Description : Trier (/trɪər/ TREER, German: (About this soundlisten); Luxembourgish: Tréier pronounced (About this soundlisten)), formerly known in English as Treves (/trɛv/ TREV; French: Trèves Latin: Treverorum) and Triers (see also names in other languages), is a city on the banks of the Moselle in Germany. It lies in a valley between low vine-covered hills of red sandstone in the west of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, near the border with Luxembourg and within the important Moselle wine region. Founded by the Celts in the late 4th century BC as Treuorum and conquered 300 years later by the Romans, who renamed it Augusta Treverorum ("The City of Augustus among the Treveri"), Trier is considered Germany's oldest city. It is also the oldest seat of a bishop north of the Alps. In the Middle Ages, the archbishop-elector of Trier was an important prince of the Church who controlled land from the French border to the Rhine. The archbishop-elector of Trier also had great significance as one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Empire. Augusta Treverorum or Treveris - currently Trèves - was a city created by the Romans on the Moselle in the country of the people of Trévires in the province of Gaul Belgium, of which it will become the capital. During the Roman Empire , tens of thousands of people did not stop living there. With about 80,000 inhabitants in the year 300, Augusta Treverorum was the largest city north of the Alps and therefore had the status of a metropolis. Very early on, Trier was the point of contact between the Celtic, Germanic and Roman civilizations. After the submission of the Treveri, the Emperor Augustusfounded Augusta Treverorum (around 16 BC). The Roman city was the site of intense economic, cultural and intellectual activity, and developed until the invasion of the Germanic tribes in 274. The historical record describes the Roman Empire subduing the Treveri in the 1st century BC and establishing Augusta Treverorum about 16 BC. The name distinguished it from the empire's many other cities honoring the first emperor Augustus. The city later became the capital of the province of Belgic Gaul; after the Diocletian Reforms, it became the capital of the prefecture of the Gauls, overseeing much of the Western Roman Empire. In the 4th century, Trier was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire with a population around 75,000 and perhaps as much as 100,000. The Porta Nigra ("Black Gate") dates from this era. A residence of the Western Roman Emperor, Roman Trier was the birthplace of Saint Ambrose. Sometime between 395 and 418, probably in 407 the Roman administration moved the staff of the Praetorian Prefecture from Trier to Arles. The city continued to be inhabited but was not as prosperous as before. However, it remained the seat of a governor and had state factories for the production of ballistae and armor and woolen uniforms for the troops, clothing for the civil service, and high-quality garments for the Court. Northern Gaul was held by the Romans along a line from north of Cologne to the coast at Boulogne through what is today southern Belgium until 460. South of this line, Roman control was firm, as evidenced by the continuing operation of the imperial arms factory at Amiens. The Franks seized Trier from Roman administration in 459.
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