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Agri Decumates a province of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 covering the Black Forest
Black Forest

The Black Forest is a forest mountain range in Baden-W?rttemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south....
 area between the the Main
Main

The Main is a river in Germany, 524 km long , and it is one of the more significant tributaries of the Rhine. The Main flows through the States of Germany of Bavaria, Baden-W?rttemberg and Hesse....
 river and the sources of Danube
Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
 and Rhine
Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
 rivers, presently in Southwestern Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 (modern Wurttemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern) .






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Imperium Romanum Germania
Karte Limes
Alemanni Expansion
Agri Decumates a province of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the Roman Republic phase of the Ancient Rome, characterised by an autocracy form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
 covering the Black Forest
Black Forest

The Black Forest is a forest mountain range in Baden-W?rttemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south....
 area between the the Main
Main

The Main is a river in Germany, 524 km long , and it is one of the more significant tributaries of the Rhine. The Main flows through the States of Germany of Bavaria, Baden-W?rttemberg and Hesse....
 river and the sources of Danube
Danube

The Danube is the longest river in the European Union and Europe's second longest river after the Volga.The river originates in the Black Forest in Germany as the much smaller Brigach and Breg River rivers which join at the eponymously named German town Donaueschingen, after which it is known as the Danube and flows eastwards for a distance...
 and Rhine
Rhine

File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
 rivers, presently in Southwestern Germany
Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands....
 (modern Wurttemberg, Baden and Hohenzollern) . It bordered the militarily important provinces of Raetia and Upper Germania. The only ancient reference to the name comes from Tacitus
Tacitus

Publius Cornelius Tacitus was a Roman Senate and a historian of the Roman Empire. The surviving portions of his two major works—the Annals and the Histories —examine the reigns of the Roman Emperors Tiberius, Claudius, Nero and those that reigned in the Year of the Four Emperors....
' book Germania
Germania

Germania was the Latin language exonym for a geographical area of land on the east bank of the River Rhine , which included regions of Sarmatia as well as an area under Ancient Rome control on the west bank of the Rhine....
..

The meaning of Decumates is lost and has been the subject of much contention. According to the English Classicist Michael Grant
Michael Grant (author)

Michael Grant Order of the British Empire was an English Classics and numismatist. According to his obituary in The Times he was "one of the few classical historians to win respect from [both] academics and a lay readership"....
, the word probably refers to an ancient Celtic termindicating the political division of the area into "ten cantons."

According to Tacitus, the region had originally been populated by the Celtic tribe of the Helvetii
Helvetii

The Helvetii were a Celts tribe and the main occupants of the Swiss plateau in the 1st century BC. They are prominently featured in Julius Caesar Commentarii de Bello Gallico....
 but soon Germanic
Germanic peoples

File:Germanische-ratsversammlung 1-1250x715.jpgThe Germanic peoples are a historical Ethnolinguistics group, originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Indo-European languages Germanic languages which diversified out of Common Germanic in the course of the Pre-Roman Iron Age....
 Suebi
Suebi

The Suebi or Suevi were a group of Germanic peoples who were first mentioned by Julius Caesar in connection with Ariovistus' campaign, c....
 settled there before migrating, around 9 BCE, to Boiohaemum (modern day Bohemia
Bohemia

History...
). After the Suebi left, the area was again inhabited by Gaul
Gaul

Gaul is the name used for the region of Western Europe comprising part of present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the River Rhine....
s. Later on, the region was to become part of the Roman Empire.

Under the Flavian
Flavian dynasty

The Flavian dynasty was a Ancient Rome imperial dynasty, which ruled the Roman Empire between 69 and 96 AD, encompassing the reigns of Vespasian , and his two sons Titus and Domitian ....
 emperors, 69-96 CE, the area was settled and colonized. A network of roads eased legionary communications and improved protection from invading tribes using the re-entrant to penetrate into the Gaulish provinces. Frontier fortifications (limes
Limes

A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the Borders of the Roman Empire.The Latin language noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting Field , a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any distinction or difference....
) were constructed along a line running Rheinbrohl--Arnsburg--Inheiden--Schierenhof--Gunzenhausen--Pförring.

The major places of Roman settlement were Sumolecenna, Civitas Aurelia Aquensis, Lopodunum and Arae Flaviae, modern day Rottenburg am Neckar
Rottenburg am Neckar

Rottenburg is a town in Germany on the Neckar River , near T?bingen. Since June 10, 1964, the official name has been Rottenburg am Neckar....
, Baden-Baden
Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden is a town in Baden-W?rttemberg, Germany. It is located on the western foothills of the Black Forest, on the banks of the Oos River, in the region of Karlsruhe ....
, Ladenburg and Rottweil
Rottweil

Rottweil is a town in the south west of Germany and is the oldest town in the federal state of Baden-W?rttemberg.Located between the Black Forest and the Swabian Alb hills, Rottweil has about 25,000 inhabitants....
 respectively.

The region flourished during the next two centuries in spite of periods of unrest: around 185/186, a revolt against Roman authority took place, mainly directed against the presence of the Roman military in Argentorate (modern-day Strasbourg
Strasbourg

Strasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace Regions of France in northeastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the Aire urbaine....
).

The Romans controlled the province until the latter half of the 3rd century, when it was evacuated by the emperor Gallienus
Gallienus

Publius Licinius Egnatius Gallienus ruled the Roman Empire as co-emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and then as the sole Roman Emperor from 260 to 268....
 (259-260) in the face of invading Alamanni and the secession of much of the Western Roman Empire
Western Roman Empire

The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285; the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire, today widely known as the Byzantine Empire....
 under the "usurper and ruler" Postumus
Postumus

Marcus Cassianius Latinius Postumus was a Roman emperor of Batavi origin. He usurped power from Gallienus in 260 and formed the so called Gallic Empire....
.

The area may have been briefly reoccupied by the Emperor Aurelian
Aurelian

Lucius Domitius Aurelianus , known in English as Aurelian, Roman Emperor , was the second of several highly successful "soldier-emperors" who helped the Roman Empire regain its power during the latter part of the third century and the beginning of the fourth....
 (270-275 CE), during the Roman resurgence of the late 3rd century CE under the so-called "military" emperors. Even if this did occur, the re-establishment of Roman rule was brief. After the death of Emperor Probus
Probus

Marcus Aurelius Probus was a Roman Emperor .A native of Sirmium , in Pannonia, at an early age he entered the army, where he distinguished himself under the Emperors Valerian , Aurelian and Marcus Claudius Tacitus....
 (282), the area was finally given up and left to the Alamanni. The territory has since remained inhabited by people of Germanic descent continuously to the present day. However, Roman settlements were not immediately abandoned. There is evidence of continuity of the Roman way life well into the 5th century, much as Roman patterns continued in neighboring Gaul long after the Western Empire's collapse.

J. G. F. Hind has suggested that the inhabitants of the agri decumates are to be found from the later third to the fifth centuries in the decem pagi— also "ten cantons"— transferred west of the Rhine, to the region between that river and the Saar
Saar River

The Saar is a river in northeastern France and western Germany, and a right tributary of the Moselle River. It rises in the Vosges mountains on the border of Alsace and Lorraine , with two headstreams , that both start near Mont Donon, the highest peak of the northern Vosges....
, between Mainz
Mainz

Mainz is a city in Germany and the capital of the Germany States of Germany of Rhineland-Palatinate. It was a politically important seat of the Prince-elector of Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman Empire fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine River and formed part of the northernmost frontier of th...
 and Metz
Metz

Metz is a city in the northeast of France, capital of the Lorraine R?gion in France and prefecture of the Moselle Departments of France.It is located at the confluence of the Moselle River and the Seille rivers....
.

Bibliography


  • Bunson, Matthew, A Dictionary of the Roman Empire, Oxford University Press, 1991, ISBN-10 0-19-510233-9
  • "Agri Decumates." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 Oct. 2006 http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9004069
  • Geuenich, Dieter, Geschichte der Alemannen, Stuttgart, 1997, ISBN 3-17-012095-6
  • Grant, Michael, A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names, Barnes & Noble, 1997, ISBN-10: 0-7607-4134-4
  • Strayer, Joseph R. (ed.), Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol. 1, New York, 1982, ISBN 0-684-18276-9
  • Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde, vol. 5, Berlin, 1984, ISBN 3-11-009635-8
  • Syme, Ronald, Tacitus, vol. 1, Oxford, 1958, repr. 1985, ISBN 0-19-814327-3