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Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement
While not indicated by cartographic depictions, but instead with small pictures, one of the pages of the
Notitia Dignitatum provides the names of the fortresses under the control of the dux Valeriae, making this
an important resource for research:
Fig. 2
The legacy of the Roman-era population has been coming to light in this area for an incalculable amount
of time as a result of various excavations and even from finds scattered on the surface. Certain architectural
remains have never been covered over by earth, and these ruins as well as other traces that have been able
to be clearly recognized in places on the surface have always awakened a mysterious curiosity in the later
inhabitants of the region. On the basis of numerous observations it is certain that the territories of the
Roman settlements and their surroundings were still inhabited by the population found here at the end
of the 9 th century, the period of the Hungarian conquest. However, there is no evidence that these people
were the later descendants of the Roman provincial population, although naturally it cannot be ruled out
that there were some amongst them.
The earliest reference to the Roman remains is from the 12 th century during the time of Béla III. This is
when the royal notary Anonymus, who as his name suggests still hasn’t been identified to this day, wrote
the first historical work that survives, the Gesta Hungarorum. Amongst other things he wrote that Attila,
the king of the Huns, “… erected a royal seat for himself next to the Danube upstream from the thermal
springs; he restored all the old buildings he found there and it was all surrounded by a quite strong wall.
This is now called Budavár in the Hungarian language, while the Germans call it Ecilburg”, then later,
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