The Roman name of Arbon, a city on the Bodensee, is documented in the Itinerarium Antonini and on the Tabula Peutingeriana: Arbor Felix, "Happy Tree". In the first half of the fifth century the cohors Herculea Pannoniorum must have been stationed there, because the Notitia Dignitatum Occidentis mentions their tribune in the city. The city is also mentioned by Ammianus Marcellinus in his description of a march of the army of the Emperor Gratianus in 378 AD:
Dispositis igitur, quae pro temporum captu per Gallias res rationesque poscebant, et punito scutario proditore, qui festinare principem ad Illyricum barbaris indicarat, Gratianus exinde digressus per castra, quibus Felicis Arboris nomen est, per Lauriacum ad opitulandum oppressae parti porrectis itineribus ire tendebat. Gratian, then, after making the arrangements which affairs and policy throughout Gaul demanded according to the trend of the times, and punishing the traitorous targeteer who had revealed to the barbarians that the emperor was hurrying to Illyricum, hastened next to go by long marches past the castle called Felix Arbor and past Lauriacum [near Linz, Austria], to bring aid to the hard-pressed part of the country. Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae 31,10,20. Translation J.C. Rolfe. Hardly anything is known about the settlement in the first three centuries. The evidence consists mainly of scattered, isolated finds (coins and ceramics). A nice find was a lead ingot weighing 145 kg. A stamp on the ingot mentions the 6th legion, which was stationed in Germany at the end of the first and in the early second century. The lead may then have come from the Eifel mountain range.
VAL(erii) POSTVME
P(ondo) CCCCL
C(enturioni) COH(ortis) I L(egionis) VI POSTVM(i)Of Valerius Postumus.
450 pounds.
Of the centurio of the 1st cohort of the 6th legion, of Postumus.The lead ingot. W. 0.64, h. 0.13, d. 0.19, 145 kg. EDCS-13800198. Photo: Brem et al. 2010, 157. At the end of the third century a fortress was built to the east of the settlement, close to the shore of the lake. Major buildings in the area are Arbon Castle, the church of St. Martin and the chapel of St. Gallus. The remains of the fortress were investigated on several occasions in the second half of the 20th century.
The chapel of St. Gallus next to the church of St. Martin. Photo: Wikimedia, JoachimKohler-HB.
Plan of the remains of the fortress, in red. 1: Arbon Castle; 2: church of St. Martin; 3: chapel of St. Gallus. Amt für Archäologie Thurgau.The fortress measured about 80 x 110 m. The wall was 1.80-2.60 m. thick and had semicircular and rectangular towers. Fifty meters outside the west wall a moat was found, 8.80 m. wide and 3.00 m. deep. Only a few walls in the interior of the fortress have been found so far. Below the church of St. Martin a hypocaust belonging to baths was excavated.
View of excavations in 1961. Photo: Wikimedia, Amt für Archäologie Thurgau.
Literature
Keller 1860, 314-318; Meyer-Boulenaz 1952; Vonbank 1964; Whittick 1965; Drack-Fellmann 1988, 322-323; Drack-Fellmann 1991, 37-38; Brem - Burgi - Roth-Rubi 1992; Brem et al. 2010, 256-263; Leuzinger 2017.
[10-Jan-2024]
