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ARENTSBURG (Town) NETHERLANDS
Forum Hadriani (Arentsburg) S Holland, Netherlands.
Country seat in the village of Voorburg, near The Hague, where Roman remains have
been found since the 16th c.: foundations, mosaic floors, tiles, pottery, glass,
jewelry, coins, and bronze and iron objects of all kinds. The site was first identified
with Forum Hadriani of the Peutinger Table, after the discovery of a heavy wall
and some stone buildings.
Later several gates were identified, and the W wall found to be ca.
400 m long, the N wall ca. 200. The E side could not be located and to the S a
wall never existed, as the W wall ended on the banks of the Vliet canal, which
was probably the Roman Fossa Corbulonis (Tac. Ann. 11.20; Cass. Dio 60.30.6).
Inside the walls traces of wooden buildings were interpreted as barracks, and
this time the complex was thought to be an auxiliary fort and a base of the Classis
Germanica identified with Praetorium Agrippinae of the Peutinger Table. This is
incompatible, however, with the distances given by the Peutinger Table and the
Antonine Itinerary (368.3ff) on the N road between Lugduno and Noviomagi. Moreover,
the so-called barracks do not resemble ground plans known elsewhere, the walls
and buildings are differently oriented, and the dimensions far too large for an
auxiliary fort. The military character of Arentsburg is not proved by the tiles
with military stamps, nor do the tiles with the stamp C(lassis) G(ermanica) P(ia)
F(idelis) prove that it was a base for the fleet. Furthermore, few military objects
have been found. The first identification was correct.
Arentsburg is the most important Roman site in W Holland and the only
one where nonmilitary inscriptions have been discovered (CIL XIII, 8807-8). Pottery
from the site indicates that some kind of settlement (of the Cananefates) existed
in the first half of the 1st c. It was enlarged considerably after the Batavian
revolt of 69-70, especially under Domitian, and became the capital of the civitas
Cananefatum. The first stone buildings were probably erected in 120-60. Hadrian
gave it the ius nundinarum in 120 or 121, after which it was called Forum Hadriani.
Before 162 it was made a municipium, probably by Marcus Aurelius, and the settlement
lasted until 260-70. It was perhaps reoccupied for some time a little later, as
suggested by coins of Gallienus, Postumus, Claudius II, Constantine, Constantius
II, and some late Roman fibulas. The finds are in the Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden
in Leiden.
B.H. Stolte, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
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