Abusina
ABUSI´NA, ABUSENA, a town of Vindelicia, situated on the river Abens, and corresponding nearly to the modern Abensbery. Abusina stood near to the eastern termination of the high road which ran from the Roman military station Vindenissa on the Aar to the Danube. Roman walls are still extant, and Roman remains still discovered at Abensberg.
[W.B.D]A Roman auxiliary fort on the Danube ca. 30 km SW of Regensburg (Castra Regina). The name was derived from the Abens, a tributary of the Danube. Originally a timbered earth fort erected by the Cohors IV Gallorum in A.D. 79-81, it was located at the place where the Danube crossing branches off from the Roman road S and runs parallel to the Raetian limes. The stone fort, oriented approximately N-S, is asymmetrical. The area (1.8 ha) is rather small for the requirements of a fort and probably accommodated only one vexillation. The fort was rebuilt under Antoninus Pius (139-161) and was occupied by the Cohors III Britannorum equitata, or part of it. It was ravaged by an Alemannic assault in 233. The Romans disbanded the fort, including its headquarters, about 254 and it was temporarily occupied by Germanic forces. About 280 a quadrangular praesidium was built in the SW corner, and in the 4th c. additional buildings were placed S of it. A towerlike annex reinforced the entrance gate. The fort was abandoned by the Romans about 410.
Excavations have revealed the fort, the “commander's villa” with two extensions, and a bath building with annexes, all on the N side. Two sanctuaries were discovered N of the vicus. The E part of the vicus has not yet been excavated. The location of the Roman cemetery is unknown. At Unterfeld, ca. 1 km E of the Danube, a four-cornered entrenchment was examined in 1968. Open towards the river, it was probably a supply base with a quay, used briefly in the second half of the 2d c. To the NE of it, in the so-called Weinberg, a watchtower and a Temple of Mars and Victoria were traced.
BIBLIOGRAPHYW. M. Schmid, Das römische Kastell Abusina (2d ed. 1910); P. Reinecke, Festschrift z. 75j. Bestehen des RGZ-Ms. in Mainz (1927) 157ff; H. Schönberger, Germania 48 (1970) 66ff; H. J. Kellner, Die Römer in Bayern (1971) 62-65.
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