BASILIA
(Basel) Baselstadt, Switzerland.
Roman vicus and fort on the left bank of the Rhine
(
Amm.Marc. 30.3.1;
Not.Gall. 9.4). The site is mainly
on a spur of the alluvial terrace, the Münsterhügel between the Rhine and the Birsig. Remains of the Late
Bronze age have been discovered here, and name and
location indicate a pre-Roman oppidum in this part of
the territory of the Raurici (another settlement of the
Raurici was excavated in the early 20th c. on the right
bank of the Rhine at Alte Gasfabrik; it flourished between 58 and ca. 10 B.C., probably as a river port and
market).
in connection with the campaigns of Tiberius and
Drusus in 15 B.C. a small fort was built on the Münsterhügel; it was again occupied by a Roman garrison from
ca. 17 to 50. A vicus connected with the highway from
Argentorate to Augusta Raurica developed in the 1st c.
A.D., and during the 2d and 3d c. a guard (a statio of
beneficiarii) must have been stationed at the bridges over
the Birsig and the Rhine. After the fall of the Upper
German Limes in 254-60 the Münsterhügel was fortified
to an unknown extent. in the 4th c. Basilia became an
important link in the defense system on the Rhine frontier as conceived by Valentinian I. The garrison left,
probably in A.D. 401, but the fort must have remained
the administrative center of the civitas Basiliensium.
From about the 8th c. on Basilia was the seat of a bishop,
who had resided earlier in Castrum Rauracense. His
residence was in the Late Roman fortress, from which
the mediaeval town developed.
The continuous settlement of the site has made excavation difficult, but traces of the wooden barracks of the
earliest Roman fort have been found, beneath those of
the 1st c. A.D. garrison, as well as a few remains of canabae. The vicus developed on both banks of the Birsig,
which joins the Rhine at the W foot of the Münsterhügel;
the lowest part is now the Marktplatz and the Schifflande. There must have been a bridge over the Rhine
in the area of the Schiffiände (a pile has been discovered
on the opposite bank), and a post to guard the traffic
over the bridge. But public buildings are known only
through single architectural elements reused in the Late
Roman walls.
The Late Roman fortress, the size of which is still
controversial, included at least the Münsterplatz and its
immediate vicinity. its plan was probably trapezoidal,
but the exact course of the walls is only partly known
(shortest side ca. 120 m, longest ca. 240 m; area at least
3.5 ha). The Rittergasse and Augustinergasse follow the
course of the Roman road. A ditch 20 m wide along the
S wall of the fortress may have reused an earlier one,
perhaps prehistoric. Recent excavations have increased
the probability of a much larger enclosure, including
the whole spur to the N. Within the fortress a two-storied
granary with two rows of pillars has been partly excavated. The cemetery connected with the Late Roman
fort is in the area called Aeschenvorstadt. The Historisches Museum is in the Barfüsserkirche.
See also Limes, Rhine.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Staehelin,
Die Schweiz in römischer
Zeit (3d ed. 1948) 284-88, 367, 611; R. Fellmann,
Basel
in römischer Zeit (1955)
PI; id., “Neue Funde und
Forschungen zur Topographie und Geschichte des römischen Basel,”
Basler Z. f. Geschichte und Altertumskunde 60 (1960) 7-46
PI; L. Berger,
Die Ausgrabungen
am Petersberg in Basel (1963)
PI; id., “Die Anfänge
Basels,” in E. Meier, ed.,
Basel, eine illustrierte Stadtgeschichte (2d ed. 1969) 1-19
I; id., “Das spätkeltische
oppidum von Basel-Münsterhügel,”
Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 2 (1972) 159-63
P; C. M. Wells,
The
German Policy of Augustus (1972) 46-49; excavation
summaries:
Jb. Schweiz. Gesell. f. Urgeschichte 47
(1958-59) 184-85; 49 (1962) 68-76
PI; 50 (1963) 78-79
PI; 54 (1968-69) 93; 56 (1971) 206-7.
V. VON GONZENBACH
