Augusta Vindelicum (Augsburg)
The Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz surrounded by Nazi flags and today. Also
referred to as Aelium Augustum (shortened to Aelia Augusta), Augsburg
was founded in 15 BCE by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, on
the orders of their stepfather Emperor Augustus during the campaign of
conquest to Raetia and a military camp was built as the nucleus of the
later city. The epithet Vindelicorum represents the genitive plural of
Vindelicus which referred to the Celtic tribe of the Vindelici who were
located between Wertach (Virda) and Lech (Licus). This garrison camp
soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia and under Hadrian, the town was raised to the status of a municipality,
whose official name was then municipium Aelium Augustum.
Castra Regina (Regensburg) 
The Augustus statue at Maximiliansplatz surrounded by Nazi flags and today. Also
referred to as Aelium Augustum (shortened to Aelia Augusta), Augsburg
was founded in 15 BCE by Drusus and Tiberius as Augusta Vindelicorum, on
the orders of their stepfather Emperor Augustus during the campaign of
conquest to Raetia and a military camp was built as the nucleus of the
later city. The epithet Vindelicorum represents the genitive plural of
Vindelicus which referred to the Celtic tribe of the Vindelici who were
located between Wertach (Virda) and Lech (Licus). This garrison camp
soon became the capital of the Roman province of Raetia and under Hadrian, the town was raised to the status of a municipality,
whose official name was then municipium Aelium Augustum. Nevertheless, Augusta Vindelicum was the intersection of many important European east-west and north-south connections, which later evolved as major trade routes of the Middle Ages despite having been sacked by the Huns in the 5th century, Charlemagne in the 8th century, and Welf of Bavaria in the 11th century, each time rising to greater prosperity.Only one Roman municipium is attested for the whole area: municipium Aelium Augusta Vindelicum (now Augsburg), which was granted municipal status under Hadrian. The inhabitants were not necessarily uncivilized—inscriptions prove that some of them were literate before the Roman conquest—but land so mountainous was not worth anything to Rome, and they were left alone.Martin Goodman (222-223) The Roman World
Parked outside Porta
Praetoria, Germany’s most
ancient stone building, a gateway dating from 179 CE under Marcus
Aurelius for the new Roman fort Castra Regina ("fortress by the
river Regen"). It was built for Legio III Italica and was an important
camp on the most northerly point of the Danube corresponding to what is
today the core of Regensburg's old town or Altstadt east of the Obere
and Untere Bachgasse and West of the Schwanenplatz. Giant blocks of
stone were used to construct this gate in the northern wall of the Roman
military camp. It survives as a reminder of Castra Regina, the Roman
settlement with its fourhuge gates with flanking towers. The left gate
tower and an arch of the originally very representative camp entrance
have been preserved. The gate tower still stands over two floors. The
gate tower, which was once eleven metres high, was built from limestone
blocks. The four metre-wide and six-metre high archway that has been
preserved consists of thirteen large cuboids that were joined together
without mortar. 
Castra
Regina was founded as a Roman legion camp, developed into a city on the
upper Danube and became the nucleus of the city of the headquarters of
the Legio III Italica was established here. Castra Regina consisted of
the legionary camp itself, the civil town, a large cemetery and some
shrines and temples. It was probably being at the confluence of the Naab
and Regen into the Danube leading to important trade and traffic routes
already in existence that prompted the Romans to build a military base
here. Around 80 CE in what's now Regensburg-Kumpfmühl, a 2.2 hectare
cohort fort of wood-earth construction was completed on a slope spur
from which the Danube arch and the two river mouths could be seen.
Either a 500-man mounted cohort or a double cohort of roughly a thousand
foot soldiers were stationed here. During the Marcomanni wars under
Marcus Aurelius, this fort was destroyed along with the associated
civilian settlement around 170. In the area of today's old town, the
building of the legion camp for the Legio III Italica was established in
179. It then became the main military base of the Raetia province. The
legion commander was also the governor of Raetia. West of the legionary
camp, a sizable civilian settlement developed within which craftsmen,
traders and the members of the approximately 6000 legionaries lived.
Thus Castra Regina became,
in addition to its military role, an important trading post in Raetia.
By the 3rd century Germanic tribes broke through the Limes
invading the province again as the legion camp and the area around
Regensburg were devastated by the Alemanni. The camp was rebuilt but the surrounding area hardly recovered from the massive
destruction and most of the farms were abandoned. By 357 the Juthungen, a
sub-tribe of the Alamanni, invaded Raetia wreaking havoc on the
province and no doubt affecting Castra Regina. The last section of the Legio
III Italica departed at the end of the 4th century resulting in Castra
Regina losing any military importance. Abusina (Eining)
Foundations of the Prinzipia (staff building), the semicircular building serving as the flag shrine (aedes).
According to the founding inscription, the Abusina fort was built during the reign of Titus around the year 80 CE by the Cohors IIII Gallorum to secure the Danube line established as part of the northern border of the Roman Empire. This cohort was also the first regular unit to move into the new fort. In its first construction phase, the camp consisted of a fence in a wood-earth construction and inside of quite simple half-timbered buildings.In the early 2nd century, probably towards the end of the reign of Trajan, the Cohors IIII Gallorum was replaced by a Vexillatio, a detachment of about 500 to 600 men from the Cohors II Tungrorum milliaria equitata. This assignment is an exemplary characteristic of the mobility, flexibility and thus modernity of the Exercitus Romanorum. Whilst the parent unit remained stationed in Britain, it was easily possible to deploy the detachment of this force in the distant Danube region in the meantime. A little later, between 138 and 147, presumably the Vexillatio of a sister unit, the Cohors IIII Tungrorum milliaria equitata, took its place for a few years.
Standing beside the so-called "Caracalla altar" which had been donated by Titus Flavius Felix, Praefect of the Cohors III Brittanorum equitata in Abusina, probably dating either from 211 or one to two years earlier. Its inscription honours the empress as the "mater Augustorum et castrorum", together with her two sons Geta and Caracalla. The subsequent deletion of the name Geta shows that after his violent death, like that famously seen on the Arch of Septimius Severus in the Forum Romanum in Rome Großkrotzenburg, Geta had not escaped the "damnatio memoriae" in Abusina. It was Mommsen
who had argued that the gap between the AVG and the following ET cannot be
explained unless it reflects the same attempt to erase
Caracalla's brother's name. The foundation again indicates a connection with the Britain campaign of Septimius Severus, who was represented by his wife and son on this visitation trip from England to the Danube. 
Beside another army altar in Carrawburgh on Hadrian's wall. From 153 the Cohors III Britannorum equitata with six centuries of infantry and six towers of cavalry is recorded as serving here where it remained until the final end of Roman rule over the province of Raetia in the early 5th century. Indeed, the fort provides a remarkable aspect of British history as it was occupied by the cohors III Britannorum equitata, or part of it. The inset shows a depiction of the altar from the 16th century Aventini adversariorum tomus by Bavarian scholar from nearby Abensberg, Johannes Turmair, known as Aventinus. In 1517 William IV, Duke of Bavaria commissioned him to write a history of the country which resulted in a complete history of Bavaria, Annales Bojorum ("Annals of Bavaria"). His condensed German version of it, the Bayerische Chronik, is the first important history in the German language.
On
the front of the monument, six people are depicted who are grouped
around an altar. To the right of the altar stands a bearded man with the
back of his head covered. The boy to his right is similarly veiled.
Both are wearing knee-length robes. The boy is holding a plate with
offerings in his hand, and behind them is another person. To the left of
the altar, a bare-chested sacrificial servant with an axe in hand leads
a bull to be sacrificed. A musician behind the sacrificial servant
accompanies the scene with his double flute. Another, badly damaged
figure, possibly female, stands behind the altar. Abbot Werner, head of the Weltenburg monastery, remarks in the chronicle of his monastery that he wrote that the altar had eventually found itself "brought into the village and used as a corner stone in the sacristy of the church. In this condition I examined it in 1780.” In 1784 the altar was sent to the Academy of Sciences in Munich where, he continues to write, "it had to stand at the entrance for many years without any archaeologist having pity on it.” In 1814 the altar was held within the Antiquarium in the Munich Residence and finally in the Bavarian National Museum.The two smaller upper fragments of the stone were found in 1887 and 1915 respectively and were also taken to Munich. However, the monument itself had been completely destroyed during the war where fortunately in addition to this copy on the fort grounds in Eining, there is another, better preserved copy in the Archaeological State Collection in Munich.
Here the copy's details are compared to the original altar stone of the Prefect Titus Flavius Felix, photographed before the war and its eventual destruction. 
On
the left side of the monument, the goddess Fortuna is depicted holding a
cornucopia in her left hand, symbolising fertility and prosperity. Her
right hand holds a rudder on the ground, symbolising that Fortuna, the
goddess of fate, holds human fate in her hand. The right side of the
stone shows the genius of the third Britannic cohort mentioned in the
inscription, who is the guardian spirit of the troops. He also holds a
cornucopia in his left arm and with his right hand makes a sacrifice
from a bowl on a flaming round altar.
The buildings eventually fell into disrepair with the stones being used by local farmers as building material as the foundation walls sank in the dust of history. After Thurmaier discovered the consecration stone here Abusina was forgotten again for several centuries. It was not until 1879 that the then pastor of Eining, Wolfgang Schreiner, began the excavations at his own expense. They continued until 1920, most recently under the supervision of the State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. In the last days of the war, Wehrmacht soldiers holed up in Abusina came under American fire. After that, once again, nobody was interested in the Roman heritage until a decade later when digging began again and the walls were partially reconstructed. 
Here it is clearly evident just how much reconstruction has been imposed on the actual remains-Eining, the Roman Abusina, on the south bank of the Danube between the Raetien Limes and the Danube Limes in Bavaria, is a good example to show the complicated and complex post-Roman story of a WHS [World Heritage Site]. Preliminary to the “renovation” of exposed walls the history of the visible structures was studied: Large scale excavations from the 1870s onwards, their subsequent exposure, consolidation and partial covering by roofs led after many years of interest to phases of neglect and decay, due to increasing maintenance costs. A first large scale renovation in the 1950s attempted to solve this problem in a long- term way with modern wall, partially on top of Roman foundations but in other parts in their replacement, and a lot of concrete. As no continuous care followed further consolidation work had to be done in the 1970s leading to even more loss of the original. After the initiative of a local interest group (“Historia Romana e.V.”) plans to “develop” and to display the fort somehow as it was laid out originally are now competing with the present state as a landscape park with ancient and artificial ruins as well as a nature reserve.Breeze and Jilek (133) Frontiers of the Roman Empire
The
porta praetoria established after the loss of the Limes area on the
other side of the Danube. This late addition to the Roman fort was built
as part of the reorganisation of the late Roman
Danube-Iller-Rhein-Limes under Emperor Aurelian and Probus. The east and
north sides of the fort received new, stronger walls. A new tower was
built on the new northeast corner and a tower with a gate in the middle
of the northern front. The soldiers' quarters were located inside along
the two new walls. In the middle of the courtyard was a 22-metre-deep
well shaft. The fort was later extended by buildings on the northern
wall. This north porch stood on a mighty embankment. The fort vicus
moved to the rest of the cohort fort that was no longer needed. The
porta praetoria and the porta principalis sinistra were retained as
access to the late Roman fort vicus.
During the military reorganisation of Emperor Antoninus Pius in the years around 160, the fort at Eining was reconstructed, plausibly by soldiers of the cohors III Britannorum. The presence of the unit is at Eining is undebated by scholars, as it is well documented on military constitutions, imperial and votive inscriptions as well as tilestamps. Eining continued to be part of Raetia after the collapse of the Raetian Limes in 254. The Notitia Dignitatum lists a 'cohors III Brittorum' in Eining (Abusina), which might be identical to the cohors III Britannorum of the Principate.Farkas István Gergő (149-150) The Roman Army in Raetia
Inside the Roman musem overlooking the baths in the former St. Andreas (Andrew) church. Abusina is just outside the fashionable spa town of Bad Gögging. Its
history as a spa begins with the Romans as is obvious given references
to Marcus Aurelius, Trajan and even Tiberius are everywhere. The sulfur
springs of today's health resort used by the Romans and were probably
already known at the time of Titus around 80, when the Cohors IIII
Gallorum built the Abusina fort to secure the Danube line. What is
certain is that Trajan himself visited the area around 110 and the
garrison built a thermal bath which housed a caldarium , a sudatoriumand
a frigidarium. When the local church of St. Andreas was rebuilt in the
early 1960s, the remains of the baths from Roman times were found. Under
its floor was a Roman bathing pool with an associated heating system,
the so-called hypocaust heating. The pool has a size of 10.8 by 7.8
metres. The stamps on the bricks indicate that the bath was financed by
both state and private assets of the emperor and was therefore of great
importance. So far, however, it has only been possible to uncover parts
of the Roman thermal baths of Bad Gögging, as they are located under the
town centre. The Roman history of Bad Gögging is closely related to
that of the nearby Roman fort Abusina built in 79 and expanded in stone
under the emperors Domitian and Trajan.
Today the site offers a pet park containing a large number of Roman breeds of the time as well as the opportunity to experience grinding at the rustic mill, fiddling with the former iron castle or riding, combined with a carriage ride. In addition, the equestrian center has a qualified social and riding pedagogue for therapeutic riding.
Based
on scarce finds, Fischer suggested that the fortlet was constructed
under the reign of Emperor Claudius or in Flavian times in order to guard traffic on the Roman road in the Am Galget valley, although Farkas István Gergő in his Roman Army in Raetia
argues that "it is altogether unlikely that a sole Roman fortlet were
established on the lower Danubian ripa preceding the last decades 1st
century." What little material was found at the site comprised entirely ofceramic fragments of mortars, two shards of so-called "soldiers' plates " with Pompeian red overlay and remains of amphorae. The only fragment of glass came from a blue ribbed bowl. The main parts of the metal finds include iron nails and bronze remains, of which only one handle holder can be identified. For a more precise dating of the fort site, Rind was able to use a disc brooch with doplphins and an as, the basic denomination of the Roman currency before the introduction of the denarius around 211 BCE, struck in Rome from the reign of Emperor Claudius. 
Later considerations brought a date to the Claudian- Early Flavian period suggesting that the fortification could also have been established during the reign of Vespasian.The site was a destination for treasure hunters early on. Prehistoric finds and especially Celtic coins have been found. Aventinus reported the legend that Saint Rupert of Salzburg had a chapel here built over a Minerva temple. The building visible there today is a baroque church that was built under Abbot Maurus Bächl in the early 18th century. The first proper excavations took place in 1909 in the monastery itself and in the adjoining monastery garden. In addition to two garbage pits from the older Bronze Age, a Celtic cemetery was also found, its three dead uncovered having been buried in the 4th and 3rd centuries BCE. The next excavation was not carried out until 1938 when a small area was uncovered near the northeast slope of the mountain. Again traces of settlement from the older Bronze Age was found as well as the remains of a Celtic child buried at this point in the middle of the settlement.
A couple of miles away towards Hienheim is this "Hadrian's Pillar", one
of a series of memorial stones on the Limes built in the middle of the
last century under King Max II of Bavaria. At this point it marks the
end of the Rhaetian Wall on the Danube. West of the pillar stands a
reconstructed wooden watchtower. Representations from Trajan's column in
Rome served as a model, on which such towers with handling and
palisades were reproduced. They did not have stairs in their interior;
Roman sentries came with a retractable ladder to the entrance halfway up
the tower. The distance between the sentries was chosen so that from a
tower always the two neighbouring towers were in sight. From the
watchtower you have a good view of the Danube valley and over to the
castle Abusina. The foundations of the stone tower are only recognisable
as a small hill. From here you can follow the fairly exactly westbound
Limes for about two miles and on a clear day one can see visible remains
of four other sentinels.
Reconstruction of a wooden watchtower built about fifty metres west of the historical location at WP 15/46.In the early second century, perhaps under Trajan, wooden watchtowers appeared for the first time on the stretch between the Rhine and Danube, but it is only in Hadrian’s reign that a barrier element, an oak palisade, was added alongside the patrol track which ran in front of the towers. In the middle of the century the (now probably decrepit) wooden towers were replaced with stone towers, and at or after the beginning of the third century the final change was implemented: in Upper Germany a ditch was dug between the fence and the towers, and in Raetia the fence was replaced with a three metre-high wall. The construction of watchtowers (which would also have facilitated lateral signaling) would have been a very obvious thing to do once troops with the basic function of exploratores became static for even a few days. However, we should remember that once the towers were built, their existence is not evidence that they were occupied permanently: for long periods they may have been visited only by patrols, or manned in times of heightened alert.Erdkamp (231) A Companion to the Roman Army
Drake Winston at the Oppidum of Manching, a
large Celtic settlement at modern-day
Manching, near Ingolstadt and as reconstructed from D. van Endert in Das Osttor des Oppidums von Manching [Stuttgart 1987]. The settlement was founded in the 3rd century
BCE and existed until about 50-30 BCE, reaching its largest extent
within the late 2nd century BCE, when it had a size of 380 hectares. At
that time, five to ten thousand people lived within its five mile walls.
Thus, the Manching oppidum was one of the largest settlements north of
the Alps. The ancient name of the site is unknown, but it is assumed
that it was the central site of the Celtic Vindelici tribe.
Drake exploring the ruins of a wartime airfield behind the walls. Excavations
at Manching have been necessitated by construction projects that
started with a military airfield between 1936 and 1938. During that time during
the Nazi remilitarisation of Germany, the Luftwaffe constructed an
airfield here which led to the destruction of large
proportions of the site without providing the opportunity for systematic
archaeological research. Only very few finds were recovered from the
construction site. In 1938, the archaeologist Karl-Heinz Wagner started
an excavation of the northeast part of the enclosure. Within the visible
earthen bank, he discovered the remains of a wall, which he described
as a murus gallicus according to Cæsar's description of such structures. A
central portion of the settlement was destroyed when mechanical
equipment was used to strip the area and tear away part of the wall.
Efforts to recover artifacts were restricted by the exigencies of
impending war, and only those materials that could be rescued from the
spoil piles were saved. Due to the presence of the
airfield, Manching was the target of multiple bombing raids during the
war, leading to further destruction of archaeological evidence. In the last year of the war, Fort VIII near Manching was
the branch of the destroyed Wehrmacht prison in Munich in which during
1944-1945 saw 76 Wehrmacht soldiers executed for desertion; today there
is an honorary grove to them in the Westfriedhof.
In
1955 Allied forces decided to rebuild the airfield and, following
negotiations with archaeologists, contributed an unprecedented sum of
money for investigation of the settlement and of the area that would be
affected by renewed construction. Excavations began that year and
continued until 1974 under the direction of Werner Krämer. A subsequent
excavation was organised in 1984 following a ten-year hiatus in response
to the planned construction of an exit ramp on the secondary roadway
that passes through the site (Landstrasse B16) and focused on a
previously unexplored tract in the northern part of the settlement.
Approximately one kilometre in length by 35–60 metres in width, a strip
running from the center of the roughly circular enclosed area to the
wall was examined. The earliest settlement is concentrated toward the
center of the enclosed area and predates the construction of the wall. A
track oriented east-west runs through the old center and provided the
foundation for a later main road linking the east and west gates of the
murus Gallicus. The construction of the wall
during the second half of the 2nd century BCE established Manching as a focal point for activities
centered on production and exchange, encompassing not only collection of raw materials and
manufacture of goods but also feasting and the functions associated with
market towns and fairs. It's likely that the function of the wall changed through time from
display to defence because a third stage of construction reinforces the
entire five mile length of the enclosure. Furthermore, burials of
individuals who died of battle injuries attest to an attack on the
settlement and finds at the site include bronze finds, tools, fibulae, glass, faunal material,
graphite pottery, imported pottery and coarse wares, smooth wheel-thrown
pottery and painted pottery, and human burials. 
At the Kelten-Römer-Museum nearby in Manching. In the Celtic section are displayed the finds of the Oppidum in Manching which is located in the immediate vicinity. Of particular importance is the gold treasure discovered in 1999, consisting of 450 gold coins which make it the largest Celtic gold find discovered in the 20th century. The so-called cult tree found in 1984 is unique worldwide with its gold-plated image of a branch from the 3rd century BCE entwined with leaves, buds and fruits. The centrepiece of the Roman section are the two fifteen-metre long Roman military ships dating from about 100 CE from the time of Trajan. The wrecks were found in 1986 within a silted branch of the Danube. They were only salvaged according to plan in 1994 and then restored and preserved in the Roman-Germanic Central Museum in Mainz. 
Drake
beside the remarkable remains of two hulls of Roman military ships that were found
nearby at Oberstimm within the area of a silted-up Roman pier in 1986 and, after eight years of restoration work,
were excavated in 1994 according to plan and for the
purpose of conservation and restoration by 2005. These swift vessels were used for
patrols and escort trips along the Danube River system. One ship was demonstrably a rowing ship, as the preserved oarlocks and
seat throws show. There is evidence that there were ten rowers on the starboard
side, so that the entire rowing crew was probably twenty men. In addition,
it could be sailed, as evidenced by the remains of the keel. The course of the
old river Brautlach is today still visible as a depression in the
terrain. When a test trench was dig through the depression in 1986, the
timbers of the boats came to light. Thanks to the water-logged milieu in
the old riverbed the organic material was still in good condition.
However, professional recovery, conservation and presentation need
careful planning and skilled specialists, so that the excavation of the
boats only began in 1994. 
Today
the traces of the excavation are identifiable by the patches in the
tarmac surface of the market and the gap in the line of trees. Apart from the destruction caused by the dredger in 1986, the
boats’ hulls were preserved to a length of about fifteen metres and were almost
complete. The bow and stern are missing, but
judging by the shape of the hull that has been preserved, it could not
have been much longer. While the starboard side was completely preserved
from the gunwale to the keel, the port side is completely gone. The wood for the boats came from two different kinds of
trees; the planks were of pine, whereas the supporting structure was
made of oak. the planks are made of pine, the keel, the keel, the ribs and the
thorns are made of oak. Wooden nails on the inside of some frames suggest that a stringer was
originally attached there. It is likely that crossbeams were placed on
it, which the rowers used as footrests. Possibly there was a crossbeam in the ship to which the gordings of the sail could be attached. 
Dendrochronological investigations revealed
felling dates for the oak to have been from 90 CE.
Another time limit was made possible by oak piles, which had been driven
into the ground as bank reinforcement and had penetrated both ships. Both ships therefore belong to the Domitian /
Trajan period. When the fort was abandoned, the boats were in a bad state
of repair and were sunk in an area which was already being used as a
rubbish dump. A quayside was later built on the river bank and wooden
piles were driven through the buried boats. The boats provided space for
twenty rowers, and in addition had a mast and sail. The narrow stern
and bow are typical for boats used by the army for purposes such as
transporting troops, patrolling and conveying
messages.Dendrochronological analyses revealed that the boats were built
around 100 CE. As the oldest wooden piles from the quayside date to
118, the boats must have been used and then sunk some time before then. Kastell Celeusum
The fort at Pförring was built during Emperor Trajan’s military reorganisation between 106 and 117. As with the neighbouring auxiliary fort at Kösching, the towers of fort at Pförring were also reinforced in 141, as attested by a building inscription. In the 1870s a coin hoard containing 1,300 pieces was discovered nearby, the latest coins having been issued in 224, thus indicating that the fort and the vicus were still active during the crisis of the 3rd century. The fort at Pförring was reinforced when the eastern section of the Raetian Limes between Weißenburg and Ellingen was abandoned. The fort was operational until the collapse of the Raetian Limes in 254. Based on a votive inscription350 and a Raetian military diploma, the fort at Pförring was garrisoned by the Ala I Flavia singularium civium Romanorum pia fidelis. Tacitus mentions this unit with its Prefect Iulius Briganticus in his Historiae (iv.70) in connection with events of the Year of the Four Emperors during which the unit was probably set up by Vitellius. Iulius Briganticus and his unit switched to Vespasian's side, for which the Ala later received the honorary title of Flavia from Vespasian. Based on the building inscription found in a field in 1843, it is known that the Ala built the fort in stone in 141. 
As mentioned above, it's believed that Caracalla visited the camp in 213 as indicated by the remains of a limestone slab on which nine centimetre high gilded letters made of sheet bronze were originally attached. This plate is considered part of an honorary inscription for the emperor. The end of the camp took place during the Alemanni storm of 233. An incomplete treasure hoard contained a coin from the reign of Severus Alexander who had been murdered two years later, but the end could also have come much later. In 2007 the excavation site was invaded at night and material from documented findings as well as metal objects found by netal detectors were stolen. Above is shown the attempt to reconstruct the east gate as an
hideous steel frame, built in 2013 in which five to seven metre long
bored piles were driven into the ground and a concrete slab was imposed
directly over the ancient foundations. The entire undeveloped area of
the fort and neighbouring camp village is threatened by intensive
agriculture, erosion and ongoing robbery excavations. No excavations
have taken place inside the fort since 1893. The formerly restored
remains of the east gate and the north corner tower have fallen into
disrepair again.
The fort was reinforced with stone structures and defences during the
course of the 2nd century; again, on the right below is a GIF comparing a visualisation of how it may have appeared compared to the site today. As can be seen in these images, the wall itself was surrounded by a double moat; another moat has so far only been proven on three sides of the fort. This pit system was only interrupted in the area of the camp gates. On the northern front in 1986 the archaeological excavations also cut into the moat. It was found that the outermost pointed ditch was 2.70 metres wide and 1.60 metres deep. The middle trench was measured with a width of 4.50 metres and a depth of 1.40 metres with the innermost trench widest at 5.40 metres. 
As a special feature, this trench was created as the Fossa Punica. The enemy-facing side was sunk vertically into the ground, whilst the side facing the surrounding wall sloped. The garrison served there to secure the newly
conquered territory north of the Danube, which had been incorporated
into the province of Raetia. As the excavations of 1986 showed, the porta decumana existed on the northern front of the wood-earth bearing
made of twelve posts, six of which posts each belonged to one of the two
gate towers by which the actual gate was flanked. The two wooden
rectangular towers had a 3.20 x 3.60 metre floor plan. A palisade ditch
around 0.60 metres wide connected the gate on both sides with the
adjoining intermediate towers, each supported by four posts. After its
construction, it covered an area of 3.1 hectares, with sides measuring
175 × 179 metres. Weißenburg was destroyed between 240-250 along with nearby
Ellingen in the course of the Alemannic invasions. The latest coins found on the Via principalis dextra date to the years 251 and 253. In the Middle Ages the site served as a quarry for the new city until everything was removed and overgrown. The fort was not rediscovered until 1885 and was excavated between 1889 and 1913.
The inner courtyard of the administration building, the principia. On the left is the praetorium hypocaust and, inset, when it was excavated in the 1890s. On the right is the well and how it has been virtually reconstructed.
Drake on the right at the camp of the Numerus Brittonum reenactment group on the grounds during a wet Römertage 2017. The historical Numerus Brittonum was a Roman auxiliary unit of a nominal strength of probably 160 men, consisting of two centuries with eighty men each, probably all of whom were foot soldiers. The soldiers would have been recruited in the province of Britannia when the unit was established around 100 CE, possibly under Domitian. According to Marcus Reuter, the British would have arrived to Germania superior as a closed contingent and were only then divided into the individual units. He assumes there would have been 1500 to 2000 British in this first contingent.
Standing
at the very end of the Raetian Limes wall at Schwäbisch Gmünd. On the
top left is a visual representation from the Aalen museum of how it
would have appeared whilst below is an actual reconstruction at the
entrance to the park. Up until this point the Upper German Limes from
the Rhine to the Rotenbachtal here, northwest of Schwäbisch Gmünd,
consisted most recently of a rampart and a moat serving as a substitute
for a wooden palisade. During the last expansion phase, a continuous
stone wall was erected in the province of Raetia, from the Rotenbachtal
to the Danube at Ausina. 
That
this spot really does mark the transition from the Limes wall to the
Upper German palisade is strongly supported not only by the wall's
precisely constructed terminus, but by the fact that in front of it was
found the remains of an altar that was possibly dedicated to the fines,
or border deities, a replica of which I'm standing beside in front of
the wall and how it appeared when uncovered by Steimle at the end of the
19th century in the Rotenbachtal at the beginning of the Rhaetian Wall
near Kleindeinbach. It has four rosettes on the face of as many
bulges atop with no remains of inscriptions below the cornice beyond
seven radial grooves, apparently from the grinding of tools. This altar,
and the finished nature of the roughly hewn sandstone blocks of the
wall itself, provide considerable evidence that this section marked the
end of the Upper Germanic Limes and the start of the Rhaetian Limes.
Here from about 160 to 260 CE, the Rems Valley was the outermost border
zone of the Roman Empire, guarded by over 1,500 soldiers within the
Gmünd area stationed in cohorts in Lorch, at Schirenhof and Böbingen as
well as in some smaller facilities such as Freimühle, Kleindeinbach and
Hintere Orthalde.
At the Limesmuseum in Aalen,
located on the site of the largest Roman equestrian fort north of the
Alps. The size of the fort indicates that it was garrisoned by the ala II Flavia milliaria, the only ala milliaria of the province. Indeed, the elite mounted unit, the ala miliaria,
is what gives Aalen its name. In May 2019, after two and a half years
of renovation and closure, it was reopened with a newly designed
permanent exhibition with over 1,200 original finds. The main focus is
on the relationship between Teutons and Romans and the understanding of
borders. In the main rooms on the ground floor, visitors are forced to
interactively learn about seven people who lived in Roman Aalen 1,800
years ago using specific archaeological objects and get to know their
living conditions better. For me, this completely ruined the experience
as one can't walk anywhere or view some of the spectacular pieces in
peace- such as the masked cavalry helmet found during the expansion of
the Limes Museum and the huge Osterburken Mithras relief- without
setting off a cacophany of sound effects- horses, for example- and loud
voice overs that could not be shut off. 
At
the staff building, the principia, with a modern statue of Hadrian
despite the fort being built during the 160s as part of the military
reorganisation and expansion of Marcus Aurelius; the dendrochronological
records fall in the period between 159 and 172. An impressive number of
sixteen building inscriptions have been found from Aalen, all datable
to the Severan dynasty. The fort was operational until the middle of the
3rd century and evidence from coins indicates that the fort was
destroyed following the reign of Aemilian, in the years after 253/254,
although there have been two disputable coins issued under Emperors Valerian and Gallienus that have also been found.
Part
of the Roman fort has been incorporated in the town cemetery in which
is located St. Johann's Church, one of Aalen's oldest buildings, dating
back to the 13th century. Located directly in front of the former porta praetoria, the main gate of a Roman camp, the Roman stone
blocks which were reused at the time to build it can be clearly seen in
the area of the foundation. The excavation in 1997 whose preserved
remains are shown here and from the same spot today offer valuable insights
into the history of Aalen in the early Middle Ages. For example, it was
discovered that the church was not the oldest building in this
location. The articles found date back to the seventh and eighth
centuries. It appears that around this time, directly on the road in
front of the former main gate of the garrison, a residential building or
an early monastery cell was located here. The oldest parts of the
buildings 1 and 2 belong to this era as well as a number of graves
nearby which were excavated at the start of the 20th century. The
present-day church itself was built sometime around the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries. Work was carried out on Building 2 at the same
time, also using stones from the fortress as building material. On the
western corner there was a Roman inscription to the goddess Minerva
which is now in the Limes Museum. 
On a small hill about a mile from the Limes are the remains of a cohort fort at Buch,
in which a roughly 600-man partially mounted unit was stationed. It was
sited near a trade route that ran from Augusta Vindelicum to the Danube
near Guntia and from there via Alae to the Limestor at Dalkingen, about
a mile and an half away. It was the location of an unknown cohors equitata
built around 150 and occupied until the Limes were abandoned around
260. A spatha had been found here; such a type of sword had been used by
the Roman cavalry since the early imperial era. In addition, there were
around 1,600 other weapon parts at this point, of which at least 800
were iron projectile tips, the rest consisting of arrow and lance tips.
The fort was about 2.1 hectares in size and had four circumferential
trenches that were up to six metres in width. In its first phase of
construction, it was protected with a wooden fence, which was later
replaced by stone and a raised inner earth ramp. There were four camp
gates- my bike here is at the remaining southern gate, the porta principalis dextra-
with a double passage flanked by two towers. There were an additional
eight intermediate towers in the defensive wall. The staff building
(principia) with the flag sanctuary (aedes) was in the centre of the
fort, where the camp streets crossed via principalis and via praetoria. 
In
this location a bronze model of the fort stands in the centre of the
complex shown here, so that one gets a good impression of the original
appearance. Next to it was a granary building (horreum) on one side and
the commandant's house (praetorium) on the other side. The cavalry
barracks were located over the rest of the storage area.
The
fort was discovered at the beginning of the 19th century with the first
scientific investigations taking place in 1897. The southern gate, an
intermediate tower and part of the defensive wall were excavated in 1972
followed by further excavations and geomagnetic investigations between
1992 and 2000. Besides the south gate, and southern intermediate tower
with parts of the defensive wall that remain,the remaining corner and
intermediate towers and the stone walls of the fort are marked by bushes
and trees and an earthen wall to offer an idea as to its size.
Although
the oak trunk palisade could not be detected there, the tower certainly
still belongs to this period when the expansion of the Limes wall in
stone was tackled during the reign of Septimius Severus as shown through
dendrochronological examination of the timbers. In the excavations in
1969, ceramics, an iron knife, a disc brooch with an enamel inlay, and a
sesterce of Julia Mamaea were uncovered.A couple of yards from the two stone towers is a replica wooden tower with a surrounding balcony which was reconstructed in 1966. However, when this had to be demolished due to its dilapidation, a new structure was built in 2008 that corresponds to the latest scientific findings and therefore no longer has a platform. It was formally inaugurated in the presence of the President of the State Office for Monument Preservation, Dieter Planck, based on the determination of Dietwulf Baatz who sought to replace the typical view of the type of wooden watchtowers based on Trajan's column which still dominate the public's imagination. In order to climb inside it, one needs to go to Schwabsberg's town hall to ask for the key.
The triumphal arch at Dalkingen
built for Caracalla on the occasion of his successful Germanic
campaign, probably to
impress the defeated Germanic tribes and built from a later stone
gatehouse. There was probably a passage through the Limes already at the
time when the Limes was still secured with wooden palisades and wooden
towers. The passage through the Limes from Dalkingen changed over time
from a simple control point to a strongly secured border station due to
the expansion of the Limes. Around 160, when the Limes still consisted
of a simple wattle bridle with wooden watchtowers in between, the
passage was a simple guarded gate in the Limes, which was controlled by
the soldiers stationed in the watchtower. Over
the course of time a gatehouse, also made of wood, was added next to
the watchtower, in which further office and watch rooms were located. 
By
190 the wooden watchtower was replaced by a stone tower, but the
gatehouse and the wooden palisade remained unchanged. It wasn't until
206 that all the buildings in the passage were demolished and replaced
by a 12.6 x 9.3 metre stone gatehouse with a 2.1 metre wide gateway that
was integrated directly into the stone Limes wall. Since the watchtower
interfered with it, it was rebuilt at another location nearby. In the
last construction phase between 213 and 214 on the occasion of the
victorious campaign of Caracalla against the Alemanni, a 13-metre-high
grand gate, which resembled a triumphal arch erected and a larger than
life bronze statue of the emperor erected. A gate of this type has not
been found anywhere else in the entire Limes and is therefore to be
regarded as unique. According to a fragmentary inscribed source, the Acta Fratrum Arvalium,
the emperor crossed the Rhaetian border on August 11, 213 in the fight
against the Germanic tribes. Besides the ruins of the arch there have
been many conspicuous small finds, particularly noteworthy of which are
around fifty bronze fragments of a larger-than-life statue of Caracalla
of excellent quality, most of which were picked up on the front side in
front of the southwestern front of the former archway. The statue's
sword pommel adorned with an eagle's head and other stylistic elements
refer to the early 3rd century. Among pieces of the statue's sword and
armour were numerous decorative swastikas:
Presumably
in 233 the gate was set on fire and destroyed during the Alemanni
invasions and never rebuilt. A denarius minted between 231 and 235 from
the reign of Severus Alexander is considered the last minted coin found
at the Limestor. The Limestor was excavated between 1974 and 1975, but
has since been heavily exposed to the weather. In 2010 a glass cube was
erected over the remains of the foundation wall to stop the remaining
substance from decaying. In addition, the triumphal arch was visualised
on a floating metal construction covered with printed tarpaulin. Today
one can still see the original remains of the walls as well as the
impressive size and the former appearance of the gate.
At
the site of the fortlet at Halheim which had covered an area of 0.67
hectares, with sides 80 × 82.5 metres in length which are visualised
through the use of trees planted to mimic the walls and towers. It had
been built during Marcus Aurelius’s reign arund 160 and would have
housed a numerus, a unit belonging to the Roman auxiliary forces, but
not as standardised. The need for such small units for border
surveillance grew enormously, which also had financial consequences for
the empire leading to young locals being recruited regionally and
assigned to newly established locations with lower pay and less strict
standards. These numera, like the auxilia, would have been named after
their original ethnic origin but would not have received Roman
citizenship when they were released. The fortlet was probably destroyed
during the Germanic incursions in 254; coins found offer 241 as the terminus post quem
for the fortlet’s destruction. The ruins of the fortlet were still
visible in the 19th century when, in 1884, an iron depot contaning
nearly seven hundred metal objects, mostly arrowheads, were uncovered.
However, as the field name "Buschelacker" ("Buschel" = South German for
Burgstall ) indicates, the knowledge of an old fortification was never
completely lost.
At watchtower 13/2
at Mönchsroth where I camped out one night, showing how it appears and
as it might have originally looked. This tower stump was built in 1986
from frost-proof sandstone as a partial replica of a Limes tower. The
Limes itself and the site on which the tower is believed to have stood
are further north. In building the replica, an attempt was made to
create the impression of a collapsed wall. Originally, all Limes towers
had an outer layer of white lime plaster, onto which grooves were
painted in red. As in the forts, these were intended to create the
illusion from a distance of solid ashlar masonry It is important to
distinguish between a replica and a reconstruction. A true
reconstruction requires detailed plans and information relating to the
monument as a whole. Along the Limes, such replicas of course can only
be realised on the basis of general tradition dating from classical
antiquity, which offer no more than an approximate overall impression of
the original conditions. They are, however, of significant value as a
source of information to visitors seeking a better understanding of the
Roman frontier. South of the Mönchsroth-Wittenbach road, in the "Unterer
Espan" forest, are the remains of a wooden and stone tower at watchtower
13/3.
Cycling past the Roman graveyard (now displaying copies of Roman stone monuments at Römerpark Ruffenhofen) towards Ruffenhofen fort and as it would have appeared at the time. The fort is located on a hill north of the Alb mountain, between the forts at Oberdorf and Gnotzheim, above
the Wörnitz in the border area between the municipalities of
Weiltingen, Wittelshofen and Gerolfingen, and about a mile away from the
Limes. It was a cavalry fort with an interior area of about 3.74
hectares which has never been built on since antiquity. Its structures
and its civilian settlement are known from geophysical investigations
and have been visualised for visitors since 2003.
It had been constructed during Hadrian’s
reign and was operational until the middle of the 3rd century, when
it fell victim to flames, as indicated by a thick burnt layer found
amongst the ruins of the towers, the principia and the horreum. 
It had apparently been garrisoned by the cohors III Batavorum. until 118 when evidence for the garrison is lost to the historical record. Coins found at the site date the fall of the fort at Ruffenhofen to the period during or after 244/247. Both the size of the barracks and the presence of drainage in the stable barracks buildings suggest that Ruffenhofen housed an unidentified ala. It has been proposed that from 175 to the middle of the 3rd century the fort was garrisoned by the cohors IX Batavorum. Inscribed small finds were found at the site displaying the centuria-sign although one artefact had the inscription 'turma' which again suggests the presence of a cavalry unit. What sets the current site apart from others is the use of plantings through trees and hedges to offer a visualisation of the site. There is also this 1:10 scale fort replica that allows for an understanding of what it would have looked like shown above.
At watchtower 13/2
at Mönchsroth where I camped out one night, showing how it appears and
as it might have originally looked. This tower stump was built in 1986
from frost-proof sandstone as a partial replica of a Limes tower. The
Limes itself and the site on which the tower is believed to have stood
are further north. In building the replica, an attempt was made to
create the impression of a collapsed wall. Originally, all Limes towers
had an outer layer of white lime plaster, onto which grooves were
painted in red. As in the forts, these were intended to create the
illusion from a distance of solid ashlar masonry It is important to
distinguish between a replica and a reconstruction. A true
reconstruction requires detailed plans and information relating to the
monument as a whole. Along the Limes, such replicas of course can only
be realised on the basis of general tradition dating from classical
antiquity, which offer no more than an approximate overall impression of
the original conditions. They are, however, of significant value as a
source of information to visitors seeking a better understanding of the
Roman frontier. South of the Mönchsroth-Wittenbach road, in the "Unterer
Espan" forest, are the remains of a wooden and stone tower at watchtower
13/3.
Cycling past the Roman graveyard (now displaying copies of Roman stone monuments at Römerpark Ruffenhofen) towards Ruffenhofen fort and as it would have appeared at the time. The fort is located on a hill north of the Alb mountain, between the forts at Oberdorf and Gnotzheim, above
the Wörnitz in the border area between the municipalities of
Weiltingen, Wittelshofen and Gerolfingen, and about a mile away from the
Limes. It was a cavalry fort with an interior area of about 3.74
hectares which has never been built on since antiquity. Its structures
and its civilian settlement are known from geophysical investigations
and have been visualised for visitors since 2003.
It had been constructed during Hadrian’s
reign and was operational until the middle of the 3rd century, when
it fell victim to flames, as indicated by a thick burnt layer found
amongst the ruins of the towers, the principia and the horreum. 
It had apparently been garrisoned by the cohors III Batavorum. until 118 when evidence for the garrison is lost to the historical record. Coins found at the site date the fall of the fort at Ruffenhofen to the period during or after 244/247. Both the size of the barracks and the presence of drainage in the stable barracks buildings suggest that Ruffenhofen housed an unidentified ala. It has been proposed that from 175 to the middle of the 3rd century the fort was garrisoned by the cohors IX Batavorum. Inscribed small finds were found at the site displaying the centuria-sign although one artefact had the inscription 'turma' which again suggests the presence of a cavalry unit. What sets the current site apart from others is the use of plantings through trees and hedges to offer a visualisation of the site. There is also this 1:10 scale fort replica that allows for an understanding of what it would have looked like shown above.
Deae sanctae Victoriae / ob barbaros gentis Semnonum / sive Iouthungorum die / VIII et VII Kal(endarum) Maiar(um) caesos / fugatosque a militibus prov(inciae) / Raetiae sed et Germanicianis / itemque popularibus excussis / multis milibus Italorum captivor(um) / compos votorum suorum / [[M(arcus) Simplicinius Genialis v(ir) p(erfectissimus) a(gens) v(ices) p(raesidis)]] / [[cum eodem exercitu]] / libens merito posuit / dedicata III Idus Septemb(res) Imp(eratore) d(omino) n(ostro) / [[Postumo Au]]g(usto) et [[Honoratiano co(n)s(ulibus)]].
The
mention of the rebel emperor Postumus dates the creation of the altar
to September 11, 260. Made of Jura limestone, it's 1.56 metres in height
and was found in 1992 by construction workers in Jakobvorstadt in a
former section of the Lech, almost 400 metres from the former Roman town
making it possible that it was originally displayed at a river
crossing. The stone probably also had a statue of the goddess Victoria,
but this is now lost with only the base surviving. It was a recycled
monument with its original dedication, dating to the time of Severus
Alexander, still legible above the actual inscription as it was hidden
under a lipped stone lid, as were working marks on the side corners of
the cornice.
At the beginning of the second century the Romans erected a small fort in a valley right next to the Limes. This fort at Dambach is
unique given its elongated shape due to the history of its
construction. It is also special from its late construction, its two
large camp villages whose remains can be found in the neighbouring woods
shown below, and the partly unique finds due to the soil that has
retained moisture since ancient times. A local spring shrine with a
large number of votive offerings is also striking. The foundations of
the fort consisted of marshy land due to the river baselets and its
layer of clay, which has led to uniquely well-preserved wood findings,
especially in the vicus- the camp village. The
fort was extended around 200 CE and garrisoned by the cohors II
Aquitanorum which had relocated here after its fort near Castra Regina
was destroyed during the Marcomannic wars. They were stationed here
until the fort’s destruction in the middle of the 3rd century. The
latest coins from Dambach can be dated to the reign of Philip the Arab.
In 1966, a number of finds were reported from the fort and the camp
village, including a gem, bronze implements and pendants, four lance
tips and an arrowhead as well as various iron tools and keys. The
construction and expansion of three carp ponds between 1958 and 1986
made emergency excavations and observations necessary in the eastern
part of the former camp village. The uncontrolled destruction caused by
fish farming, in addition to the older interventions, led to a complete
loss of substance in the known areas between 2002 and 2006 alone and
ruined any further research efforts.
250
metres from the fort and roughly fifty metres behind the Limes wall are
light earth walls that delineate an oval area where, in Roman times,
there was probably a small amphitheatre of wood and earth construction
now hidden in the thick undergrowth shown here. The inner dimensions of
the slightly ellipsoidal circle are just under 700 square metres. The
slight elevations in the ground made three entrances visible during the
excavation in the 19th century, one each from the west, east and south.
Another similar such structure is in Wales at Fort Tomen y Mur.
It is believed that gladiatores militares were sent from the legionary
camps to the Limes, and animal hunts and gladiator fights were held here
in a reduced form for a relatively undemanding audience for special
events and holidays. 
Remains
of buildings from the vicus. The area of this apparently very late
civil settlement will never be fully analysed given the construction of
ponds and the large Kreutweiher lake north of the fort although
accidental finds and emergency excavations by the Bavarian State Office
for Monument Preservation have made it possible to imagine an extensive
vicus that almost or completely enclosed the camp and at least partially
reached directly to the border fortifications. A second vicus nucleus
has also become known located on a wide, south-facing arch of the road
from the eastern camp gate that led to the Unterschwaningen fort. This
camp village was not built in one go, but developed steadily.
At the recreated watchtower at WP 13/41 on the eastern outskirts of Kleinlellenfeld.
The current name of the town of Pfünz is derived from the Latin pons (= bridge) and clarifies its location at an ancient crossing over the Altmühl.
