The Heidentor, originally built in the Roman fort-city of Carnuntum in present-day Austria.

The Pannonian Limes (Latin: Limes Pannonicus, German: Pannonischer Limes) is part of the old Roman fortified frontier known as the Danubian Limes that runs for approximately 420 km (260 mi) from the Roman camp of Klosterneuburg in the Vienna Basin in Austria to the castrum in Singidunum (Belgrade) in present-day Serbia. The garrisons of these camps protected the Pannonian provinces against attacks from the north from the time of Augustus (31 BC–14 AD) to the beginning of the 5th century. In places this section of the Roman limes also crossed the river into the territory of the barbarians (Barbaricum).

Geography

The limes in Pannonia

During the Roman Empire, the Pannonian region was divided into Pannonia Superior, or Upper Pannonia, to the west and Pannonia Inferior or Lower Pannonia to the east.[1] Pannonia Superior consists mainly of present-day states of Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Slovenia, while Pannonia Inferior consists of present-day states of Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

History

The Danubian limes was one of the most turbulent regions in the European part of the Roman Empire and, during more than 400 years of Roman rule, Pannonia was one of its most important provinces, especially after the abandonment of Dacia Traiana in 271 AD, because from that point on, the pressure of migrating peoples on this section of the limes increased still further. The limes also had a great influence on the economic and cultural life of the civilian population because its hinterland was one of the main supply areas for the border troops and these in turn were the guarantors of the rapid Romanisation of the province.[2]

The majority of the occupying forces were stationed in camps (castra), small forts (castella), watchtowers, burgi and fortified bridgeheads that were built at regular intervals along the riverbank. In an emergency, these units were reinforced by the legions which had their headquarters in four major military garrison towns. With its advance to the Danube, the Roman Empire became engaged in a long series of conflicts with trans-Danubian Germanic and Sarmatian barbarian and migrant peoples, that finally ended in the 5th century with the collapse of the Empire in the west.

Pannonia's border changes and the locations of legion camps, deduction colonies and the Amber Road between the 1st and 4th centuries

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pannonia". UNRV Roman History.
  2. ^ Sándor Soproni (1973), p.59.

Literature

External links

Carnuntum:

Aquincum:

Binnenkastelle:

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