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Frontiers of the Roman Empire – Ripa Pannonica in Hungary (RPH) Nomination statement
Roman civilization. Its influence reached far beyond its actual boundaries in Europe and around the
Mediterranean. Its culture framed and guided the cultures of Europe up to and including the present day.
The frontiers of the Roman Empire form the single largest monument to this civilization. They helped
define the very extent and nature of the Roman Empire. As a whole, they represent the definition of the
Roman Empire as a world state. They also played a crucial role in defining the development of the successor
states to the Roman Empire. The frontiers and their garrisons were also a crucial tool of Romanization
on both sides of the border line. The frontiers also have high significance as illustrating the complexity
and organizational abilities of the Roman Empire. With only the technology and communications of a
pre-industrial society, the Empire was able to plan, create and protect a frontier of some 5000 km and
garrisons of tens of thousands of men. It was then able to manage and use this system, on the whole
successfully, for periods of many centuries, both as a physical barrier, and also as the basis for diplomatic
and military intervention far beyond the actual frontier line itself. Physically, the frontiers demonstrate
the variety and sophistication of the responses of the Roman Empire to the common need to demarcate,
and control and defend its boundaries. This had to be done in widely differing circumstances, reflecting
the interaction of political, military and topographical features. Mostly, the Empire faced a variety of
tribal groups, but on their eastern front they were confronted by the Parthian Empire, a state of equal
sophistication and complexity. In some places the boundary ran along rivers. Elsewhere it edged the desert
and in other places it ran through areas with no natural barriers. In each case, the Romans developed
a local solution, making use of topographical features and political circumstances to provide a barrier
that was an effective control of movement across the frontier as well as a strong military defense barrier.
The variety of physical remains has outstanding value in demonstrating the complexity and success of
this society in using boundary fortifications to define and protect itself in ways appropriate to the local
circumstances in each case.” The borders by the movement of legions along them, also played a particular
role in diffusion of Christianity in this part of Europe.
The Ripa Pannonica is a section of the borders of the Roman Empire. It is a complex example of a
linear border defense system along a river which has been verified archaeologically. This is a form that
comprised only a minority of the Empire’s borders – developed only along the Rhine, the Danube and the
Euphrates rivers. The defensive system along rivers was a special type of Roman border defense that was
adapted to the conditions of the terrain and did not require the construction of a continuous structure
or earthworks as was the case for Hadrian’s Wall or the Antonine Wall that have already been inscribed
in the World Heritage. It was a rational system of structures comprised of various elements with a high
degree of organization. This system adapted itself to the prevailing interests of the Empire’s external and
internal politics as well as the numbers of soldiers stationed on it, their equipment and their system of
organization. This linear defense system was developed in its full and exemplary form in the 2 nd century
in Pannonia, within the current territory of Hungary.
The development of the river border defensive system and its periodic reorganization over 400 years to
conform to internal and external political conditions bears record to Roman military doctrines and the
sustainable development and multifaceted flexibility of its army.
The significant value of the Ripa Pannonica, in addition to its historical lessons, lies in its archaeological
sites which represent evidence of Roman architectural and engineering knowledge and how through the
Roman system of border defense the political arrangement of the Roman Empire is more easily understood.
The Empire’s periodical reorganization over the nearly 400 years of its existence and operation faithfully
reflects the evolution of the system of relationships between the Romans and the peoples living across
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