Augusta Raurica
The Roman theatre in Augusta Raurica
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 Shown within Switzerland
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| Alternate name | Colonia Augusta Rauracorum |
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| Location | Augst, Basel-Landschaft, Switzerland |
| Region | Germania Superior |
| Coordinates | 47°32′2″N 7°43′17″E / 47.53389°N 7.72139°ECoordinates: 47°32′2″N 7°43′17″E / 47.53389°N 7.72139°E |
| Type | Settlement |
| History | |
| Builder | Lucius Munatius Plancus |
| Founded | Around 44 BC |
| Abandoned | Around 260 AD |
| Periods | Roman Republic to Roman Empire |
| Site notes | |
| Website | augustaraurica |
Augusta Raurica is a Roman archaeological site and an open-air museum in Switzerland located on the south bank of the Rhine river about 20 km east of Basel near the villages of Augst and Kaiseraugst. It is the site of the oldest known Roman colony on the Rhine.
Augusta Raurica, or Colonia Augusta Rauracorum, was founded by Lucius Munatius Plancus around 44 BC in the vicinity of a local Gallic tribe, the Rauraci, relatives of the Helvetii. No archaeological evidence from this period has yet been found, leading to the conclusion that, either the settlement of the colony was disturbed by the civil war following the death of Julius Caesar, or that Plancus' colony was actually in the area of modern Basel, not Augst.
Successful colonization of the site had to wait for Augustus' conquest of the central Alps around 15 BC. The oldest find to date at Augusta Raurica has been dated to 6 BC by dendrochronology.
The inscription on Munatius Plancus' grave merely states the name of the colony as Colonia Raurica. A fragmentary inscription from the Augustinian period speaks of the Colonia P[aterna] (?) M[unatia] (?) [Felix] (?) [Apolli]naris [Augusta E]merita [Raur]ica (letters in brackets are reconstructions). Apart from this fragmentary reference, the first certain witness to the use of the name Augustus comes from the geographer Ptolemy in the Ancient Greek form Augústa Rauríkon (lat. Augusta Rauricorum).
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