the PDF version! - Danube Limes

Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement
of treaties with the neighboring peoples to ensure their relative subservience, dependence and peacefulness.
The changes in the political relationships and the strategic doctrines that depended on this can be traced in
the development of organizational methods, the system of structures and their architectural forms.
The Ripa Pannonica exhibits an important interchange of human values during Roman rule along the
Danube in present day Hungary from the first to the 5 th century AD. This linear system of defense was
developed in a full and exemplary manner in Pannonia in the 2 nd century AD, and from Pannonian
inscriptions we also know about a new type of watch tower built starting in the 180s. The most highly
developed type of watch tower structure from the 4 th century built on a river frontier in the Roman Empire
is found at the Ripa Pannonica. The civilian settlements around the forts and the two municipia represent
important sites for the interchange of cultural values between soldiers and the indigenous population, as
well as between them and non-military settlers from different provinces or from Barbaricum.
Its maintenance for such a long time make it possible to trace the formation and development over time
of the defensive techniques and their related construction and architectural practices, as well as to better
understand the Empire’s intellectual and technical training.
The Romans’ relationship with the peoples living along the border in Barbaricum changed from time
to time. Therefore, after the expansionist policy from the initial period of the limes ended in the time of
Augustus, the goal was to maintain the Empire and strongly secure it from foreigners.
The linear border defense system was not yet developed when the province of Pannonia was acquired.
The diagonal roads originating from the center of the Empire and leading to the crossings of the Danube,
which made quick troop movements possible, were completed along with the forts established in the
interior and the areas near the border in the middle of the 1 st century, in the time of Claudius. This
organization was rounded out by the system of alliances with the peoples across the border.
The organization and development of the linear system of defensive structures near the riverbanks that also
presupposed this system of alliances depended in part upon internal political relationships as well. Its goal
was the stationing of the military, which always demanded a role as a factor in internal politics, further
from the center. At the end of the 1 st century and the beginning of the 2 nd century (the time of Trajan) this
resulted in the construction of wooden auxiliary forts along the Danube, the marking out of the limes road
and the development of the system of watch towers. The legionary fortresses were built already from stone.
The border defense doctrine based upon the Pax Augusta and the system of alliances was not fundamentally
changed by the Marcomannic/Sarmatian wars at the end of the 2 nd century. Even then, they did not count
on an actual danger of assault when the forts were reconstructed in stone, and the system of watch towers
was not developed completely. A succession of enemy invasions ensued into Pannonia as it was placed under
ever increasing barbarian pressure, and in the middle of the 3 rd century its border defenses collapsed.
At the beginning of the 4 th century the Sarmatians, who had become allies, constructed with the aid of
Roman military engineers an enormous system of earthworks, the so called limes Sarmatiae, known as the
Csörsz-árok in Hungarian. This system of earthworks served as advance protection for the limes.
In the middle of this century the forts of the limes were strengthened with large projecting towers, the
number of gates was reduced, the forts were encircled with larger and deeper systems of ditches and the
system of watch towers was made denser.
44