Asciburgium
- an ancient town in Gallia Belgica, on the Rhine, now Asburg (but acc. to Mann Gall. 250, now Essenberg; opp. Duisburg), Tac. G. 3; id. H. 4, 33.
ASCIBU´RGIUM or ASCIBURGIA (Ἀσκιβούργιον), a town near the left bank of the lower Rhine, the foundation of which was attributed to Ulysses, according to an absurd story reported by Tacitus (German. 3). It was a Roman station in A.id. 70. (Tac. Hist. 4.33.) In the Peutinger Table it is placed between Novesium or Neuss, opposite to Düsseldorf on the Rhine, and Vetera, probably Xanten. Asciburgium then will correspond to Asburg, which is on the high road between Neuss and Xanten. The Anton. Itin. places Gelduba and Calo between Novesium and Vetera, and omits Asciburgium.
[G.L]The modern Asburg; an ancient town on the left bank of the Rhine.
An auxiliary castellum of the limes Germaniac Inferioris. The existence of a pre-Roman settlement has been deduced from place names and Tacitus (Germ. 3). A camp with wooden buildings was constructed perhaps in the reign of Drusus but certainly in the first decade A.D., as the first of a succession of camps. Until ca. A.D. 70 it was the garrison for the ala (I Tungrorum) Frontoniana, afterwards for the ala Moesica. To the W was a vicus and a necropolis. The camp was destroyed during the uprising of the Batavi (A.D. 70; Tac. Hist. 4.33). Most finds are in the Niederrheinisches Museum in Duisburg.
BIBLIOGRAPHYH. v. Petrikovits, “Asciburgium,” Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde (2d ed. 1971); T. Bechert, Rheinische Ausgrabungen 12 (1972) 147ff; id., Archäologisches Korrespondenzblatt 3 (1973) 39ff; G. Krause, Quellenschriften zur Westdeutschen Vor-u. Fruhgeschichte 9 (1974) 115ff.
H. VON PETRIKOVITS