From the late seventies to the early nineties a series of books was published by the Theiss Verlag entitled ‘Die Römer in … ’. The six volumes covered the five German Länder with a Roman presence as well as Switzerland and thus parts of Raetia, Germania inferior and Germania superior. Each volume offered an introductory text on the Roman history and Roman remains in the area covered, followed by a detailed gazetteer, with short site-specific bibliographies and a short overall bibliography. Edited by the heads of the archaeological services and the leading academics in the field and several times updated, they became the standard introductions and points of reference for amateurs and professional academics alike.
Nearly 40 years after initial publication, these volumes are in dire need of updating and have become a testimony to their period of research. One of the most lamented problems was the fact that Germania superior was split across four volumes (while still omitting the c. 30 per cent of the province in modern-day France). Each volume painted a very different picture of this province, reflecting the regional differences between the fertile, but militarily dominated Wetterau north of Frankfurt and the mostly civilian Swiss lowlands, with their large cities and substantial palatial villa sites.
Even the much applauded Transformation web-site hosted by the RGZM (http://www2.rgzm.de/transformation/home/frames.htm) was not able to overcome this problem, as it, too, was constrained by the modern countries participating in the project (and thus had to omit the French and Swiss evidence). An overview actually covering the whole area of the province was thus clearly needed, and Klee has to be congratulated for filling this gap. With 246 pages it is about the length of the introductions of the ‘Römer in …’ series and follows a similar internal logic, providing a general introduction, and then progressing in three parts from the arrival of the Romans and the creation of the province to the formal constitution of the province under Domitian to the main part covering the history of the province from Domitian to a.d. 284. This section also covers the material culture of the province. The final part is dedicated to the history of the area after the end of the administrative province in the reforms of Diocletian to the middle of the fifth century.
The text has no in-text referencing, but is followed by an appendix of the known civitates of Germania superior, a new German translation of the Testament of the Lingon and a 10-page bibliography and detailed index. The bibliography is classified by subjects and includes detailed scholarly articles (up to 2011) as well as a general introduction.
The text attempts to balance the very divergent evidence from the different parts of the province on the right and left banks of the Rhine. Instead of the dominant image of the militarily dominated province with small towns and the ubiquitous Eckrisalitvilla, K. presents a province that on the right bank has its roots deep in the traditions and power structures of the Iron Age, and whose material culture, while using Roman architectural vocabulary, is defined by the needs and expectations of the indigenous tribes, especially their élite. The traditional image cited above is limited to the left bank of the province, an area that K. more than once compares with the American Wild West, with regard to both its settlement development and its multicultural background.
The book is produced by Verlag Friedrich Pustet, a relatively new archaeological publisher that is rapidly acquiring a reputation for well-produced and colourful, but comparatively inexpensive books, and this volume is no exception. The book contains 143 colour illustrations and the reviewer could only find one picture error (fig. 117 shows one of the figurine deposits from the Isis-sanctuary in Mainz and not an amphora with mackerels). However, the beautiful production cannot distract from the quality of the maps, or more accurately the integration of maps and text. Some of the maps presented are lacking the essential keys to make them useful (e.g. Abb. 13). Moreover, given the history of research, it is unlikely that even experts will be familiar with micro-regions and topographical features in the different parts of the province. Thus a map that lists the rivers and micro-regions in the introduction would have added much to the enjoyment of the book as would the addition of the smaller sites mentioned to the repeated maps in the inside covers of the book.
However, while these quibbles may be annoying (and will hopefully be fixed in the second edition), the overall impression is one of a desideratum finally achieved and I am sure that the volume will become a useful introduction both for newcomers to the subject and for those trying to put their region into the context of a much larger and very diverse Roman province.
