ABODIACUM
(Epfach) Upper Bavaria, Germany.
At the intersection of the Via Claudia (Verona-Augsburg) and the road from Bregenz to Salzburg, and
by a ford of the river Lech, a civilian settlement was
founded under Tiberius or Claudius, belonging to a military camp (see below). In the early Flavian period this
settlement became a rather important way-station (municipium?), which was destroyed by the Alamanni in 233.
The military post grew up on the nearby mountain (Lorenzberg) soon after 15 B.C., to control the road. The
remains are of palisaded or plank structures.
In late antiquity the mountain was again occupied;
under Diocletian an enceinte was erected with wooden
buildings inside. In 353-57 it suffered a catastrophic fire
and destruction by the Alamanni; the magazine (mansio?) was rebuilt ca. 360. About 370 a rectangular
chamber (15.5 x 9.5 m) with tripartite E termination,
possibly an Early Christian church, was erected on the
highest point of the Lorenzberg. From 383 the site was
a garrison, the latest traces of settlement stemming from
Danubian foederati in the period after 400. Continuity
of the Christian cult does not exist, the Lorenzkirche
having been erected after 955.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
J. Werner, ed., “Der Lorenzberg bei
Epfach. Die spätrömischen und frühmittelalterlichen
Anlagen,”
Münchner Beiträge zur vor- und frühgeschichte 8 (1969)
MPI.
J. GARBSCH