AUGUSTA RAURICORUM
(Augst) Baselland,
Switzerland.
Roman colony on the S bank of
the Rhine, 12 km above Basel (Plin.,
HN 4.106;
It. Ant.
251.7; Ptol. 2.9.9;
Tab. Peut.).
The colony was obviously planned by Caesar and by
L. Munatius Plancus in 44 B.C. (
CIL x, 6087). Its
primary function was to prevent further incursions into
Caesar's new province from the East. The territory of
the colony was taken from that of the Raurici and comprised the land between the Rhine and the Jura mountains. As no remains of the period 44-15 B.C. have been
discovered, it is possible that the town was actually
founded at this place only under Augustus.
The site assumed new importance during the campaigns E of the Rhine and the conquest of the central
Alps under Tiberius and Drusus in 15 B.C.: it was the
terminus of the roads to the Rhine from Gaul and Italy
via Genava and Aventicum. In 15 B.C. the site was occupied by a military post, and during the 1st c. A.D. by
a detachment from the legion garrisoned in Vindonissa.
In A.D. 73-74, in connection with the conquest of the
Agri Decumates by C. Pinarius Clemens, troops of
Legio I adiutrix and Legio VII gemina felix were temporarily garrisoned here. The town flourished until the
incursions of the Alamanni in A.D. 260, but was only
sparsely settled thereafter. In the 4th c. the lower town
was abandoned, the highest part, Kastelen, was fortified,
and the road outside the E gate protected by a small
earth and timber fort. The population removed to the
neighbourhood of a new fort on the Rhine, built in the
early 4th c. 400 m N of Kastelen, called Castrum Rauracense.
The exploration of Augusta Rauricorum, instigated
by the Humanists of Basel in the 16th c., has recently
been intensive: first the public center, then the residential
and commercial sections, and finally the E edge of the
town (temple enclosures, mansio, amphitheater 2, gates).
The site is on an elevated spit not far from the Rhine;
it is protected on three sides by steep slopes to the plain,
and by tributary streams to E and W. The road from
Italy and Gaul met here the military highway to Raetia
and the Danube, which ran along the N foot of Kastelen.
Here two roads connected the town with its harbor and
two bridges were built. The 1st c. bridge, at a rocky ford
200 m wide, was fortified in the 4th c., and remains of
its stone piles were visible until the 16th c. The second
bridge, a short distance downstream, took advantage of
the island called Gwerd. Probably built somewhat later,
it was perhaps a temporary timber construction, protected
by a small fort on the island.
The town covered a roughly rectangular area (ca. 700
x 400 m) with 52 insulae. The decumanus maximus
extended for 800 m on the long axis of the spit, which
was 4-7 insulae wide. The insulae averaged 66 by 55 m,
but some were up to 85 m long. To the W the town was
bordered by a series of temple enclosures and a second
amphitheater, while to the E the insulae extend to the
edge of the spit. On the S side a road connected the
town with the highway network already mentioned. Two
stretches of wall (300 and 120 m) have been explored
on the S side, where the connecting road passed through
it. The walls, built in the late 2d c., were never completed; the gateways, flanked by semicircular towers (6 m
wide), are missing. Outside the E gate stood a cylinder-shaped grave monument of the 2d c. (diam. 15 m), which
contained a modest incineration burial and votive objects and might be interpreted as a heroon.
Throughout the town the first period is represented by
earth and timber structures, later transformed into the
stone buildings and architectural complexes described
below. The civic center was S of Kastelen hill, and covered the entire width of the spit. It comprised the forum,
a temple of Jupiter, a basilica, a curia, a theater and a
temple related to it, and a secondary forum with annex
and baths. The buildings of the main forum were aligned
perpendicular to the decumanus maximus: from W to E
the temple of Jupiter, an open square (58 x 33m), paved
with red sandstone slabs and surrounded by a portico
(6 m wide) and a double row of 10-12 rooms on the
long sides. The square was closed off to the E by the
basilica and curia.
The Basilica: in period 1 (49 x 22 m) it had three
aisles and apsidal ends with two rows of 10 columns
between the aisles; in period 2 it was enlarged to a rectangle with an opening onto the forum 10 columns wide.
The outer wall on the edge of the spit was supported
by a sustaining wall. Attached to this was the curia,
three-quarters of a circle in plan (diam. 16 m). In period 1 this building contained a room with two windows
and a door opening between eight abutment piers; it
carried the wooden floor and benches of the curia. In
period 2 this room was filled in with a concrete floor
and steps for seats (5 rows, 2 m wide). The curia was
connected with the basilica by two doors, on each side
of the podium opposite the seats. (Period 1 of both
buildings is ca. A.D. 150.) The Temple of Jupiter, standing on a podium (26 x 15 m), was prostyle and peripteral (8 x 6 columns); a wide stairway led up to the
podium. The building inscription dates period 2 here to
A.D. 145). The temple is surrounded on three sides by
porticos and rows of rooms like those in the E part of
the forum, added in the 3d c. A.D.
The theater immediately W of the forum lay on a
slightly different axis; it was aligned with the temple on
Schönülihl hill, with which it formed an architectural and
functional unit observed elsewhere in Gaul. The theater
had three structural phases: theater, amphitheater, larger
theater. Phases I and II had been thought to exclude each
other, since the presence of the army in A.D. 74-75 would
have made transformation into an amphitheater desirable. Recently, however, the possibility of interpreting
phase II as a combination of both (“théâtre à arène”）
has been discussed. Theater (capacity 7000) took advantage of the sloping terrain for its cavea, with supplementary wooden structures on each side. For the period
of the amphitheater no seats have been found on the E
side; the arena was 49 by 36 m. Theater III (capacity
8000) had an unusual gap in the stage building, 15 m
wide, which could be closed when necessary by wooden
screens. This is explained by the visual inclusion of the
facade of the temple on Schönbühl and the stairway (18
m wide) leading up to it. This latest phase of the theater
is dated to A.D. 150.
The plateau of Schönbühl hill had been a sacred area
since the foundation of the town; it had two phases,
representing entirely different architectural concepts. In
Phase (to A.D. 150) it was a sanctuary in the Celtic
tradition, with at least five rectangular chapels (2-11 m
on a side) of Gallo-Roman plan within a triangular
enclosure. The chapels were wooden structures with halftimbered walls until A.D. 50, and were then rebuilt in
stone. Phase II (ca. A.D. 150) is contemporary with the
larger theater: a temple of Roman axial and symmetrical
plan (prostyle and peripteral, 9 x 6 columns), on a high
podium (ca. 30 x 16 m) approached by a wide flight
of steps. The altar stood on a platform. The temple
court (96 x 48 m) had porticos on both interior and
exterior, and was connected with the theater by a stairway.
Immediately S of Schönülihl a secondary forum occupied one insula. The building (84 x 61 m; peristyle 49 x
31 m) had rooms on three sides and staircases at the
corners leading to a second story. The fourth (W) side,
with larger, but symmetrically arranged rooms, probably
opened on a covered terrace with a belvedere at the edge
of the plateau, flanked by stairs descending to the Ergolz
valley. In the NE corner a smaller court (45 x 11.5 m),
with 11 shops on each long side, connected the main
building with the theater area.
Two public baths have been identified. One, near the
main forum, was built ca. A.D. 50 and remodeled in the
2d c.; the other built ca. A.D. 70 and rebuilt in the 2d c.,
was in the center of the residential section. The earlier
Frauenbad occupied one insula (ca. 60 x 50 m), and
was of the symmetrical Reihenbad type; the plan resembled that of the Stabian bath at Pompeii, with a large
adjacent peristyle court and an open natatio (14.8 x
8.2), suppressed in period 2. The so-called Central bath
spread over more than one insula. It was axial and symmetrical (96 x 48 m), without round or apsidal rooms.
The caldarium and frigidarium had black and white geometric mosaics.
About 52 insulae have been identified, and ca. 20 with
residenital remains have been excavated, three of them
completely. The streets were bordered by porticos 3 m
wide, and the columns had Tuscan capitals. The streets
themselves were 6 m wide (15 m including gutters and
porticos). The water mains were embedded in the street
paving, and there were several roadside fountains. The
original division of an insula (200 x 160 Roman ft.)
may have been into two rows of six lots, 80 x 30 feet
each, including the portico. Workshops and industrial installations, sometimes as large as 21 by 9 m and usually
combined with a residence, have been excavated. Besides
the usual trades, scalding tubs and smoke chambers for
the processing of meat and sausage have been identified;
they were a specialty of Gaul according to Varro (
Rust.
2.4.10). In the 1st c. A.D. there was an artisans' quarter
immediately S of the regular street grid. Later this area
was occupied by commercial buildings, warehouses, and
a hotel or mansio (ca. 60 x 50 m), with an inner court
(30 x 30 m) and storage rooms.
Bordering the town on the SW were three temple precincts and a second amphitheater. The amphitheater, only
partly excavated, was built ca. A.D. 150 against the slope
above the Ergolz river; it apparently replaced the arena
destroyed by the enlargement of the theater in the city.
Earth banks between stone retaining walls carried wooden
seats (100 x 87 m; arena 48 x 33 m). The sanctuary
farthest N, on the Grienmatt, was dedicated to the
healing gods according to inscriptions found there. In its
latest stage (A.D. 150) it was a peristyled court (132 x
125 m) with several small chapels (not excavated), a
main building in the center, and a small bath (27 x 27 m)
outside the main gate. The central building, in a separate
low enclosure, was rectangular (ca. 18 x 12 m), with a
two-storied double facade and a wing on each side. It
has been interpreted as a temple, a nymphaeum, or, recently, as a septizonium. The second sanctuary, on Sichelen hill, was a Gallo-Roman temple with portico (6 m on a side), a smaller chapel, and a priests' house in an
enclosure 45 x 45 m. The third sanctuary, called
Sichelen 2, lies near the W town wall, on the tangent
road mentioned above: a temple, annex buildings, and
shops in a large irregular enclosure (100 x 100 m). The
main temple is of a peculiar type, combining Roman
and Gaulish plans. The rectangular and very high cella
(10 x 9.3 m) stands on a podium reached by staircases
on each of the narrow sides. The cella is surrounded by
a two-storied portico (20.5 x 22 m), the lower story of
which is a cryptoporticus.
The cemeteries of Augusta Rauricorum have not been
completely explored. One on the highway towards Basilia
was used from the 1st c. to A.D. 300, and others lie outside the W and E gates. In the latter is the round monument of the 2d c. already mentioned.
Remains of buildings which are still visible include the
curia and the sustaining wall of the basilica; theater complex; temple on Schönbühl hill (stairway and sustaining
wall); Septizonium on Grienmatt; amphitheater 2; potteries near the E gate; some workshops and basements
in the town area. The silver treasure from Castruin
Rauracense is in the Augst museum. Adjacent to it
stands a full-scale model of a Roman peristyle house
with all its equipment.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Laur-Belart,
Führer durch Augusta
Raurica (4th ed. 1966)
MPI & bibl. to 1966, 178-79; E.
Meyer,
Jb. Schweiz. Gesell. f. Urgeschichte 54 (1968-69)
86-91
PI; id.,
Handbuch der Schweizer Geschichte 1
(1972) 57-59; H. Lieb, “Zur Zweiten Colonia Raurica,”
Chiron 4 (1974) 415-23.
V. VON GONZENBACH
