A new look at a very old Town

Roman Trier does not need an introduction to most lovers of Ancient Rome. The Porta Nigra alone ensures that it has a walk-on part in most books on Roman art while the Late Roman Basilica makes must-seet see for anybody with an interest in Late Antiquity.

The fact that it is also a thriving modern town ensures that there is a continuous stream of new research that keeps changing our perceptions and understanding of the city, as was recently demonstrated by the dating of the Porta Nigra to 169/170AD thanks to an oak pile found during recent excavations.

It is thus to be welcomed to find a new book summarising the current state of research. Frank Unruh works at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, and is thus in the perfect place to collate the information.

The result is a book that is extremely lavishly illustrated (thus continuing a longstanding tradition by the German publisher Philipp von Zabern) and presents in a very readable fashion a concise history of the town and its archaeological monuments right up to the year 800AD. The three-page bibliography at the end points to all the publications used for this books.

People familiar with the older guidebooks and summaries will be delighted to find not only a chapter on the military sites in the city, but also a careful step-by-step discussion of the building and later development of the palace and church complexes, which includes a detailed account for the evidence from the 5-7th century in the town.

At slightly larger than A4 this book is (of course) not intended as a site guide, but is an excellent introduction to anybody intending to visit the town.

To sum up, if you are intending to visit Trier or are looking to do some research on the town or on late antiquity on the Rhine, this is definitely one book that should be on your reading list.
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Bibliographical details:
Frank Unruh, Trier. Biographie einer römischen Stadt (Mainz: Philipp von Zabern/WBG 2017) €24,95/GBP21.30.