Bonn gets on the record

Around 11 BC the Roman commander Drusus had a bridge built across the Rhine in the Bonn area as part of the planned offensive against still unoccupied territories in the direction of the river Elbe. The name “Bonna” goes “on the record” between 13 and 9 BC, i.e. it was named for the first time by the Roman author Florus.
As we now know the offensive in the Teutoburg forest failed. As a result the troops stationed in Cologne were transferred to Neuss and Bonn. The previously insignificant camp in Bonn thus became a legionary fortress, the “Castra Bonnensia”. The fortress, which accommodated approx. 7,000 soldiers became the starting point of the first thousand years in which people settled in the Bonn area. In addition to the suburban town connected to the fortress (canabae legionis) a civilian settlement developed further to the south in which more than 10,000 people lived at times. Numerous estates, which supplied the camp with foods, were established in its near vicinity.