CASTRA REGINA
(Regensburg) Bavaria, Germany.
A legionary camp on the Danube. A pre-Roman
Celtic settlement is not known although an oppidum has
been suspected because of the name Radasbona, which
occurs in early mediaeval sources. Under the emperor
Vespasian an auxiliary castellum was located on a rise
above the Danube valley, a typical location for military
camps in the 1st c. A.D. Only the outline of the castellum
is known (ca. 160 x 137 m). Originally constructed as
an earth and timber camp, it was later rebuilt in stone
and provided protection for an important Danube crossing. After Trajan the Cohors II Aquitanorum equitata
was stationed there. An auxiliary vicus was located to the
E on the main road between Augsburg and Regensburg.
There were large baths with caldarium, tepidarium, and
frigidarium. To the E of the castellum part of a residential building has been found.
Following the wars against the Marcomanni, the castellum was replaced under Marcus Aurelius by a legionary camp farther N near the Danube. There is a building
inscription from A.D. 179. The Legio III Italica was stationed there. The legionary legate of Regensburg was
then governor of the province of Raetia; his official residence, however, remained in Augusta Vindelicum (Augsburg). During the invasions by Germanic tribes (3d c.
A.D.), the camp was repeatedly destroyed in part. After
Diocletian's army reforms in the 4th c., the legion was
divided into six parts of which only one remained in
Regensburg. The camp became a fortress in Late Classical times. In 357 it was probably attacked by the
Juthungi. At the beginning of the 5th c. the regular
Roman troops withdrew.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. Vollmer,
Inscriptiones Baiurariae
Romanae (1915) nos. 358ff; P. Reinecke,
Bayer. Vorgeschichtsfr. 4 (1924) 40; id., “Das Auxiliarkastell
Ratisbona-Kumpfmühl,”
Germania 9 (1925) 85ff; G.
Steinmetz, “Regensburg id. vorgeschichtlichen u. röomischen Zeit,”
Verhandlg. Hist. Ver. Oberpfalz u. Regensbg. 76 (1926) 3ff; F. Wagner,
Die Römer in Bayern
4 (1928) 61ff; id., “Neue Inschriften aus Raetien,”
Ber.
RGK 37-38 (1956-57) nos. 101ff; A. Stroh, “Untersuchungen an der Süidostecke des Lagers der legio III
Italica in Regensburg,”
Germania 36 (1958) 78ff; F.
Ulbert, “Das römische Regensburg,”
Germania Romana
I: Römerstadte in Deutschland 1 (1960) 64ff; id., “Das
römische Regensburg als Forschungsproblem,”
Verhandlg. Hist. Ver. Oberpfalz u. Regensbg. 105 (1965)
7ff; K. Schwarz, “Ausgrabungen im Niedermünster z.
Regensburg,”
Jahresber. Bayer. Bodendenkmalpflege 8
(1970).
G. ULBERT
