Thread by @MikeStuchbery_

Having played a bit of @ExpeditionsGame, I've been more interested in understanding at what my immediate surroundings were like at the time of the Roman Empire.

So, I decided to find out...

First things first - if I woke up sometime in the late first century, not only would I find myself in the middle of expansive forests, but I'd be on a frontier - the Roman province of Germania Superior, on the 'Limes', or imperial border.

The 'Limes' were a wood and earthen border stretching across what is now Germany from Nordrhein-Westfalen to Bayern.

Regular watchtowers and forts would guard the border from the possibility of raiding Germanic tribes.

My local centre would have been at Bad Canstatt (Roman name unknown) which was a cavalry first probably used by troops from Hispania. So, basically, Maximus. 🤣

It also guarded the road between Mainz (Mogontiacum) and Augsburg (Augusta Vindelicorum), two important settlements.

For the most part, life was peaceful. There was far more trading with the tribes over the border than fighting for centuries, and Cannstatt's fort eventually had a vicus (civilian settlement) and a couple of villas nearby, as well as a cemetery.

Behind the border, within the Empire, life in Germania Superior wasn't too bad. Villas built there had beautiful mosaics, implying long periods of peace and prosperity, and troops had baths built. Both of these are found at Aria Flaviae, or Rottweil, as it's known today.

Essentially, life near Bad Canstatt or the Stuttgart metropolitan area wasn't too shabby for the three hundred or so years the Romans kicked about in the area.

The grapes the Romans brought grew, and would eventually become a huge industry. There were springs nearby too.

Eventually Cannstatt would fall to advancing Alemannic tribes and things would get seriously, outrageously violent - but that's a story for another time, I think... /FIN