Editing Bonn (section)

===Founding and Roman period===
{{Unreferenced section|date=February 2008}}
[[File:2008-12-25 Bonn Sterntor.jpg|left|thumb|The {{ill|Sterntor (Bonn)|de|Sterntor (Bonn)|lt=Sterntor}}, originally built {{Circa|1244|lk=no}}, is a gate reconstructed on the remnants of the medieval city wall.]]
The history of the city dates back to Roman times. In about 12 BC, the [[Roman army]] appears to have stationed a small unit in what is presently the historical centre of the city. Even earlier, the army had resettled members of a Germanic tribal group allied with Rome, the [[Ubii]], in Bonn. The Latin name for that settlement, "Bonna", may stem from the original population of this and many other settlements in the area, the [[Eburones|Eburoni]]. Bona is [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] for tribe.<ref>Xavier Delamarre, ''Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise'', Errance 2003. S. 82.</ref> The Eburoni were members of a large tribal coalition effectively wiped out during the final phase of [[Julius Caesar|Caesar]]'s [[Gallic Wars|War in Gaul]]. After several decades, the army gave up the small camp linked to the Ubii-settlement. During the 1st century [[Anno Domini|AD]], the army then chose a site to the north of the emerging town in what is now the section of Bonn-Castell to build a large military installation dubbed [[Castra]] Bonnensis, i.e., literally, "Fort Bonn". Initially built from wood, the fort was eventually rebuilt in stone. With additions, changes and new construction, the fort remained in use by the army into the waning days of the [[Western Roman Empire]], possibly the mid-5th century. The structures themselves remained standing well into the [[Middle Ages]], when they were called the Bonnburg. They were used by [[Kingdom of the Franks|Frankish]] kings until they fell into disuse. Eventually, much of the building materials seem to have been re-used in the construction of Bonn's 13th-century [[Defensive wall|city wall]]. The {{ill|Sterntor (Bonn)|de|Sterntor|lt=Sterntor}} (''star gate'') in the city center is a reconstruction using the last remnants of the medieval city wall.

To date, Bonn's Roman fort remains the largest fort of its type known from the [[Ancient history|ancient world]], i.e. a fort built to accommodate a full-strength [[Roman legion|Imperial Legion]] and its auxiliaries. The fort covered an area of approximately {{convert|250000|m2|acre}}. Between its walls it contained a dense grid of streets and a multitude of buildings, ranging from spacious headquarters and large officers' quarters to [[barracks]], [[stable]]s and a [[Military prison|military jail]]. Among the legions stationed in Bonn, the "1st", i.e. the [[Legio I Minervia|Prima Legio Minervia]], seems to have served here the longest. Units of the Bonn legion were deployed to theatres of war ranging from modern-day [[Algeria]] to what is now the Russian republic of [[Chechnya]].
[[File:Altes Rathaus Bonn.jpg|thumb|The ''Altes Rathaus'' (old town hall) as seen from the central market square. It was built in 1737 in the [[Rococo]] style.]]

The chief [[Roman roads|Roman road]] linking the provincial capitals of Cologne and [[Mainz]] cut right through the fort where it joined the fort's main road (now, Römerstraße). Once past the South Gate, the Cologne–Mainz road continued along what are now streets named Belderberg, Adenauerallee et al. On both sides of the road, the local settlement, ''Bonna'', grew into a sizeable Roman town. Bonn is shown on the 4th century [[Tabula Peutingeriana|Peutinger Map]].

In [[late antiquity]], much of the town seems to have been destroyed by marauding invaders. The remaining civilian population then took refuge inside the fort along with the remnants of the troops stationed here. During the final decades of Imperial rule, the troops were supplied by [[Franks|Franci]] chieftains employed by the Roman administration. When the end came, these troops simply shifted their allegiances to the new barbarian rulers, the [[Kingdom of the Franks]]. From the fort, the Bonnburg, as well as from a new medieval settlement to the South centered around what later became the [[Bonn Minster|minster]], grew the medieval city of Bonn. Local legends arose from this period that the name of the village came from [[Saint Boniface]] via [[Vulgar Latin]] ''*Bonnifatia'', but this proved to be a myth.