Confluentes

Confluentes (Coblenz), a town in Gallia, at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel, is first mentioned by Suetonius. [AMBIATINUS.] Ammianus (16.3) describes it as a place ubi amnis Mosella confunditur Rheno. This description and the identity of the name prove the position of Confluentes; but it is said that there is not a trace of Roman remains on the spot. The Antonine Itin., the Table, and the Notitia also mention the place, which must have been an important position on the Rhenish frontier.

Caesar does not mention Confluentes under any name; nor does he mention the Mosel, unless he means this river by the words ad confluentem Mosae et Rheni (B. G. 4.15); and that he does mean the junction of the Mosel and Rhine seems to be quite clear from the narrative of his attack on the Germans and their defeat. Confluentes was in the territory of the Treviri, as we may collect from Caesar; and a middle age authority, quoted by D'Anville, says Cophelince urbs, Treviricae civitatis archiepiscopi.

The term confluentes was used by the Romans to express the junction of two rivers, as in Livy (4.17).

There is a Coblenz in Switzerland in the canton of Aargau, at the junction of the Aar and the Rhine. It is said that many Roman antiquities have been found here; and we may infer that the Roman name of the place was Confluentes.

[G.L]