Once a small village, until the Gallic wars brought Julius Caesar and his legions there, the Teveri tribe – half-Germanic, half-Celtic – is said to have built small fortifications on a likely site on the river Mosel. Later to become the site of a great Romano-Germanic city named after the Divine Augustus, the village’s tribal name was, perhaps, Trebata.

Our earliest source on the Treveri was Julius Caesar, who in his commentaries, mentioned that the Treveri were war-like and known for their horsemanship. He said they had the best calvary in all of Gaul. The area in which the Treveri lived is very hilly and their life was based much more on hunting than agriculture. Their world was one of hill forts, druids and rival chieftains.

Unfortunately Caesar does not tell much about their way of living, and we do not know if the Treveri had any cities that might qualify for the term “urbs”. They probably were less-dependant on cities than the other tribes. War-like people that they were, Caesar had to face with 2 uprisings of the Treveri.

One of their leaders, Indutionomarus, actually gained victory over a legion during one of them. Eventually Caesar restored the rest by taking 4 legions to supress the uprising and he appointed one of the Treveri-chieftains who was favourable to the Romans as leader of the tribes.

After Caesar’s wars, Trebata was then refounded and rebuilt by Augustus Caesar on the Roman model in 16 BC. Augustus himself stayed in the city sometime between 16-13 BC and, in his honor, the town was renamed Augusta Trevororum and given the status of a “colonia.” Over time, Augusta Trevororum gave way to its more common name – Treveris. Still a provincial town, the street plan of the city did not really begin to look like a genuine Roman city until the time of the Emperor Claudius. In the four generations between Caesar’s conquests and the time of Claudius, as much of Germania became a part of Rome’s world, the people of Augusta Trevororum – later shortened to Treveris – began adjusting to the Roman way of life. Trier was one of only 3 “coloniae” that lied in present-day Germany and the Low Countries. The other 2 “Coloniae” were Cologne and Xanten.

Roman Trier

This map to Roman Trier notes the following major Roman buildings:

1. The Basilica or Cathedral;
2. The Imperial Palace
3. The Circus;
4. The Amphitheatre
5. The Imperial Baths;
6. The Forum
7. The Baths of Barbara;
8. The Temple of Asclepius, or hospital
9. Portra Nigra (city gate)
10. Roman Temple
11. City Markets and Baths;
12. The main Imperial bridge across the Mosel
13. Trade warehouses.

The first Roman mention of this Germanic city, now known as Treveris, was in a document written by Lucius Caesar (grandson of Augustus) in 3 BC; he was its ‘consul designatus.’ Due to its favorable position on the river, the town grew quickly and would eventually become one of the most important cities in either of the two Romano-German provinces. Treveris not only sat on a trading river, but it’s great export was wood from the great forests that enveloped the area. The city grew so quickly and became so wealthy with the timber and shipping merchants living there, that in 40 AD, the Roman Geographer, Pomponius Mela, called Treveris an urbs opulentissima, a most prosperous and opulent city and the most beautifull town in Gaul. Administrative buildings sprang up and Treveris became one of the most important administrative centers in the northern Empire.

In 180 A.D., partially to defend the city, the Romans built a great wall around the city, 4 miles in length, with five great castellated gates, such as the Porta Nigra. A great amphitheatre was built for the entertainment of Treveris’ citizens. A stone bridge crossed the Moselle. The imperial baths – the Thermae - were patronized by all and said to be the greatest bathing complex north of Rome.

By 268, Treveris had become the capital of all German and Gallic lands still under Roman control. The Emperor Diocletian had made in one of the 4 capitals of the Roman empire. Because of its wealth, its many important buildings, and its trading capital, invading Germanic tribes sacked the city in 275 but the Emperors restored the city to its former glory. Treveris was the capital of the breakaway “Gallic Empire” from 259 to 274. The Emperor Diocletian lived there from 293 and favored it above all imperial cities – including Rome. By this time, 293 AD, the city recovered and regained its status as one of the great capitals of the Roman Empire. In that year Constantius Chlorus became Emperor of the Western Empire and made the city a center of arts and sciences. Thans to favourable policy by the emporer, Trier became a large producer of woolens and wine.

Treveris reached its zenith of imperial glory when, from 306 to 312 BC, Constantine the Great, the son of Constantius Chlorus, made it his residence of choice, building a great basilica for imperial administration. Constantine the Great also build a palace in Trier. Local chieftains who visited had to go trough a long impressive hallway, entering the grand throne room of Constantince. The Palace was constructed to convince the locals to what great thing the Roman Empire was capable. Many Roman emperors lived in Treveris while on progress to Rome’s provinces north of the Alps. In the 4th century, the city may have numbered between 60,000 and 80,000 inhabitants. From the time of Constantine, Treveris became one of the great Christian centers of the north and cathedrals were built on the foundations of outmoded Imperial palaces. Building on earlier Imperial palaces, Constantine’s palace and basilica and the “Porta Nigra” (black gatehouse) were the most prestigious parts of the now-great city. Some even called Treveris the “Second Rome.” Until 395 Treveris was the capital of the Western Roman Empire. But as the Empire’s strength ebbed, trade became disrupted and Trier began its long decline until, in 475, it was sacked and conquered by the Franks. It stopped being the empire in 395 because the Romans could not defend it effectively against the many German tribes anymore, and they moved the capital of the Western Empire to Arles. At some point, its Roman name disappeared and it changed from Augusta Treverorum in the beginning, to the commenly used Treveris, to eventually Trevis and, finally, the Germanic Trier.