Mogontiacum (also Moguntiacum) is the Latin name of today's city of Mainz, which it bore during its almost 500 years as part of the Roman Empire. Mogontiacum had its origins in the legionary camp built by Drusus in 13/12 BCE, which was strategically located on a hill above the Rhine and opposite the mouth of the Main on the Roman Rhine valley road.
The civilian settlements (vici) in the vicinity of the camp, which spread down the Rhine, quickly grew together to form a larger, urbanised settlement. However, unlike Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium (Cologne) or Augusta Treverorum (Trier), Mogontiacum was primarily a military centre until the second half of the 4th century and was apparently not a colonia either. As a result, the city never had the urban character of the other large Roman cities in Germany. Nevertheless, several monumental buildings were also erected here, as Mogontiacum was the provincial capital of the Roman province of Germania Superior with the seat of the governor as of the year 90 at the latest. After the middle of the 3rd century, when the Decumatian Fields were cleared, Mogontiacum once again became a border town and was devastated several times over the next 150 years by members of various Germanic peoples. After the end of the Roman period, but at the latest around 470, Mogontiacum belonged to the Frankish Kingdom after a brief transitional phase.
