NIDA
(Frankfurt am Main — Heddernheim) Germany.
For the Heidenfeld on the N shore of the Nidda,
tributary of the Main, only epigraphic sources are known.
Earthworks under Vespasian on the line of advance along
the Wetterau, were followed under Domitian by a stone
citadel (of the Ala I Flavia Gemina), which was abandoned under Trajan. From the camp settlement there developed the vicus Nida, capital of the Civitas Taunensium, and its area (45 ha) was enclosed by a hexagonal
wall at the beginning of the 3d c. With the fall of the
limes, A.D. 259-60, the town was destroyed by the Alemanni and lay in ruins for a thousand years. The ruins
deteriorated rapidly after the Late Middle Ages, and today no remains are visible. Excavations were begun in 1823 and have continued over the years. Finds are in the museums of Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.
Between the two roads leading W from the citadel
there was a triangular market place, surrounded by stone
buildings (baths, temples, praetorium, barracks) and
half-timbered row houses. Under the civilization layer 1 m
down, much stone sculpture was discovered, five Mithraea, and several Jupiter columns. There were necropoleis to the W and N.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. G. Habel, “Die römischen Ruinen
bei Hedernheim,”
Nassauische Annalen 1 (1827) 45-86;
Mitteilungen über römische Funde in Heddernheim I-VI
(1894-1918); K. Woelcke, “Der neue Stadtplan von
Nida-Heddernheim,”
Germania 22 (1938) 161-66; U.
Fischer, “Grabungen im Lager Heddernheim,”
Germania
38 (1960) 189-92 (Fundchronik Land Hessen); id.,
Aus
Frankfurts Vorgeschichte (1971); id., “Grabungen im
römischen Steinkastell von Heddernheim 1957-59,”
Schriften des Frankfurter Museums für Vor- und Frühgeschichte 2 (1973);
Fundberichte aus Hessen 1 (1961ff).
U. FISCHER
