part of the province of Germania Superior and was governed from the provincial capital of Mogontiacum (Mainz).
After the administrative reforms of Diocletian Castra Alteium was located within the territory of the new province of Germania Prima in the southwestern area of the former vicus, on a southern spur of the Mehlberg mountain on a steep slope to Selz.
[4] In 1902 the section commissar of the Reichs-Limeskommission (RLK), Karl Schuhmacher (1860-1934), and the local historian Jakob Curschmann (1874-1953), identified a part of the wall and the foundations of a round tower at the southwest corner.
By 1904, during construction, further remains of the fort wall and, at the cemetery of the former St. George's Church, ancient sandstone slabs and sarcophagus components came to light.
In 1925, the prehistorian Wilhelm Unverzagt (1892-1971) succeeded in finding the so-called "Alzey burn layer" which marked the end of the second settlement phase of the fort.
Several excavation campaigns in the fort area were also conducted by the Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz.
The objects found in the excavation area, mainly Roman glassware and ceramics, give some information about the origin of the fort's inhabitants.
The discovery of Spiral fibulae of the "Mildenberg" type, which did not originate before 440 AD, marks the Alamannic settlement phase of the fort.
[5] The mild climate, the rolling hills and fertile loess soil made the region attractive for settlers from an early period.
In 370, in the course of the last Roman reinforcements on the Rhine Limes, the late antique Castrum Alteium was built on the ruins of the civilian settlement.
It may have been completely vacated as early as 383 in the wake of the usurpation of British governor Magnus Maximus, when the western emperor, Gratian, assembled troops near Lutetia (Paris) to oppose him.
Most likely, the garrison of Altaia were also part of Maximus' army, with which, in 388, he fought the eastern Emperor Theodosius I at the Battle of the Save at Siscia and Poetovio.
After 400 the Comitatenses and Limitanei of Stilicho were withdrawn from most of the Rhine forts when Emperor Honorius moved his residence from Trier to Arles, and the heartland of Italy was increasingly threatened by barbarian invasions.
In the winter of 406/407 some Germanic tribes, including the Burgundians, simultaneously crossed the lightly-guarded Limes between Mogontiacum (Mainz) and Borbetomagus (Worms) and devastated the Rhine and Gaulish provinces.
In return, they undertook responsibility for the frontier defense in this area and, together with other allied tribes and the remnant of the regular Limitanei, securing of the Rhine border.
The increasing demand for independence by Burgundy under king Gundahar (also called Gundicharius or Gunther) was crushed by order of the Western Roman army commander and regent Aëtius by his Hunnic auxiliary troops.
The survivors then relocated to the region of Sapaudia (now Savoy or the Rhone Valley), but there they gained strength in the late 5th century and rebuilt a new empire in western Switzerland.
It is possible that some of the Burgundians, supported by tribes on the right bank of the Rhine, defended themselves against the deportations, which caused the fortifications of the fort to be destroyed.
These events were also reflected in the medieval epic of the Nibelungenlied and formed the template for the legendary figure of the bard Volker von Alzey.
In 454 Emperor Valentinian III murdered his commander Flavius Aëtius, whereby also Roman rule over the region around Alzey came to an end.
Inside, there was no intervallum, instead, all barracks and workshops - with the exception of the headquarters building - were set directly to the defensive wall to save space.
The gates were designed as single towers similar to those at Andernach, which stood on rectangular foundations extending equally inward and outward.
The corner towers had a three-quarter-round shape, stood on rectangular foundation, and did not protrude into the fort They were hollow inside and had a wall thickness of 2.40 to 2.60 metres (7.9 to 8.5 ft).
The foundation was square and connected to the fort wall, which was reinforced on the inside by a 0.10 metres (0.33 ft) meter strong projection (risalit).
The Valentinian period interior was very carefully constructed and consisted of elongated, multi-story, single-room camp and barracks buildings built on the rear side directly on the defensive wall (west, south and east).
On the south wall, there were also traces of a roof supported by simple wooden posts along the barracks fronts for a walkway (portico) surrounding the entire courtyard.
Due to the buildings being built directly behind the walls, and to the strong fortifications, the fort could also be defended successfully by a small number of men.
The destruction debris in the interior was leveled, above it erected half-timbered buildings with plans on the Roman model whose roofs were now covered with tiles again.
