Mogontiacum (Mainz)

Mogontiacum: Roman city, capital of Germania Superior, important military base, modern Mainz.

Cenotaph of Drusus

This is the "Drususstein", the Drusus memorial. You will find it in Mainz' interesting seventeenth-century citadel. Actually there is some doubt whether it really is the cenotaph of the Roman general, who died in 9 BCE after he had founded Mainz and conquered the valleys of the rivers Lippe and Main. The identification is as early as the Middle Ages and may therefore be based on accurate memories, but archaeologists have identified tombs from a later age in the neighborhood. This can mean that the large stone tower is younger than is generally accepted, but can also mean that people wanted to be buried near the city's founder.

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Milestone

A replica of an ancient milestone at the crossing of the Betzelsstraße and the Fuststraße modern Mainz.

The next photos are from monuments and inscriptions from the Landesmuseum. The first one is interesting, because the man who was buried there and his brother were not native Romans, but Parthians, born in Cilicia.

ANTIOCHVS ANTIOCHI Filius
PARTHVS ANAZ-
ARBAEVS EQVES
ALA PARTHORVM
ET ARABORVM ECO-
CATVS TRIPLICARIVS
STIPendiorum X DONIS DON-
ATYVS BELESIPPVS
FRATER POSVIT

Antiochus, son of Antiochus,
a Parthian, from Anaz-
arba, cavalryman from
the Squadron of Parthians
and Arabs, evo-
catus with triple pay,
after 10 years of service, decorated with de-
corations. Belesippus
his brother erectedthis.

This is the tombstone of a mounted archer named Maris, son of Casitus. Like the Antiochus of the monument above, Maris was a member of the Squadron of Parthians and Arabs, in which his brothers Masicates and Tigranus appear to have fought as well.

The tombstone of a couple; their names are lost. The woman, standing, wears a native dress and jewelry; the man also has a typical native dress with a hoof, a cucullus. It can be dated to the second century. It is interesting to see that in the first century, civil monuments are almost absent from the archaeological evidence; in the second century, when the military base became less important and the city was prospering, they become much more numerous.

Finally, the tombstone of a girl. In Mainz, as everywhere in the ancient world, about two third of the people were dead before they had reached the age of ten. On these pages, you have seen the tombs of thirteen men and one woman. To make the balance more accurate, we would have needed the tombs of about twelve women, twenty-seven children, and twenty-eight babies.