Location information

Nigrumpullum

ZWAMMERDAM (Town) SOUTH HOLLAND
Nigrumpullum (Zwammerdam) S Holland, Netherlands.
Roman castellum on the Old Rhine ca. 20 km E of Leiden. Three periods are to be distinguished in its development. Little remains of the oldest settlement, which was built, judging from the pottery, in the middle of the 1st c. A.D. as part of the reorganization of frontier defenses by Corbulo (Tac. Ann. 11.20). A thick burnt layer, however, recalls its violent end during the rebellion of the Bataves in A.D. 69 (Tac. Hist. 4.15).
  In Flavian times the castellum was rebuilt (134.4 x 76.4 m); the wall, portae principales, and two ditches have been found. The broad facade of this fortress is striking. The material for bricks was supplied by Legio X stationed at Nijmegen and Legio XXII Primigenia stationed at Xanten. In 2d c. repairs, however, roof tiles produced by vexillarii of the army of Lower Germany were used. At this time a civilian settlement developed to the SW; the houses lie on a road parallel to the wall of the fort.
  About A.D. 175 the castellum was rebuilt in stone (140.6 x 86 m). Most of its roof tiles were made by the exercitus Germanicus inferior on the Holdeurn near Nijmegen. A few pieces bear the names of the later emperor Didius Iulianus, governor of Germania inferior ca. A.D. 178, and of the unknown consularis Iunius Macr. Some time afterwards the principia was replaced by a stone building (42 x 27 m), distinguished from the standard type of headquarters by a facade with columns. The stone wall of the fort, four gates, and three ditches have been found, and the two main roads intersecting at right angles, the via principalis and the via praetoria. Outside the fort are the foundations of a bath house (?).
  On the N the castellum was protected by the Rhine, following a course now silted up. Here several embankments were found, which appear to correspond to the building phases of the fort. In part of the last embankments were six remarkably well-preserved ships showing different types of boats evolved from the simple dug-out canoe.
  The garrison probably consisted of all or part of a cohors equitata. The latest known coin dates from Severus Alexander or perhaps Tacitus (275-276), and the pottery of the last period is very similar to that from Niederbieber (A.D. 190-260). A final date after the 2d quarter of the 3d c. therefore seems likely.

J.K. Haalebos, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites, Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Feb 2006 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.

• http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Per...