DEFiNitiON, DEScRiPtiON ANd MAPPiNG OF ... - Danube Limes

Part 1: Hungary
1. The Ripa Pannonica in Hungary
as a proposed World Heritage site
The exterior border of Pannonia, the
Danube River was also a border of the Roman
Empire, and was often the scene of decisive
events during the approximately 450 years of its
existence. During every period, a military
presence of differing character, type and
strength along the ripa Pannonica provided the
security that protected the province from
invasion and acted as a base for Roman
advances during times of war, and in times of
peace ensured the wide ranging economic and
other connections with the inhabitants of
Barbaricum.
Rome took possession of the territory of
Pannonia during the time of Augustus, and it
was also during the time of this emperor that its
significance to the Roman Empire took shape.
This empire was one of the most expansive
states in history, and grew through later
conquests until at the time of its greatest extent
in the 2nd century C.E. it spread over three
continents and had a border that was
approximately 5000 km long. This border, the
limes, relied upon natural obstacles (mountain
ridges, deserts, rivers or seas) for the most part,
but where this was not possible and where the
political circumstances made it necessary, manmade
walls and earthworks were erected. While
we know of many of these (in Britannia,
Germania, Dacia and Africa) the best-known
was Hadrian’s Wall constructed for Britannia,
but there was also the short-lived Antonine
Wall (sod and earth), as well as the limes of
Germania Superior and Raetia, where wooden
palisades and stone walls were built.
The Danube formed the exterior border of
Pannonia, functioning as both a transportation
route and as a boundary line and natural
obstacle. A characteristic of Roman river
borders, or ripa, was that no special defensive
boundary (earthworks, walls or palisades) was
constructed. Military camps (castra, castella) that
were erected from ever stronger materials and
Zsolt Visy
in ever more permanent forms, and the road
connecting these (the limes road) were however
constructed, as well as smaller military
structures (fortlets and towers) on the banks of
the Danube. According to the characteristic
mode of the linear border defense of Pannonia,
the entire military force of the province was
stationed along this borderline. This was where
the military vici and canabae were built in the
vicinity of the forts, and then later the cities
established a bit further from the legionary
fortresses. The military control extended to the
other side of the Danube as well, since Rome
considered the border rivers and their
immediate shorelines – and as has been shown
in certain cases areas even further afield – as its
own. In accordance with this, forts and
bridgeheads were also built in these areas.
The study of Roman history and within
this, research into the Roman limes stretches
back many centuries throughout Europe. The
visible remains of the limes – earthworks and
walls that can be seen for miles, the known and
suspected path of the military roads and the
innumerable fortifications that follow identical
structural principles – drew attention to
themselves early on, and their description, as
well as their recording on maps and in drawings
has continued at an ever greater pace since the
16th-17th century. Regarded as a classic, J.
Collingwood Bruce’s handbook on Hadrian’s
Wall was first published in 1863, compiled on
the basis of the earliest thorough archaeological
work, and is still now considered a standard on
the subject. In Germany, Theodor Mommsen
proposed setting up the Deutsche
Reichslimeskommission, which through its
precise and thorough work that started at the
end of the 19th century and was performed by
numerous archaeologists as well as enthusiastic
and able amateurs, surveyed the section of the
border that connected the Rhine and Danube
rivers, compiling and publishing a series of
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