Waldgirmes Forum
The archaeological evidence at Waldgirmes suggests the remains of one of a series of planned towns and market places founded by the Romans east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, with the aim of long-term growth into population centres.
Since Theodor Mommsen, it had been assumed that Roman operations in Greater Germania were limited to exploratory expeditions, and small temporary trading stations.
Additionally, it would have been possible to reach areas of established Roman presence along the Rhine (like Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium and Castra Vetera) relatively quickly by boat.
It is possible that Waldgimes was going to be a colonia for legio veterans, because no barracks and no military equipment have been found in the recent excavations[2] The site remained unfinished, indicated by the large undeveloped areas.
The historian Cassius Dio in a famous passage (56, 18) said that in Germany ‘already cities were being founded; the barbarians were gradually reshaping their habits in conformity with the Roman pattern and were becoming accustomed to holding markets and were meeting in peaceful assembly’.
The archaeological evidence at Waldgirmes suggests the remains of one of a series of planned towns and market places founded by the Romans east of the Rhine and north of the Danube, with the aim of long-term growth into population centers of the newly created province of Germania.
The remains discovered include an impressive forum, on one side of which stood a stone-built central building or basilica, flanked by two apses, Further structures were built using the Roman half-timbered technique on stone foundations.
From the outside, it would have looked like a Roman military fort, but its interior contained a trading centre with a market, two crossing streets with central channels for drainage or water supplies, stables, storage buildings, taverns and houses with wooden porticos.
One of the most important finds is 200 fragments of a life-sized gilded bronze equestrian statue, probably of Augustus, discovered in and around the central building and surrounding settlement.
Since Theodor Mommsen, it had been assumed that Roman operations in Greater Germania were limited to exploratory expeditions, and small temporary trading stations.
The existence of the oversized forum at the centre of the site suggests that it may have been intended to form the core settlement of a future civitas, an important part of a projected Romanisation of the area.
