View source for Germania Superior

{{Short description|Roman province (83–475)}}
{{more citations needed|article|date=January 2013}}
{{Redirect|Roman Germany|the other province named "Germania"|Germania Inferior}}
{{Infobox Former Subdivision
| native_name            = {{aut|Provincia Germania Superior}}
| conventional_long_name = 
| common_name            = Germania Superior
<!-- unsupported param: continent
|continent    = Europe 
-->| subdivision            = [[Roman province|Province]]
| nation                 = the [[Roman Empire]]
| era                    = [[ancient history|Antiquity]]
| capital                = [[Mogontiacum]]
| title_leader           = 
| image_map              = Roman Empire - Germania Superior (125 AD).svg
| image_map_caption      = The province of Germania Superior within the Roman Empire, {{circa|125}}
| life_span              = 
| year_start             = 85
| event_start            = Established after the [[Gallic Wars]]
| event1                 = [[Gallic Empire]]
| date_event1            = 260–274
| year_end               = 475
| event_end              = [[Frankish Empire]]
| today                  = [[France]]<br>[[Germany]]<br>{{nobr|[[Switzerland]]}}
<!-- Flag navigation: Preceding and succeeding entities "p1" to "p5" and "s1" to "s8" -->| p1                     = 
| flag_p1                = 
| s1                     = Frankish Empire
| flag_s1                = 
}}
[[File:Roman Empire 125.png|thumb|upright=1.5|The Roman empire in the time of [[Hadrian]] (ruled AD 117–138), showing, on the upper [[Rhine]] river, the [[imperial province]] of Germania Superior (Franche-Comté/Alsace-Lorraine/Baden-Württemberg), and the two [[Roman legion|legions]] deployed there in 125]]

'''Germania Superior'''  ("Upper [[Germania]]") was an [[imperial province]] of the [[Roman Empire]]. It comprised an area of today's western Switzerland, the French [[Jura mountains|Jura]] and [[Alsace]] regions, and southwestern Germany. Important cities were [[Besançon]] (''[[Vesontio]]''), [[Strasbourg]] (''[[Argentoratum]]''), [[Wiesbaden]] (''[[Aquae Mattiacae]]''), and Germania Superior's capital, [[Mainz]] (''[[Roman Mogontiacum|Mogontiacum]]''). It comprised the [[Middle Rhine]], bordering on the ''[[Limes Germanicus]]'', and on the Alpine province of [[Raetia]] to the south-east. Although it had been occupied militarily since the reign of [[Augustus]], Germania Superior (along with [[Germania Inferior]]) was not made into an official province until c. 85 AD.<ref>
{{cite book 
|last=Rüger
|first=C. 
|chapter=Germany
|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JZLW4-wba7UC&pg=PA528
|title=The Cambridge Ancient History: X, The Augustan Empire, 43 B.C. – A.D. 69
|volume=10
|pages=526–528 
|edition=2nd
|isbn=0-521-26430-8
|editor=Alan K. Bowman
|editor2=Edward Champlin
|editor3=Andrew Lintott| publisher = Cambridge University Press | orig-year=1996 | year = 2004
}}
</ref>

==Origin==

===Initial Roman involvement===
{{Main|Germani cisrhenani}}
{{further|Romanization (cultural)}}
The terms, "Upper Germania" and "Lower Germania" do not appear in the ''[[Commentarii de Bello Gallico]]'' of [[Julius Caesar]],{{Citation needed|date=February 2007}} yet he writes about reports that the people who lived in those regions were referred to as "Germani" locally, a term used for a tribe that the Romans called the [[Germani cisrhenani]], and that the name Germania seems to have been adopted to designate other indigenous tribes in the area.<ref name="Schulze-19998">{{cite book |last=Schulze |first=Hagen |author-link=Hagen Schulze |title=Germany: A New History |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |page=[https://archive.org/details/germany00hage/page/4 4] |year=1998 |isbn=0-674-80688-3 |oclc=39042956 |url=https://archive.org/details/germany00hage/page/4 }}</ref><ref name="Oxford-2003">{{cite book |title=The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology |editor1-last=Hoad |editor1-first=T. F. |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Oxford, England |url=https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic00tfho/page/641 |year=2003 |edition=online |orig-year=1st pub. 1996 |website=Oxford Reference Online |isbn=9780192830982 |doi=10.1093/acref/9780192830982.001.0001 |page=[https://archive.org/details/conciseoxforddic00tfho/page/641 641] |access-date=2016-10-01 }}</ref> Lower Germania was occupied by the [[Belgae]]. Upper Germania was occupied by Gaulish tribes including the [[Helvetii]], [[Sequani]], [[Leuci]], and [[Treveri]], and, on the north bank of the middle Rhine, the remnant of the Germanic troops that had attempted to take [[Vesontio]] under [[Ariovistus]], but who were defeated by Caesar in 58 BC.

The Romans did not abandon this region at any time after then. During a 5-year period in the initial years of his reign (28–23 BC), as [[Cassius Dio]] tells us ([https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Cassius_Dio/53*.html 53.12]), [[Augustus]] assumed direct governorship of the major senatorial provinces on grounds that they were in danger of insurrection and he alone commanded the troops required to restore security. They were to be restored to the Senate in ten years under proconsuls elected by the Senate.

Among these independent provinces was Upper Germania. Apparently it had become a province in the last years of the [[Roman Republic]]. [[Tacitus]] also mentions it as the province of Germania Superior in his ''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annales]]'' (3.41, 4.73, 13.53). Cassius Dio viewed the Germanic tribes as Celts, an impression given perhaps by Belgica, the name assigned to lower Germania at the time. Dio does not mention the border, but he views upper Germany as extending to the source of the Rhine. It is not clear if he was aware of the Upper Rhine in Switzerland, upstream from Lake Constance. Today the section of the Rhine running through upper Germania is called the middle Rhine.

===Limit of the empire===
[[File:Karte limes.jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Northern part of the province with the ''Limes Germanicus'']]
[[Augustus]] had planned to incorporate all of central Germania in one province, Germania Magna. This plan was frustrated by the Germanic tribesmen at the [[Battle of the Teutoburg Forest]]. Augustus decided to limit the empire at the Rhine-Danube border. Thereafter continual conflict prevailed along it, forcing the Romans to conduct punitive expeditions and fortify Germania Superior.

By 12 BC, major bases existed at [[Xanten]] (Castra Vetera) and [[Mainz]] (Mogontiacum), from which [[Nero Claudius Drusus|Drusus]] operated. A system of forts gradually developed around these bases. In 69–70, all the Roman fortications along the [[Rhine]] and [[Danube]] were destroyed by Germanic insurrections and [[Year of the Four Emperors|civil war]] between the legions. At the conclusion of this violent but brief social storm they were rebuilt more extensively than before, with a road connecting Mainz and [[Augsburg]] (Augusta Vindelicorum).

[[Domitian]] went to war against the [[Chatti]] in 83–85, who were north of [[Frankfurt]] (in [[Hesse]] named after them). At this time the first line, or continuous fortified border, was constructed. It consisted of a cleared zone of observation, a [[palisade]] where practicable, wooden watchtowers and forts at the road crossings. At the end of the war against the Chatti Germania Superior was reestablished as an [[Imperial Roman province]] in 85, taking large amounts of territory from [[Gallia Lugdunensis]]. The [[Helvetii]] settlement area also became part of the province of ''Germania Superior''.

The system reached maximum extent by 90. A Roman road went through the [[Odenwald]] and a network of secondary roads connected all the forts and towers. The future Emperor [[Trajan]] ruled the province from 96 until his accession in 98. 

===Defensive strategy===
[[File:Carte des peuples francs (IIIe siècle).svg|thumb|upright=1.5|Germania Superior and Germania Inferior in the 3rd century]]
The plan governing the development of the limes was relatively simple. From a strategic point of view, the [[Agri Decumates]], or region between the Rhine and Danube, offers a bulge in the line between the Celts and the Germans, which the Germans had tried to exploit under Ariovistus. The bulge divided the densely populated Celtic settlements along the entire river system in two. Invading forces could move up under cover of the Black Forest. Roman defensive works therefore cut across the base of the bulge, denying the protected corridor and shortening the line.

The key point was the shoulder of the bulge at Mogontiacum (Mainz) where the ''masse de manoevre'' or strategic reserves were located. The forts through the forest were relatively lightly defended and on that account were always being burned by the Alamanni. They gave advance notice, however. On being notified, the legions would strike out in preventative and punitive expeditions from Mainz or Strasburg, or Augsburg on the other side.

The entire system could only succeed if heavy troop concentrations were kept at Mainz. Fixed defenses alone are not much of a defense, in either ancient or modern times. Other forces are required for attack. At best the fixed defenses serve to warn or delay until a counterattack can be launched. For more complete details on the development of the limes, or frontier, see ''[[Limes Germanicus]]''.

In the subsequent peaceful years, the limes lost its temporary character. Vici, or communities, developed around the forts. By 150, the towers and the bases had been rebuilt in stone. The soldiers now lived in good stone barracks within walls decorated by frescoes. Germanic civilization had changed as well. Where Caesar had described burning the wretched brush hovels of the [[Suebi]] who had come to fight for Ariovistus, the [[Chatti]] and the [[Alamanni]] now lived in comfortable Romanized villages around the limes.

==End of the province==
Post 400, as Rome slowly was losing control over its northernmost provinces over a period of 50 years, the southern (Swiss) parts of Germania Superior were incorporated into the [[Provincia Maxima Sequanorum]] before they became part of [[Burgundians#Kingdom|Burgundy]] in the early 5th century. The northern parts became part of [[Alemannia]].

== Governors of Germania Superior ==
* [[Gaius Silius (consul)|Gaius Silius]] AD 14–16
* [[Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus (consul 26)|Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus Gaetulicus]] 29–39
*[[Galba|Servius Sulpicius Galba]], 39–41, later emperor in 69.<ref>M. Gwyn Morgan, ''69 AD: The Year of Four Emperors'', Oxford University Press, 2006, p. 27.</ref>
* [[Publius Pomponius Secundus]] 50–54{{citation needed|date=August 2018}}
* [[Hordeonius Flaccus]] c. 69<ref name="Eck-1982">Unless otherwise noted, governors from 69 to 112 are taken from  {{cite journal |last=Eck |first=Werner |title=Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139 |journal=[[Chiron (journal)|Chiron]] |issn=0069-3715 |isbn=3406078524 |oclc=932001499 |volume=12 |date=1982 |pages=281–362 }}</ref>
* [[Gaius Dillius Vocula]] 69–70
* [[Appius Annius Gallus]] 70–72
* [[Gnaeus Pinarius Cornelius Clemens]] 72–75
* [[Quintus Corellius Rufus]] 79–83
* [[Lucius Antonius Saturninus]] 87–89
* [[Gaius Octavius Tidius Tossianus Lucius Javolenus Priscus]] 89–92
*Sextus Lusianus Proculus 93–96<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Weiß|first=Peter|date=2004|title=Ein neuer Legat Domitians von Germania superior in einem Militärdiplom: Sex. Lusianus Proculus|journal=Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik|volume=Band 147|pages=229–234}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Eck|first=Werner|date=2004 |title=Diplome, Konsuln und Statthalter: Fortschritte und Probleme der kaiserzeitlichen Prosopographie |journal=Chiron |volume=34 |pages=25–44, here page 37}}</ref>
*[[Trajan|Marcus Ulpius Traianus]] 96–97; better known as [[Trajan]]
* [[Lucius Julius Ursus Servianus]] 97/98
* ''Ignotus'' 110–112
* Kan[us Junius Niger] 116–118<ref name="117–139">Unless otherwise noted, governors from 116 to 135 are taken from {{cite journal |last=Eck |first=Werner |title=Jahres- und Provinzialfasten der senatorischen Statthalter von 69/70 bis 138/139, II |journal=Chiron |publisher=[[Verlag C. H. Beck]] |location=Munich |issn=0069-3715 |isbn=((3406093337))<!--not found at WorldCat, but this is the number printed in the book--> |oclc=932001499 |volume=13 |date=1983 |pages=147–237 }}</ref>
* [[Gaius Quinctius Certus Poblicius Marcellus]] ''Between'' 121 and 128
* <abbr style="cursor:help" title="Brackets indicate illegible or missing text on an inscription.">[...]ius</abbr> Celer 128/129-130/131
* [[Tiberius Claudius Quartinus]] 134 – 13?
* [[Titus Caesernius Statianus]] c. 149 – c. 152<ref name="149-180">Unless otherwise noted, governors from 149 to 180 are taken from {{cite book |last=Alföldy |first=Géza  |author-link=Géza Alföldy |title=Konsulat und Senatorenstand unter den Antoninen |trans-title=Consuls and Senators under the Antonine Emperors |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vHyRAAAAIAAJ |access-date=12 April 2017 |series=Volume 27 of Antiquitas: Abhandlungen zur Alten Geschichte [Antiquitas: Essays on Ancient History] |year=1977 |publisher=Rudolf Habelt Verlag |location=Bonn |language=de |isbn=978-3-7749-1334-9 |oclc=299616620 |pages=228–229}}
</ref>
* [[Gaius Popilius Carus Pedo]] c. 152 – c. 155
* [[Lucius Dasumius Tullius Tuscus]] c. 155 – c. 158
* [[Gaius Aufidius Victorinus]] c. 162 – c. 166
* Lucius Victorinus Flavius Caelianus c. 166 – c. 169
* [[Caerellius Priscus]], name uncertain; possibly c. 174 – c. 177
* [[Publius Cornelius Anullinus]] c. 177 – c. 180
* [[Marcus Helvius Clemens Dextrianus]] ''From'' 187<ref name="187-231">Unless otherwise noted, governors from 187 to 231 are taken from {{cite book |last=Leunissen |first=Paul M.M. |title=Konsuln und konsulare in der zeit von Commodus bis Severus Alexander: 180–235 n. Chr. |series=Dutch Monographs on Ancient History and Archaeology |volume=VI |year=1989 |publisher=Verlag J.C. Gieben |location=Amsterdam |pages=245–247|isbn=((90-6053-028-6))  |oclc=803822187}}</ref>
* [[Gaius Caesonius Macer Rufinianus]] c. 200 – c. 203
* [[Titus Statilius Barbarus]] c. 203
* Quintus Aiacius Modestus Crescentianus c. 206 – 209
* [...] Avitius ''Attested'' 28 March 213<ref name="187-231"/>
* Quintus Junius [...] Quintianus ''Attested'' October 213
* Claudius Aelius Pollio c. 218
* Maximus Attianus ''Attested'' 28 March 229
* [[Sextus Catius Clementinus Priscillianus]] c. 231

==''Civitates''==
*[[Ladenburg]] (''Lopodunum'') = Civitas Ulpia [[Suebi|Sueborum Nicretum]];
*[[Bad Wimpfen|Wimpfen]] = Civitas Alisinensium;
*[[Stuttgart]] = [[Bad Cannstatt|Cannstatt]] Castrum
*[[Rottenburg am Neckar|Rottenburg]] (''Sumelocenna'') = Civitas Sumelocennensis;
*[[Rottweil]] (''Arae Flaviae'')
*[[Baden-Baden]] (''Aquae'') = Civitas Aquensis;
*[[Mainz]] (''Mogontiacum'') = Civitas [[Aresaces|Aresacium]];
*[[Worms, Germany|Worms]] (''Borbetomagus'') = Civitas [[Vangiones|Vangionum]];
*[[Speyer]] (''Noviomagus'') = Civitas [[Nemetes|Nemetum]];
*[[Wiesbaden]] (''Mattiacorum'') = Civitas [[Mattiaci|Mattiacorum]];
*[[Heddernheim]] (''[[Nida (Roman town)|Nida]]'') = Civitas Taunensium;
*[[Dieburg]] = Civitas Auderiensium

==See also==
*[[List of Germanic peoples]]
*[[Heremus Helvetiorum]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Valerie M. Hope: ''Constructing Identity: The Roman Funerary Monuments of Aquelia, Mainz and Nimes''; British Archaeological Reports (16. Juli 2001) {{ISBN|978-1-84171-180-5}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060614233623/http://www1.rgzm.de/navis/Themes/Flotte/FleetsAndBorder.htm The Fleets and Roman Border Policy]
* [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0006%3Aid%3Dlimes-germaniae-superioris LIMES GERMANIAE SUPERIORIS Germany.]

{{Alsace topics}}
{{Germanic peoples}}
{{Ancient Roman sites in Germany}}
{{Roman provinces AD 117}}
{{Roman Governors}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Germania Superior| ]]
[[Category:Germany in the Roman era]]
[[Category:Ancient Switzerland]]
[[Category:80s establishments in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:States and territories established in the 80s]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in the 5th century]]
[[Category:470s disestablishments in the Roman Empire]]
[[Category:475 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Former states and territories of Rhineland-Palatinate]]