OBRINGA
OBRINGA (
Ὀβρίγκας). Ptolemy (
2.10.17) makes the Obringas river the boundary between Lower and Upper Germania.
The most southern place in Lower Germania according to his map is Moguntiacum (
Μοκοντιακόν),
Mainz. He places in the following order the cities of Upper Germania, which are south of the Obringas:--Noeomagus (
Speier), Borbetomagus (
Worms), Argentoratum (
Strassburg), and so on. But
Worms is north of
Speier; and the relative position of these two places is therefore wrong in Ptolemy.
He has also placed
[p. 2.460]Mogontiacum in Lower Germania, but it was the chief place of Upper Germania. Ptolemy has not mentioned the Mosella (
Mosel), and some geographers have assumed that it is the Obringas; but if this is so, the position of
Mainz is wrong in Ptolemy, for
Mainz is south of the
Mosel. D'Anville observes that, according to the Notit. Imp., the district of the general who resided at
Mainz comprehended Antunnacum or
Andernach, on the
Rhine, which is below the junction of the
Mosel and the
Rhine. If
Andernach was always in the Upper Germania, and if the boundary between the Lower and the Upper Germania was a river-valley, there is none that seems so likely to have been selected as the rugged valley of the
Ahr, which lies between
Bonn and
Andernach, and separates the netherlands or lowlands on the north from the hilly country on the south.
[
G.L]
