Agri Decumates

TheAgri DecumatesorDecumates Agri( "Decumatian Fields" ) were a region of theRoman Empire's provinces ofGermania SuperiorandRaetia,covering theBlack Forest,Swabian Jura,andFranconian Juraareas between theRhine,Main,andDanuberivers, in present southwesternGermany,including presentFrankfurt,Stuttgart,Freiburg im Breisgau,andWeißenburg in Bayern.The only ancient reference to the name comes fromTacitus' bookGermania(chapter 29).However, the later geographerClaudius Ptolemydoes mention "the desert of the Helvetians" in this area.

The Roman Empire in AD 120 and Germania, with some Germanic tribes mentioned by Tacitus in AD 98

TheLimes Germanicusand the Agri Decimates

The Upper Germanic & Raetian Limes

Alemannic expansion and Roman-Alemannic battle sites, 3rd to 5th century

The meaning ofDecumatesis lost and has been the subject of much contention. According to the English ClassicistMichael Grant,the word probably refers to an ancient Celtic termindicating the political division of the area into "ten cantons." Another theory is that the term implies that atithewas paid by residents living in this country.

According to Tacitus, the region was originally populated by theCeltictribe of theHelvetii,but soonGermanicand Gaulish settlers arrived. Tacitus writes that:

I should not reckon among the Germanic tribes the cultivators of the tithe-lands [agri decimates], although they are settled on the further side of the Rhine and Danube. Reckless adventurers from Gaul, emboldened by want, occupied this land of questionable ownership. After a while, our frontier having been advanced, and our military positions pushed forward, it was regarded as a remote nook of our empire and a part of a Roman province.

Under theFlavianand later emperors, Romans took control and settled the region.They built a road network for military communications and movements, and improved protection from invading tribes using the region to penetrate intoRoman Gaul.Frontier fortifications (limes) were constructed along a line running Rheinbrohl—Arnsburg—Inheiden—Schierenhof—Gunzenhausen—Pförring (Limes Germanicus).

The larger Roman settlements wereSumolecenna(Rottenburg am Neckar),Civitas Aurelia Aquensis(Baden-Baden),Lopodunum(Ladenburg) andArae Flaviae(Rottweil).

Romans controlled the Agri Decumates region until the mid-3rd century, when the emperorGallienus(259–260) evacuated it before the invadingAlemanniand the secession of much of theWestern Roman Empireunder the "usurper and ruler"Postumus.

The EmperorAurelian(AD 270–275) may have had the region briefly reoccupied during the Roman resurgence of the late 3rd century under the so-called "military" emperors. Even if this did occur, re-establishment of Roman rule was brief. After the EmperorProbus' death (282), the region was finally given up and the Alemanni took control.Germanic peoples have continuously inhabited the region since then.However, Roman settlements were not immediately abandoned. There is evidence the Roman way of life continued well into the 5th century, much as Roman patterns continued in neighboring Gaul long after the Western Roman Empire's collapse.

J. G. F. Hind has suggestedthe former Roman inhabitants of theAgri Decumateswere to be found from the later 3rd to the 5th centuries in theDecem Pagi—also "ten cantons" —having transferred west of the Rhine, to the region between the Rhine and theSaar,betweenMainzandMetz.

Bibliography

• Grant, Michael (1986),A Guide to the Ancient World: A Dictionary of Classical Place Names,New York: H. W. Wilson,ISBN0-7607-4134-4
• Strayer, Joseph R. (1982),Dictionary of the Middle Ages,vol. 1, New York: Scribner,ISBN0-684-18276-9
• Jankuhn, Herbert; Beck, Heinrich, eds. (1984),Reallexikon der germanischen Altertumskunde,vol. 5, Berlin: de Gruyter,ISBN3-11-009635-8
• Syme, Ronald, ed. (1958),Tacitus,vol. 1, Oxford: Clarendon Press