Driel

Q1425716

Driel: probable location of a Roman fort on the Rhine limes.

The Roman settlement near modern Driel in the Netherlands was close to the river Rhine and the remains must have eroded. However, many stray finds, including a large collection of metal objects from the second half of the first century CE, have been discovered in and near the river. Other objects were found directly east of the modern village at a site called Baarskamp.

It has been suggested that the settlement was a fort, built when the Roman general Germanicus attacked the Germanic tribes (14-16 CE). It is possible that a cavalry unit ("the turma of Gaius") guarded a ford in or ferry across the Rhine. However, it may also have been a civil settlement.

This page was created in 2003; last modified on 10 August 2020.