Mainz

• Mainz is a cathedral city located east of the confluence of the rivers Rhine and Main, in the State of Rhineland-Palatinate in western Germany. It is famed for Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the first Printing Press with movable type in 1440 CE.
• It was a founded as the Roman Fortress and Naval Base of Mogontiacum by Drusus in c.12 BCE, which became the capital of the Roman Province of Germania Superior.

History

• Mainz was first occupied by the Legio XVI Gallica between c. 12 BCE and 43 CE. It then became a double fortress with two Legions.
• The following Roman Legions were based at Moguntiacum:
  • Legio XVI Gallica (c. 12 BCE-43 CE)
  • Legio XIV Gemina (70-92 CE)
  • Legio XXI Rapax (83-89 CE)
  • Legio XXII Primigenia (39-c. 337 CE)
  • Legio IIII Italica (231-c. 400 CE)
• Classis Germanica
  • The Classis Germanica was the German Navy on the Rhine, which had a fleet based at Mainz.
  • Forty Lusoriae was the size of the fleet based at Mainz, under the Emperor Julian (361-363 CE), according to Ammianus Marcellinus (Roman Antiquities, Book XVIII, chap 2, line 12).

Roman Sites

• Roman Stone Bridge (Ruins)
  • across the Rhine, 325 ft (100m) downstream of Theodor Heuss Bridge.
• Roman Aqueduct (Ruins)
• Roman City Gate (Ruins at Kaestrichtown)
• Roman Theatre
  • It seated 10,000 spectators, the largest Roman Theatre north of the Alps.
• Drusus Monument (the Drusus stein)
• The Jupiter Column

Museums

• Mainz Ancient Ship Museum
  • Located at Neutorstrasse 2b, Mainz.
  • The museum holds reconstructions of a Roman naval galley and a cargo galley, found buried beside the River Rhine.
  • On display are artefacts from the Roman Navy.
• Romisch-Germanisches Zentarlmuseum, Mainz (Closed until 2024)
  • Mainz Roman-German Museum is located at Kurfurstliches Schloss Mainz, 55116 Mainz.
  • This Museum closed in 2017 and will reopen in 2024. It holds 200,000 Finds.
    • The Museum holds a copy of a Bronze Roman Abacus, dating from the first century CE. The original is held in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

Roman Roads

• Rhine Military Road
  • The Roman Road ran along the west bank of the Rhine in parallel with the Limes Germanicus, the defensive fortification from the North Sea to Switzerland.
  • It connected all the Forts along the Rhine to the Danube.
    • Xanten–Cologne–Mainz-Lorch–Augsburg–Regensburg

Mainz (Moguntiacum)