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Carnuntum: tombstone of a Roman Legionary officer
Tombstone of a Roman legionary at Carnuntum Museum (BFA Documentary Photography, 1999).
Strategically
situated for trade at the Danube crossing of the Amber Road leading
from the Adriatic Sea, the civilian town of Carnuntum (near Vindobona,
modern Vienna) grew in importance in the early 2nd century AD. When
Trajan (AD 98-117) divided the province of Pannonia into two parts,
Carnuntum became the capital or governor's seat of Pannonia Superior.
Hadrian (AD 117-138), succeeding Trajan as Roman emperor, visited in AD
124, and granted Carnuntum the rights of an official town or municipium.
After the region was overrun by Germanic tribes including the
Marcomanni and Quadi in the mid-2nd century AD, Marcus Aurelius (AD
161-180) launched a counteroffensive from his headquarters at
Carnuntum, where from AD 172 to 174 he also wrote the second book of
his Meditations.
Located about an hour east of Vienna is the
Archaeologisches Museum Carnuntum. Comprehensive exhibits introduce
Roman emperors and legions who lived on the banks of the Danube from
the 1st to 5th centuries AD. These cover everything from the gods
worshipped by Romans, and the military equipment they fought with, to
inscriptions showing the burial practices of both civilians and
legionaries, including this gravestone of an officer.
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