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Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement
of Pannonia were replaced with enormous round towers. However, except for a fortification begun
in Barbaricum this never occurred on the fortifications along the border, which indicates a perilous
decrease in the attention paid to the limitaneus units.
Evidence of late Roman construction or alterations is lacking in the two legionary fortresses. The final
construction project of the fortress at Aquincum was the remodeling of the porta praetoria, which can be
placed during the period of the Tetrarchy. However, this fortress was abandoned soon after, and in place
of it a new fortress was built to the east of its walls during the time of Constantine.
In contrast to the legionary fortresses, we know of late Roman construction at essentially every earlier
auxiliary fort (castellum) where there have been excavations. The new fortifications in the late Roman
period broke from the earlier principles in their ground plans, which adapted considerably to the terrain
(e.g. Visegrád–Sibrik-domb fort).
The final construction period of the Ripa Pannonica occurred at the turn of the 5 th century, when towerlike
forts with dimensions of 10-30 m were erected, sometimes on their own and sometimes within the
area of the existing forts. This fact clearly indicates that when they were built the numbers of soldiers at
the forts were no longer large enough to ensure the proper protection of the several hundred meters of
walls of the old forts. In the case of Lussonium, a few meters inside of the southern gate of the late Roman
fort, a portion of a 10 × 9 m fortlet with 2.3 m thick walls was successfully excavated.
The soldiers of the Ripa may have been forced to construct these fortlets in the years after the death of
Theodosius (379-395 AD). The construction of the towers can at the latest be linked to the re-organizational
activities related to the person of Generidus dux in the first decade of the 5 th century. Their maintenance,
or rather their use by military forces organized by Rome, lasted for about the next two decades until a
new situation developed as a result of the Huns appearing on the Great Hungarian Plain (433 AD), when
a significant portion of Pannonia, including the section of the border in the territory of Hungary was
relinquished.
Watch towers and signal towers
The watch towers and signal towers 1 , which only rarely can be differentiated, were quite small structures,
and when they were built from wood they have left hardly any trace on the surface.
It was natural that from the time of Tiberius and Claudius, with the beginning of the permanent military
presence on the Ripa, there was a need for a more assertive control over the borderline, even though a
good relationship had been created with the peoples on the other side through treaties. This manifested
itself primarily with the construction of auxiliary forts, and not of watch towers. The guarding of the river
border at this time was instead presumably performed through regular patrols. However, by the end of
the 1 st century at the latest – according to evidence on Trajan’s Column – a series of watch towers along
the border had become customary.
1
Watch tower (in latin: burgus) – Multilevel military building along the limes and the limes road. Its lateral length rarely
exceeds 10 m.
Signal tower (in latin: burgus) – Member of a series of observation posts along the limes road suitably settled to transmit military
signs within eyeshot and earshot. In some cases, where the limes road swings away from the river-bank, – in addition to the signal
tower-chain – extra watch towers were built on the bank. (The two kinds of towers do not typologically differ from one another
apart from their localization.)
Fortified river port (in latin: burgus, “bridge head fort” by the deep-rooted expression of the Hungarian literature) – Fortlet
with two wing-walls protruding into the river, built in pairs on the opposite banks of the Danube.
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