Saravus
SARA´VUS a river of Gallia, a branch of the Mosella (Mosel). The Itins. place the Pons Saravi on the Saravus, on a road from Divodurum (Metz) to Argentoratum (Strassburg). [PONS SARAVI]
The Saravus is mentioned in the poem of Ausonius on the Mosella (5.367):-- Naviger undisona dudum me mole SaravusTota veste vocat, longum qui distulit amnem,Fessa sub Augustis ut volveret ostia muris.
The Saravus is the Sarre, which joins the Mosel on the right bank a few miles above Augusta Trevirorum (Trier). In an inscription the river is named Sarra.
[G.L]Now the Saar; a river of Gaul flowing into the Mosella on the right (Auson. Mosell. 367).
A Roman settlement founded early in the 1st c. A.D. at the Saar crossing of the Metz-Worms road. There, in the angle of the Halberg and the river, developed a considerable settlement of craftsmen and merchants. Within the town the Trier-Strassburg road intersected the Worms road. A characteristic middle-class house contained three adjacent rooms with hypocaust, cellar, and deep well. The eaves ran parallel to the road. Parts of a larger villa urbana were discovered near the banks of the Saar. A wooden bridge nearby had been replaced by one built of stone. Drinking water was brought in through an impressive rock tunnel. A well-executed stone statue of Mercury was found in a cult place outside the settlement; inside, the torso of a Jupiter was found. During Late Imperial times a natural cave in the side of the Halberg was enlarged for the Mithras cult.
Extensive fire damage followed a raid by Germanic tribes, probably at the end of the 3d c. A.D.; the houses were rebuilt. In a second raid ca. 350 the villa was destroyed. In that area a small castellum with a polygonal ground plan (77 x 93 m) was built as part of the reorganization under Valentinianus. The land side had four round towers. Within the settlement and on the outskirts necropoleis contained graves with both inhumations and cremations. From the late period date ceramics of the Mayen type and a coin of Honorius (392-395). The construction of the aqueduct is of special interest.
BIBLIOGRAPHYC. Klein, “Die Ausgrabungen und Funde in der Heidenkapelle auf dem Halberg bei Saarbrücken,” Bericht des Konservators der geschichtl. Denkmäler im Saargebiet 1 (1923) 13-20; id., “Ein spätrömisches Kastell bei Saarbrücken,” Germania 9 (1925) 58-62; A. Kolling, “Funde und Untersuchungen im Vicus Saarbrücken,” Germania 39 (1961) 480-83; id., “Der Name des römischen Saarbrücken,” Bericht der Staatl. Denkmalpflege im Saarland 12 (1965) 61-65; R. Schindler, “Neues vom Römerkastell und Vicus Saarbrücken,” Bericht der staatl. Denkmalpflege im Saarland 9 (1962) 12-22; D. Kienast, Die Fundmünzen der römischen Zeit in Deutschland, III: Saarland (1962) no. 1087; J. Keller, Der römische Wasserleitungsstollen am Halberg bei Saarbrücken, ibid., 67-77.
A. KOLLING