Rodgen
A fortification of the period of the emperor Augustus, founded during an advance from the Roman base on the Rhine NE into the Wetterau. It lies ca. 50 km from the legionary fortress at Mainz-Mogontiacum.
Established on a gently sloping hill E of the Wetter, its ground plan differs from that of the later rectangular forts. Since it follows the outline of the hill, it is oval. It encloses an area of ca. 3.3 ha and is surrounded by two V-shaped ditches, of which the inner reaches a depth of ca. 3 m in places. Behind the ditches stood an earthen rampart, 3 m wide, which had closely aligned timber uprights supporting its inner and outer faces. The main gate of the fort lay to the E where the hillside slopes upwards. It was built on stout wooden posts. In addition there were probably three smaller gates, in the N, W, and S sides.
The excavations of 1961-66 revealed at the center of the site traces of three huge horrea, of which the largest measured 47.25 m by 29.5 m. The floor of each granary was raised on rows of short posts set fairly chose together. A series of narrow parallel trenches had been cut to take the posts and then filled in. In addition a headquarters building was discovered consisting of rooms grouped on two sides of an open court, which was itself surrounded by a colonnade. There were probably ca. 1000 soldiers in the garrison.
The character of the site is very clearly indicated by the three great horrea. Since they were far too large to have supplied only the needs of the unit stationed there, one must conclude that Rödgen was a supply base. There is as yet no parallel anywhere in the Roman Empire for a supply base of this type or of this date. It was founded from Mainz-Mogontiacum and served the troops who were operating in the N. On the basis of the information gleaned from the literary sources, it can be said that Rödgen was not founded before the fortress at Oberaden on the Lippe (q.v.), i.e. not before 12 B.C. Probably it was erected two or three years later when the emperor's stepson Drusus set out on his well-prepared campaigns against the Germans from the legionary fortress at Mainz. At Rödgen, as at Oberaden, none of the coins found are of the type showing the altar at Lyons (Lugdunum), minted in 12 B.C. or more likely 10 B.C., and so one must assume that the supply base at Rödgen also was given up soon after the death of Drusus (9 B.C.) when the military dispositions were radically changed.
BIBLIOGRAPHYH. Schönberger, “Das augusteische Römerlager in Rödgen,” Germania: Anzeiger der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission 45 (1967) 84ff; id., “The Roman Frontier in Germany: an Archaeological Survey,” JRS 59 (1969) 144ff, 148MI.
H. SCHONBERGER