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Upper Danube: Plan of Carnuntum in Pannonia
Plan of Roman Carnuntum including legionary fortress (after Cornell and Mathews 1982).
Part
of the northeastern border of the Roman Empire from 9 BC until the late
5th century AD, Roman Pannonia was bounded on the south by the river
Sava, on the west by the alps, and on the north and east by the Danube.
Soon after the Roman conquest of Pannonia in 12 BC, Carnuntum became a
base for military operations led by Tiberius against the Marcomanni, a
Germanic tribal confederacy. Between AD 35 and 40, legio XV erected a
military camp which initated the local Roman settlement. Carnuntum was
to become one of the largest and most important legionary fortresses on
the Danube, with headquarters of the provincial governor and the civic
forum located nearby.
Located where the Danube crossed of the
western fork of the Amber Road from the Adriatic Sea, and at the
crossroads of the Roman northwest, Carnuntum was also well situated to
prosper from trade. Through five centuries of wars and barbarian
incursions, Pannonia's civic settlements or canabae,
such as that at Carnuntum, experienced the advantages of belonging to
the Roman Empire: urbanization, transportation, culture and
entertainment, literacy, and security of a sort. Flanking the east-west
road was the town necropolis, source of many inscriptions and other
evidence from burials of the town ancient residents.
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