Augusta Trevorum > Trier Rheinland-Pfalz Germany

Augustus journeys north to personally direct operations when invading German tribes defeat the legions on the eastern frontier of Gaul.

The emperor’s nephews, Tiberius and Nero Claudius Drusus, also depart on expeditions to the north.

The Romans under Julius Caesar from 58 to 50 BCE had first subdued the Treveri, an eastern Gallic people.

The Romans establish the city of Augusta Treverorum ("City of Augustus in the land of the Treveri"), which has a claim to being the oldest city in Germany, no later than 16 BCE, at the foot of the hill later christened the Petrisberg, upon which a military camp had been set up in 30 BCE and abandoned again a few months later,

The honor of being named after the Emperor is one shared only by Augsburg and Augst in northern Switzerland.

Following the reorganization of the Roman provinces in Germany in 16 BCE, Augustus decides that the city should become the capital of the province of Belgica.

Situated on the Moselle (Mosel) River just east of present Luxembourg and seventy miles (one hundred and ten kilometers) southwest of the modern city of Bonn, the city is today known as Trier (French: Treves).

…Germanicus orders his army back to their winter camps, with the fleet occasioning some damage by a storm in the North Sea.

Although only a small number of soldiers had died, it is still a bad ending for a brilliantly fought campaign.

The Cherusci, still led by Arminius, tenaciously hold their ground.

Although Germanicus has avenged the Teuteborg Forest defeat, the Romans neither consolidate their rule in most of Germany nor establish the Elbe as their outermost European frontier.

Germanicus in 16 falls back to a three hundred-mile (four hundred and eighty-kilometer) fortified border, called the limes, which extends from the Rhine to the Danube, and, though clear victory has eluded him, claims Germany for Rome.

Despite the successes enjoyed by his troops, Germanicus' two-year German campaign had been in reaction to the mutinous intentions of his troops, and lacked real strategic value.

In addition, he had engaged the very German leader (Arminius) who had destroyed three Roman legions in 9, and exposed his troops to the remains of those dead Romans.

Furthermore, in leading his troops across the Rhine, without recourse to Tiberius, he had contradicted the advice of Augustus to keep that river as the boundary of the empire, and has thus opened himself to doubts about his motives in such independent action.

These errors in strategic and political judgment have given Tiberius reason enough to recall his nephew.

Germanicus, after a few more raids across the Rhine that result in the recovery of two of the three legion's eagles lost in 9, is recalled to Rome and informed by Tiberius that he will be given a triumph and reassigned to a different command.

Julius Classicus and Julius Tutor, leaders of the Treveri who, like Civilis, are Roman citizens, early in 70 join the revolt.

The Roman garrisons near the Rhine are driven out, and twenty-four ships captured.

The Romans under Julius Caesar in 58 to 50 BCE had first subdued the Treveri.

The Romans no later than 16 BCE had founded the city of Augusta Treverorum ("City of Augustus in the land of the Treveri") at the foot of the Petrisberg, upon which a military camp had been set up in 30 BCE and a few months later abandoned again.

The honor of being named after the Emperor is one shared only by Augsburg and Augst in northern Switzerland.

Emperor Augustus after the reorganization of the Roman provinces in Germany in 16 BCE had decided that the city should become the capital of the province of Belgica.

Here the Romans shortly before CE 100 construct an amphitheater, the signal sign of a city of any importance.

Augusta Treverorum, as the chief city of the province of Gallia Belgica, rises in importance from 271 to 274 during the Empire's major third-century crisis.

Trier is the second city of the breakaway Gallic Empire, at first under Postumus, who was proclaimed in Cologne, then under his ephemeral successor, Victorinus, who made his base at Trier, where he had rebuilt a large house with a mosaic proclaiming his position as tribune in Postumus' Gallic Praetorian Guard; the city serves again as capital under the emperors Tetricus I and II.

Postumus, independent emperor in Gaul from about 258, has successfully defended the Rhine frontier and withstood Gallienus' attempts to recover Gaul.

Having declined to support the usurper Aureolus in any way, he must now deal with a rebel on his own side, Laelianus, one of his most senior military leaders, who is hailed emperor at Moguntiacum (present Mainz, Germany) by the local garrison as well as by other troops of the area.

Close by at Augusta Treverorum, Postumus acts immediately.

The Aedui, a Gallic tribe inhabiting the country between the Arar (Saône) and Liger (Loire) in today's France, had revolted against the reduced Gallic empire and were defeated in autumn 270, their final stronghold being finally overcome after seven months of siege.

Victorinus, a persistent womanizer, is rumored to have seduced, possibly even raped, wives of his officials and entourage.

Attitianus, one of his officials, learns that Victorinus has propositioned his wife, and the emperor is murdered in early 271.

The murderers seem to have had no political agenda and it is not surprising that there is a period of confusion after his death.

Domitianus, who probably commands troops close enough to one of the mint-cities of Trier or Cologne and who strikes coins to advertise his elevation, presumably serves for a few days as emperor before being replaced by the Gallic noble Gaius Pius Esuvius Tetricus, governor of Aquitania, which extends from the Pyrenees to the Loire.

Tetricus—backed, apparently, by the money and influence of Victorinus' mother, Victoria, who is also a relative—is in spring 271 proclaimed emperor of Gaul, Britain and northern Spain.

Before he can reach the imperial capital Augusta Trevorum (Trier), however, Tetricus must fend off a German invasion, the invaders perhaps the remnants of the Alamanni defeated by Aurelian.

Tetricus has installed his capital at Augusta Treverorum, near the vital Rhine border.

He is again on the Rhine fighting off Germanic invaders in 272, winning victories that secure his reputation as an able military commander.